What will my child do during a study session?
In a typical study, your child will play a research game with one of our researchers. Sometimes parents are involved, too! During each session, your child may participate in a number of fun tasks, such as naming toys or telling stories about pictures. All of our studies use noninvasive, behavioral measures.
For in-lab studies, where do I park?
We provide free parking in the Church Street parking structure. It is conveniently located directly across the street from our building, East Hall. For more information, please refer to our visiting the lab page.
Can I be with my child the entire time?
Yes! Parents are welcome to stay with their child for the duration of the study. However, we ask you to let your child respond to the questions on their own, without your guidance. We’re happy to answer any questions you have at the end of the session.
Can my other children be present for the study?
For online studies, they can definitely observe if they want! However, we would appreciate your help in making sure that they don’t interfere or bias the participating child in any way! If your other children are also participating in the same study, then if possible, we ask that you keep the siblings out of earshot from the child who is being interviewed. Because we’re interested in what each child thinks separately, please make sure that the other siblings are in a different room where they are engaged in another activity and where they can’t overhear the session—just to make sure that each child can answer our questions independently, and their answers are not influenced by listening to each other. For our in-lab studies, our research staff are happy to play with your other children in our playroom while your child completes the study in an adjoining study room!
What ages are you working with?
Currently, our research focuses on children ages 5–12 years of age, but in the past we have run experiments with children as young as 2 years old. If you would like more information about the research we’re presently doing, you can check out our current studies here, or you can contact us via email.
How long do the visits last?
Our studies generally last about 15-40 minutes, but we normally schedule appointments for 30 minutes to 1 hour. The extra time accounts for warming up with the child, doing the study, answering any questions after the study is complete, resolving any technical issues (for online Zoom studies) and parking (for in person studies).
What if my child doesn’t like the study?
While we design our research games in a way that most children enjoy participating, your child is free to skip any particular question or to stop the session for any reason at any time.
Will we receive compensation for participating?
For online studies, you will receive Amazon.com gift cards ranging from $5 to $20 for each session depending on different studies. For in-lab studies, you will receive $10 in cash for participating, and your child will receive a small gift.
What if I need to cancel or reschedule?
No worries! If you need to cancel or reschedule your appointment, you can just let us know by contacting us via email: conceptlab@umich.edu
How will I find out about the results of the studies?
We send out an annual newsletter, and also post the most up-to-date version here on our website. The newsletter includes overall results of our studies and does not include information about individual participants.
