UCLA Language Lab

You may recall that Baby M and I participated in several UCLA Baby Lab studies. Now that Baby M is getting older we haven't gotten many calls from the Baby Lab lately, but last week we did get a call from the UCLA Language Lab asking if Baby M would like to participate in a study about language acquisition. I said, "Sure."

So this morning we drove over to UCLA where a nice undergraduate student met us at the parking structure and escorted us to the Language Lab. It was very similar to the Baby Lab; there were some toys for Baby M to play with, friendly research assistants and the same eye tracking software. Additionally, there was the "castle", a small room with sound and video monitoring equipment decorated to look like a tower in a fairy tale. We entered the castle along with the researcher where there was a computer screen set up. Baby M was shown some cartoon images along with corresponding sound and then asked to repeat what he heard. We viewed a picture of a man swimming and heard a voice say "He swims fast." Later the picture came up again with the phrase "There he swims." Initially Baby M was too shy to say anything, but eventually the researcher did get a few words out of him. As a thank you for participating Baby M got to choose a gift out of the "treasure chest." He picked a small white ball with the Language Lab logo printed on it.

The goal of the study is to understand how young children learn and respond to grammatical sentences. The researcher said Baby M's performance was pretty typical. About 50% of the children in his age range don't say anything at all and those that do are more likely to repeat the verb if it comes at the end of the sentence as opposed to the middle. Language acquisition is such an interesting process, and one that, as the mother of a relatively late-talker, I am particularly interested in. I'd happily participate in additional Language Lab studies.

UCLA Baby Lab

Right after I brought Baby M home from the hospital I read What's Going On In There by Lise Eliot. The book, written by a neuroscientist, describes how an infant's brain is formed and how each sense develops. In addition to providing details on the physical structures of the brain and the role genetics and environment play in development, the author also explained many of the experiments used to gather the information. I really enjoyed the book and although it was a bit heavy on the science, it was a nice break from the practical infant care guides I had been reading at the time. In particular I found many of the experiments fascinating. Did you know that whether or not a 4 year old can delay eating a marshmallow is one of the biggest predictors of success later in life? I've already got "Run marshmallow experiment on Baby M" penciled in for 2011.

Since I'm already planning on doing my own experiments on Baby M, it's no surprise that when I received a card in the mail from the UCLA Baby Lab looking for test subjects I said "Sign us up!" Don't worry, there are no experimental drugs involved or weird psychological tests. We went in for our first study this week which has to do with whether or not infants will pay attention to illusory figures. Baby M just had to watch a TV screen for about 15 minutes and an eye tracking device monitored where he looked. Sometimes he looked at the illusory figure and sometimes he did not, which the researcher said was pretty typical. Baby M also had some time to warm up to the researchers and play with some of the toys in the lab. All of the researchers were very nice and happy to share information about their research. I would definitely go back if another study opens up.

There was no compensation for participating, although we did get free parking at UCLA and a cute T-shirt for Baby M. My husband wonders why anyone would participate, but he has never stayed home all day with Baby M. As most stay at home moms will tell you, anything that gets you out of the house for a few hours is worthwhile. Especially if it is free (most structured activities and even some playgroups cost $20 a visit), allows Baby M to see something new and allows Mom to have a bit of grown-up conversation.