Author: Marina Bazhydai

Our new open-access publication entitled, Investigating the effect of synchronized movement on toddlers’ word learning, is out in Frontiers in Psychology journal.  We studied toddlers’ learning following a synchronous vs asynchronous interpersonal music and movement-based activity to learn if being in-sync with someone enhances learning outcomes. Contrary to our prediction, no such effect was detected, raising several explanations and exciting future directions.

Marina and Didar published a commentary in Behavioral and Brain Sciences: Can bifocal stance theory explain children’s selectivity in active information transmission where we review the literature on children’s selective teaching in ontogeny and argue that it is a crucial piece of the puzzle to explain the complexity of social learning.

Active Learning Lab has been awarded a research grant to study how children share information with others. The grant is funded by the British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant scheme and is entitled, Selective teaching: do children transmit generalizable or specific information in health and non-health related contexts.

We are excited to start data collection on the first study – please visit the study page if you have a child aged 6-9 to take part in an online study.

What information do children share with others?

We invite children aged 6-9 to take part in an online study taking place online from one.
We are interested in what information kids choose to share with others. Your child will learn several new facts and then have an opportunity to teach someone else.

The study will take place via a secure live meeting with a researcher on MS Teams and last about 10-15 minutes.

Your child will receive a thank you e-voucher for their participation.

Pleases get in touch with us if you’d like to sign up via:
ActiveLearningLab@Lancaster.ac.uk

Thank you for your interest in our research on Wonder!

We are looking for UK primary schools interested in helping us understand how children experience wonder in daily life, and how schools can help foster wonder in their classrooms.

We are specifically looking for Year 5 and Year 6 pupils and teachers to take part who will be asked to complete an online survey. Participation for children will take approximately 30 minutes and includes questions, stories and videos to understand wonder, curiosity and creativity. Participation for teachers will require about 15 minutes of their time.

As a school, you can sign up to have the study run at the school during the school day, or to distribute study information to pupils’ caregivers instead so they can do it from home. We would greatly appreciate your involvement in either case! If you run the study during the school day, we will also be able to send your school a thank-you gift of your choice in the set amount.

Please get in touch with our team by emailing us at ActiveLearningLab@lancaster.ac.uk for details and to discuss your options. We look forward to hearing from you!

We are excited to invite teachers in UK’s Year 5 and 6 classrooms to take part in a short online questionnaire to understand how experience of wonder and curiosity affects their pupil’s learning and their teaching practices.

Wonder and Curiosity in children

Children of 9-11 years of age (current pupils in UK Year 5 or Year 6) are invited to take part in a study on experience of wonder and curiosity. The study takes place at home via an online survey link where your child will complete measures of wonder, curiosity, creativity and personality.

Please contact us by email for participation: ActiveLearningLab@lancaster.ac.uk

We are excited to announce that Didar’s first PhD paper has received an in-principle acceptance in the journal Developmental Science to examine toddlers’ information giving in an interactive social learning paradigm. Data collection is currently under way! You can learn more about the project here: https://osf.io/tvfqg/

Karadag, D., Bazhydai, M., & Westermann, G. (Stage 1 In-Principle Acceptance; December 2021). Do toddlers preferentially transmit generalizable information? A Registered Report. Developmental Science.

Abstract

Children actively and selectively transmit information to others based on the type of information and the context during learning. Four- to 7-year-old children preferentially transmit generalizable information in teaching-like contexts. Although 2-year-old children are able to distinguish between generalizable and non-generalizable information, it is not known whether they likewise transmit generalizable information selectively. We designed a behavioral study to address this question. Two-year-old children will be presented with three novel boxes, identical except their color. In each box, one of two equally salient actions will lead to a generalizable outcome (e.g., playing a (different) tune in each box), whereas the other will lead to a non-generalizable outcome (e.g., turning on a light, vibrating the box, or making a noise). In a discovery phase, children will have a chance to discover the functions of each box presented one-by-one. Then, in an exploration phase, they will be given the opportunity to independently explore all three boxes presented together. Finally, in a transmission phase, an ignorant recipient will enter the room and ask the child to show them how these toys work. We will measure whether children will preferentially transmit either generalizable or non-generalizable information when they are asked to demonstrate the function of the toys to a naïve adult. The findings of this study will not only inform us about toddlers’ selectivity in transmitting information but also about the development of sensitivity to information generalizability.

Elena presented her theoretical and empirical research on infant curiosity at The Active Child workshop in active learning in early development held virtually this year and organised by the University of Göttingen and the Uppsala Child and Baby Lab.

Members of the Active Learning Lab presented their early-stage project posters at the The 6th Lancaster Conference on Infant and Early Child Development (LCICD 2021), taking place online this year (see also
https://twitter.com/LCICD).

Marina, Maddy and Ellie, with collaborators at Manchester University, presented: Infants’ spontaneous communicative bids for information: Secondary data analysis of longitudinal child-caregiver free play home observations at 11-30 months.

Malcolm and Marina presented: Does caregiver knowledge about child development predict domain-specific curiosity and learning outcomes?

Didar presented her first PhD study: Young children’s selectivity in teaching: Do toddlers and school age children prioritise the same type of information when they transmit information?

Elena presented her first PhD study: Exploration and exploitation in infants’ curiosity-based learning.

Furthermore, Didar and Elena served as co-chairs of this year’s LCICD! Congratulations to both on a hugely successful and well organised conference!