Institute of Child Development Study

Over the weekend Soren had his chance to contribute to the world of research.  Like I had done with Oliver, I enrolled Soren in the Participant Pool with the University of Minnesota's Institute of Child Development.  If your child fits the criteria for participants needed in a study, you're called to ask if you'd like him or her to participate.

Soren participated in a study for 5- to 7-month-olds.  There are four experiments being conducted as part of the study and Soren had the one where he looked at two objects on a computer screen and one object looked like it was on top of the other.  He was shown variations of the same groupings and then shots of the objects separated from each other.  The theory was that when the objects are separated, he'd look at the object that was "on top" first.  What this all means?  I guess I'll have to wait for the study to be published and read it.

I have no idea how much data they got from him though.  He sat on my lap in front of the computer screen and I wore sunglasses blackened out so I couldn't see what Soren was seeing and inadvertently influence him.  Before each image was displayed, the computer beeped to catch Soren's attention.  The beeping went on forever between each image, and then the researcher usually had to call Soren's name to cajole him into looking up.  She clearly wasn't having success at one point and I asked her what he was doing and she laughed and said, "He's looking at his shoes!"

I lifted my glasses a little to take a peek and there he was, looking ecstatic that he'd just discovered his feet.  He seemed more interested in trying to bend over as far as possible so he could stuff his feet in his mouth.  Since Soren likes standing, I stood him up on my lap to see if that would distract him from his feet.  Based on how slobbery his hands felt, I presumed he finished up the experiment with his fists stuffed in his mouth. I had signed a release allowing the tape recording of Soren's experiment to be used at conferences or anything else in conjunction with sharing the results of the study, but something tells me his video won't be used. The graduate student running the experiment had already worked with dozens of babies for this study before meeting Soren, so she knew how these kids just have minds of their own. 

Other than a few whimpers during the experiment, (I have no idea what he was crying about since I couldn't see) Soren enjoyed his time over at the U.  He liked looking around the lab and smiling at the graduate students.  He even let one of them hold him while I got us ready to go. 

As we walked back to the car, I thought about how despite how minor Soren's roll was in the study, he had helped out a bunch of students and their professor.  And so my kids remain enrolled in the Participant Pool with the hope that their names would be drawn again soon.