We study the way that children come to learn about and represent important aspects of the world, from how things work (causality) to how other people think and talk (the mind). This research has many applications, from school curriculum design to understanding atypical development.

When kids come into the lab, they will play games with us that are designed both to be a lot of fun, and help further scientific research. Kids usually have a lot of fun (we do too!). The whole session takes somewhere between 45 minutes to an hour, and it’s here in our lab. You are welcome to be with your child the whole time. We are now offering remote testing opportunities. This work would be done in your home over Zoom. Not all of our studies are being done remotely. It depends on the age of your child and the time of year.

Right now, we are running experiments with children between the ages of 3-10, but in the past we have run experiments with children as young as 5 months old. If you are the parent or guardian of a child and you would like to volunteer to participate in one of our studies, you can click on the button above to sign up your child, email us or call us at 401-863-3527. We also run experiments at Providence Children’s Museum in the Mind Lab program. We are usually at the museum on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings and Friday afternoons. We also conduct research in the exhibits themselves (times variable). You can visit us there (no appointments are necessary). We are also at the Roger Williams Zoo, where you can find us on the weekends.

Many of the games we play are designed to examine what children know about causality. For example, we often show children a box that lights up and plays music when certain objects are put on it, and we ask children questions about the objects. We also ask children questions about cause and effect, as well as examine what children know about science. Many of the other games we play involve stories. We tell children stories and ask them questions about what the characters are thinking or feeling. We also study how children understand pretending, learning, and other mental states by telling them stories and asking them questions about those stories. We’ve recently started playing some games in our lab that involve tracing children’s finger movements in space (which help us learn aspects of how their brains work). Children play touchscreen games we have designed about what other characters are thinking or feeling, or play games where they make decisions about the mental states of other people. Finally, other games that we play look at children’s understanding of fairness and sharing, children’s curiosity and reasoning, and how children learn from what other people say and do.