COGNITION AND LANGUAGE LEARNING RESEARCH GROUP
@ DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY
Frequently Asked Questions
What am I signing up for?
BEFORE
Sign up to be included in our database!
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Once you are in the database we will contact you to let you know when your child is eligible for a new study. Sometimes this can take a while depending on what studies we are currently running.
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We will then book you in for an appointment that works for you. If it's a busy time, you can say no to a study and we will still contact you in the future studies!
DURING
Generally our studies take anywhere from 3 - 15 minutes, and we will have some questionnaires for you to fill out after. All in all, each visit is roughly 45 minutes.
Our baby studies typically involve watching a short video where we use eye-tracking software to determine where your baby is looking. Our child studies typically involve hearing a story or playing a game where they will be asked questions directly.
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You will always be present with your child during the study, but we may have you listen to music to make sure your child is not influenced by what you are doing. When we email you about a study, we will tell you more about the specifics of your upcoming visit.
Finally, we will always provide a babysitter for any additional children that may come along.
After your child's study they will receive a small gift as a token of our appreciation. The researcher will be available to answer any questions you may have about the study, or our centre more generally.
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Once we have collected enough participants to be able to interpret our data, we will write a manuscript to be submitted to a scientific journal. After the journal article is accepted, the parents of all the children who participated in the study will receive an email containing a pdf of the article, as well as a description using everyday language. The results of the study may also make it's way into our yearly newsletter!
AFTER
What does an infant study look like?
Babies can't exactly talk, so we can't just ask them what they are thinking. Instead we rely on eye-tracking to tell us what they are thinking.
One common design we use to test whether babies recognize a word is called a "looking while listening" procedure. Your baby will sit on your lap and see two different objects on the screen (for example, a ball and new object they haven't seen before). They will then hear the word that matches one of these of objects (for example, "ball"). We then measure to see which of the objects your baby looks to using an eye-tracker. The eye-tracker works just like a camera and sits in front of the screen, so your baby wont even notice its there. The eye tracker will tell us which object your child looked longer at.
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It's not always so easy though! Sometimes we might give your baby an unfamiliar pronunciation of the word like "pall" or "bell", or maybe even a brand new word like "dofa".
"Find the ball!"
What will my baby get for participating?
After participating you will be able to help your child pick out a participation prize:
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Merchandise, such as t-shirts, bibs and tote bags, with our centres' branding
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Books
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Stuffed owl with Dalhousie branding
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Colouring books and Activity books
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Parents who attend the visit will also be entered into regular draws for prizes. These include gift cards to local stores such as: Nurtured: Baby. Kids. Family., Spirit Spa, Bishop's Cellar, Cafe Lara, and more!
On special occasions, we will hold additional gift basket draws!
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