These studies are conducted by Stanford Developmental Labs:
Social Learning Lab, Language & Cognition Lab,
The Markman Lab, & The Social Concepts Lab .
To participate, click HERE to sign up for an appointment.

Why did you say that?
Social Learning Lab
Ages: 4 - 6
When teachers or parents say things like “that tracing is great!”, what do children actually think that means? In this study, we are asking how children respond to feedback depending on who it is coming from. For instance, do they understand that some people may always give praise no matter the quality of the work and that others may be a bit stingier?
In this short activity, children will watch videos of teachers providing praise to a student. Then, they will give advice to other students about which teacher to show their work to!
We are excited to see what decisions children make in this activity! We hope this work sheds light on how children understand the praise that they receive from others and whose feedback they seek out.

Who knows better?
Social Learning Lab
Ages: 3 - 5

She's surprised!
Social Learning Lab
Ages: 6 - 8
Children will meet lots of students who are doing some activities out on the playground and in the classroom. Their teacher watches them - sometimes she’s surprised at how the students do, and sometimes she’s not surprised. We will ask children questions about the students’ abilities for the different activities.
We hope to understand how children think about their own and others’ abilities, and whether the emotions of others are a key part of that reasoning process.

Inferring Competence
Social Learning Lab
Ages: 4 - 8

Noisy Questions
Social Learning Lab / Language & Cognition Lab
Ages: 3 - 5

Storybook
The Markman Lab
Ages: 5 - 6
In this study, we’re interested in evaluating how effective different elements of these storybooks are in motivating girls to actually pursue these fields. In a typical study from this project, we read select excerpts of actual best-selling storybooks to 5 and 6 year old children, and ask them questions about their own motivation and a third-party’s motivation to pursue a certain field or career.

A planet far, far away!
The Markman Lab
Ages: 5 - 8

Semantic Adaptation
Language & Cognition Lab
Ages: 4 - 5

Asking for a snack!
Language & Cognition Lab
Ages: 2 - 4

Maggie's New Toys
Language & Cognition Lab
Ages: 3 - 5

Space Adventure
Social Learning Lab
Ages: 7 - 8

Meet the Vovies!
The Social Concepts Lab
Ages: 4 - 5

Storybook: Activity
The Markman Lab
Ages: 5 - 6

Toy Drop
Language & Cognition Lab
Ages: 4 - 5

Snap, Hop, Whistle!
The Markman Lab
Ages: 5 - 6

Race the Bee!
Language & Cognition Lab
Ages: 4
In this study, your child will independently play a tablet game that teaches letter and number recognition. In the game, your child will hear the name of a letter or number and choose the flower with the right answer. If they miss, they can try again — this time, racing a helper bee that flies toward the correct answer! The goal of this study is to investigate how children direct their own learning. There is no need to make an appointment for the study — just click for info on downloading the app on your iPad or Android tablet
