Participate in online studies from home!
We are delighted to announce the launch of our new virtual research lab in collaboration with Princeton University. Families can now participate in online studies from the comfort of their own home--all you need is a computer and a webcam to participate!
Learn about unmoderated remote research
For researchers interested in learning about our approach to online developmental research, we have launched a website with everything you need to know.
Rhodes, M., Rizzo, M., Foster-Hanson, E., Moty, K., Leshin, R., Wang, M. M., Benitez, J., & Ocampo, J. D. (2020). Advancing developmental science via unmoderated remote research with children. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 149(1): 182-191 [pdf]
Play educational games and learn about our Pre-K Science Initiative
Our website contains fun research-backed science games, at-home experiments, video tutorials, and research summaries all designed to promote children’s engagement and excitement about science.
The Conceptual Development and Social Cognition Lab is directed by Dr. Marjorie Rhodes, Professor of Psychology at New York University. Our research investigates the cognitive mechanisms that support learning and reasoning in early childhood — how children represent concepts, form categories, and use language to draw inferences about the world around them. A central focus of our work is understanding how children generalize from limited experience, how they use explanations and prior knowledge to guide learning, and how language shapes conceptual representations and memory. We study children’s reasoning about animals, objects, and people to illuminate broader questions about how conceptual knowledge is acquired, structured, and updated over development. Using experimental methods designed as engaging online games, we examine how these learning processes operate from infancy through childhood.