Scope of our Research
The Infant Cognition Lab is part of the Children’s Research Laboratory (CRL), which was founded in January 1982 to facilitate training and research on a wide variety of topics relating to infant and child development. We are located in the Seay Psychology building at the corner of Dean Keeton and Speedway on the north side of the University of Texas campus.
The Infant Cognition Lab is under the direction of Professor Les Cohen. Dr. Cohen and five graduate students currently conduct research at the Infant Cognition Lab. Our research examines a broad range of topics, including infant word learning, music perception, memory, face perception, and information processing.
Click here to read descriptions of our current research studies.
Participation
The Children's Research Lab contacts as many as 5,000 families from the greater Austin community per year. Since 1982, at least 16,000 infants, children, and parents have participated in our research. All participants are volunteers from a variety of socio-ethnic groups. We have found that most parents really enjoy participating in our research at the CRL and find the research experience in itself to be interesting and informative. Many agree to participate in more than one study and often recommend the CRL to their friends or neighbors.
Convenient, free parking is located in front of our main doors.
Childcare in our large toy-filled lobby is provided for accompanying children.
Flexible scheduling opportunities are available.
Most of our studies are able to accommodate working parents by providing evening and weekend appointments. The majority of our studies involve parents bringing their children to our lab once per study for approximately 30 minutes. All of our child studies involve parents being with their children at all times. We try to avoid contacting parents more than once every two months, but you may participate in our studies as often as your child is eligible, if you wish.
Our current studies especially need children between the ages of 4 and 12 months.
Recruitment
The voluntary, confidential, and beneficial nature of our research has been reviewed by the Texas Department of Health, allowing us use of parental contact information from the Bureau of Vital Statistics. Our studies are also approved as legitimate research studies by the UT Instituitional Review Board (IRB), which is mandated by the federal government.
After obtaining parental contact information from the Texas Department of Health, phone numbers are found using the online AT&T directory. Those wishing to be deleted from our contact lists may request deletion at any time. The CRL also supplements its research pool with referrals from family members, friends, and community organizations.
If you are interested in having your child participate in one of our studies, please fill out our online form. We will contact you as soon as you or your child is eligible for one of our research studies.
