University at Buffalo (UB)
Infant language learning from older siblings
How do infants learn from other kids (e.g. their siblings)?
Project description
Are you curious about how infants learn language? In this project, we are interested in understanding how infants learn from older children (e.g. their older siblings). Undergraduate research assistants would get hands-on experience with two types of developmental research: in person and online experiments with infants and toddlers, and corpus analyses that allow us to measure the language infants hear and how that relates to their language learning. For the experimental studies, infants sit on their parent’s lap and listen to speech from adults and children, and we measure what infants want to listen to and what they understand. We additionally use corpus analyses to find out what older children say to and near infants, for example, do older children talk about certain types of items (e.g. toys) more than adults? Students would contribute to data collection and analyses, and also be encouraged to design their own independent research projects.
Project outcome
In line with the Psychology degree learning goals, research assistants learn important content knowledge (Goal 1), engage in scientific inquiry and critical thinking (Goal 2), communicate research findings at local and national conferences (Goal 4) and grow personally and professionally (Goal 5). To achieve these learning outcomes, students will read relevant literature and learn to synthesize it, conduct research by learning each step of the process (recruitment, consent, collection) and analyze the results, have the opportunity to summarize and present findings as authors on abstracts and/or poster presentations at local and national conferences, and learn about research careers.
Project details
| Length of commitment | Long (longer than a semester; 6-9 months) |
| Start time | Summer (May/June) |
| In-person, remote, or hybrid? | In-Person Project |
| Level of collaboration | Individual student project |
| Benefits | Stipend |
| Who is eligible | Sophomores & Juniors Students must be comfortable interacting with children and families |
Project mentor
Federica Bulgarelli
Assistant Professor
Psychology; Learning and Instruction
Phone: (716) 645-0226
Email: fbulgare@buffalo.edu
Start the project
- Email the project mentor using the contact information above to express your interest and get approval to work on the project. (Here are helpful tips on how to contact a project mentor.)
- After you receive approval from the mentor to start this project, click the button to start the digital badge. (Learn more about ELN's digital badge options.)
Preparation activities
Once you begin the digital badge series, you will have access to all the necessary activities and instructions. Your mentor has indicated they would like you to also complete the specific preparation activities below. Please reference this when you get to Step 2 of the Preparation Phase.
Students should complete CITI training, to be ready to conduct research in the lab, under the heading for Social/Behavioral/Educational: (https://www.buffalo.edu/research/research-services/training/compliance-training.html#title_1479083771)
Interested students should also read the following papers to gain a better understanding of the broader research context for this specific project:
Havron et al., 2019
Laing & Bergelson, 2023
Keywords
language development, developmental psychology, psychology, linguistics, communicative disorders and sciences, developmental psychology , Learning and Instruction