The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) is currently conducting an exciting research project called the Infant Learning Project. The purpose of the project is to examine what young infants learn and remember about their earliest experiences. We are discovering new information concerning what babies are learning about speech, faces and words as well as how babies may remember specific experiences.

You might wonder how developmental psychologists study young infants, who are not yet old enough to talk to us about what they know and remember. Quite simply, it is through observing infants' natural behaviors, such as sucking and looking. These behaviors can be monitored to find out what infants prefer to listen to and look at, as well as what is new and what is familiar to them. For example, when newborns are given the opportunity to listen to their mother's voice or the voice of another woman by producing different sucking patterns, they will produce the pattern that results in hearing the mother's voice. Other procedures allow the baby to control hearing various speech sounds by looking at pictures on a computer screen. The sounds are presented only when the baby looks at the picture.  These procedures allow researchers to understand what sounds babies can detect and remember, and what they are learning  before they begin to talk.

 To see how our lab works, please take the picture tour.

Why Babies Like our Lab!
 

Developmental Milestones
and Websites
 

Footnotes...