Social Cognition and Learning Lab

This little one completed a study in-person with us! In this study, we're asking whether babies, who are between 9 and 12 months old, remember objects better if they see other people look at them jointly first!

This method is called fNIRS and it uses light to measure babies' brain activation while they sit on their parent's lap and watch some fun videos!

Have a little one at home? Sign up for studies at socallab.ucsd.edu/participate

Know some one with an aspiring baby scientist? Tag them in the comments below!

We're always looking for baby scientists to help us with fun studies like this one! We couldn't have done it without the help of all our families.

Have a little one at home? Sign up for our current studies at socallab.ucsd.edu/participate

Know some one with an aspiring baby scientist? Tag them in the comments below!

Welcome to the SoCal Lab Instagram!
Calling all baby scientists local or remote! Click this link to find out more about participating in our in-person and online studies: socallab.ucsd.edu/participate 🧠🥼

Have a 10 to 14 month old at home and want to help us with our science? We are looking for baby scientists to help us learn about social preferences by participating in one of our fun online studies! Our studies are completed through Zoom and you’ll receive an Amazon gift card for your time! Schedule a visit by going to https://socallab.ucsd.edu/participate

New baby science alert! Do you have a 10- or 11-month-old at home? We have a new study asking about babies expectations others' of emotions after seeing someone else accomplish a goal. If you want to participate in fun baby science and have 15 minutes on your hands, you can sign up here: https://calendly.com/socallab/egoal. You will receive an Amazon gift card for your time!

Earlier this month several members of our lab had the opportunity to attend the Society for Research in Child Development Virtual Conference. Alexis Smith, Madison Pesowski, and Paloma Iniguez presented posters and Dr. Lindsey Powell was part of a Research Paper Symposium.

Three undergraduate research assistants within the lab were also able to attend the conference and had overall positive experiences!

Haley Amin - Fourth Year Psychology Major
- SRCD was a really fun experience! This was my first research conference I’ve ever attended and I am so grateful we were given the opportunity to attend virtually! I really enjoyed the posters, talks, and also all the advise researchers shared in the Student & Early Career Lounger. Overall, it was really fascinating to learn about the wide variety of research that is going on in developmental science!

Anushka Bajaj - Second Year
- I had the opportunity to attend my first research conference virtually. Despite being in a different time zone, I was able to access all the posters, presentations, and Q&A sessions at my own leisure. I found that the virtual component of the conference made it much more accessible to me. As we move into reopening and are able to gather, I am curious to see how this technology will be incorporated into future research conferences.

Isabel Herrera - Third Year Psychology Major
- As my first time attending the SRCD conference, I had the opportunity to learn more about the different developmental psychology studies across the world. I was able to look at the posters and learn more about the current studies within my research interests such as social cognition and brain development. Overall, my experience attending the SRCD conference was very positive and I hope I can attend an in-person conference in the future.

We are looking for children, ages 3 to 24 months, to help us learn about developing social preferences by participating in one of our fun online studies! Our studies are completed through Zoom and you’ll receive an Amazon gift card for your time! Schedule a visit by clicking here: https://socallab.ucsd.edu/participate

This month some of the members in our lab attended the annual Budapest CEU Conference on Cognitive Development, which was held digitally this year, to learn more about current research. One of the people in attendance was Carmen Blum who is a 2nd year Research Assistant with the lab. Carmen said the following with regards to the conference, “Walking away from my first research conference experience I was most struck by the collaboration between researchers around the world. Although the format for the BCCCD was, I’m sure, an adjustment for many of these researchers, one would not have been able to tell from the quality of their presentations. It was a real delight to both watch and participate in discussions of infant studies knowing the person on the other side of the screen could be anywhere on the planet. But besides introducing me to so many new ideas in our field, attending this conference opened my eyes to what an amazing community developmental psychology research is.”

We are looking for children, ages 3 to 24 months, to help us learn about developing social preferences by participating in one of our fun online studies! Our studies are completed through Zoom and you’ll receive an Amazon gift card for your time! Schedule a visit here:

UC San Diego - Participate! If you would like to participate with your child or learn more about our studies, check out the Participate section for more information.

The SoCal Lab is excited to announce that we will begin posting a researcher of the month! This will be an opportunity for us to recognize amazing people within our lab and highlight their research!

This month’s featured researcher is none other than our own Alexis Smith-Flores! Alexis is a first year graduate student in the SoCal Lab. When she's not doing research she can be found hanging out with her dog, Arya, or rewatching Gilmore Girls on Netflix. She's most interested in infants' and toddlers' social development and how they think about other people! If you would like to help Alexis with her science, you and your baby can sign up for her studies here:

https://socallab.ucsd.edu/participate