NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — A Niagara University professor is looking for parents to enroll their babies under 9 months in her new study. She is measuring early attention skills and is interested in how babies divide their attention.
Dr. Donna Thompson has been studying babies for over thirty years to understand their early development better. She is hoping moms of babies between 3 and 9 months will participate in her new research on baby memory and attention.
In this new study, Dr. Thompson is studying whether babies can identify solidity violations. That's when one solid object appears to pass through another one. This is not normal. But will a baby be able to tell? That's what this study is about.
Babies in this study are videotaped inside Niagara's Infant Learning Lab. During the study, babies are watching clips of rotating shapes on two computer monitors inside a baby booth. Parents stay with their baby throughout the entire lab visit and this study takes about 10 minutes to complete.
Dr. Thompson is specifically looking to see how long babies look at each video and how often they look at each display.
"I think it's also good that parents get an idea of what kind of things their kids are capable of doing at every age. So, what are the best kinds of toys? What kind of interactions should I expect?," Dr. Thompson, a psychology professor at Niagara University said.
Dr. Thompson is looking for another twenty babies to participate in this study. All families who participate in this study get a gift card to a local grocery store. You can reach out to Dr. Thompson directly at dfthompson@niagara.edu for more information about this study.
