During the spring 2008 semester, we have two sections of the Developmental Research Methods course conducting studies at the Children’s School.  The students in Dr. Erik Thiessen and Dr. Gayle Dow’s sections are preparing their final projects for the semester.   Though the research procedures are still being finalized, the topics are listed below.  Families whose children participate will receive fuller parent descriptions via the child’s backpack.  Everyone can read the study descriptions on the Research Bulletin Board outside the Children’s School Office. Notice the interesting range of important topics in early childhood development!

Identification of Common Symbols testing 3 and 5 year olds’ ability to identify common symbols when they are presented in standard format vs. formats with changes in color, shape, or size (The Symbol Game)

Obedience & Theory of Mind – testing whether 3, 4, and 5 year olds’ responsiveness to adult directions is correlated with their understanding of other people’s different perspectives (The Secret Box Game)

Gender Stereotypes in Play – assessing 3 and 5 year olds’ gender stereotypes based on the way that they decorate and then play with a plain box (The Imagination Box Game)

The Influence of Opposite and Same Sex Peers on Children’s Gender Schemas – testing 4 and 5 year olds’ open-ended play and ranking of toys when alone, with a same sex peer, and with an opposite sex peer (The Toy Time Game)

Age Estimates from Photos – testing 3 and 5 year olds’ ability to guess the age of people seen in photographs (The Age Guessing Game)

Emotion Perception – assessing the effects of birth order on 3 and 5 year olds’ ability to predict the emotion story characters are likely to feel in response to a variety of game playing scenarios (The Feelings Game)

Effects of Social Expectations – testing the impact of social expectations on the time and accuracy of 4 and 5 year olds’ performance on a dot-to-dot activity (The Dot-to-Dot Game)

Perceptions of Sharing – assessing 4 and 5 year olds’ perspectives of sharing after being read a story in which characters either share or do not share their toys (The Sharing Game)

Gender Stereotypes in Play – determining whether 3 and 5 year olds’ memory is better for stories in which characters engage in gender-stereotypical activities versus those in which characters choose a wider range of activities (The Remembering Stories Game)

The Children's School, MMC 17, Pittsburgh, PA 15213

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