Lookit

If you've ever wondered what your child is thinking or what it's like inside your newborn's mind, you're not alone.
The single most amazing computational engine known to mankind is your child's mind.

We're hoping to learn more about how babies and children learn by enlisting the help of their most dedicated and curious observers: their own parents!

By participating in a quick online activity with your child and submitting a webcam recording of his/her responses, you can contribute to our collective understanding of the fascinating phenomenon of children's learning.

In some experiments you'll step into the role of a researcher, asking your child questions or controlling the experiment based on what he or she does.

Traditionally, developmental studies happen in a quiet room in a university lab. Why complement these in-lab studies with online ones? We're hoping to...

...Make it easier for you to take part in research, especially for families without a stay-at-home parent

...Work with more kids when needed--right now a limiting factor in designing studies is the time it takes to recruit participants

...Draw conclusions from a more representative population of families--not just those who live near a university and are able to visit the lab during the day

...Make it easier for families to continue participating in longitudinal studies, which may involve multiple testing sessions separated by months or years

...Observe more natural behavior because children are at home rather than in an unfamiliar place

...Create a system for learning about special populations--for instance, children with specific developmental disorders

...Make the procedures we use in doing research more transparent, and make it easier to replicate our findings

...Communicate with families about the research we're doing and what we can learn from it