About Us
At the Early Learning Project, we study the development of learning, memory, and emotion during infancy and early childhood. We are particularly interested in how brain development drives the changes that we see in encoding, retention, and retrieval early in life. We are also interested in how mother-child interactions influence emotional and social development in the first two years of life. Our studies use eye tracking, behavioural methods, muscle activity and heart rate to understand the mechanisms that underlie developmental processes and answer questions such as
- How does learning and memory change across infancy and early childhood?
- Why do infants find it difficult to remember new situations?
- What are infant memory representations like?
- How do emotion and memory development interact during infancy?
- How does emotion processing relate to the development of empathy?
- How do children use past experience to imagine the future?
- How do mother-child interactions contribute to the development of emotion regulation?
We are currently running studies with infants from 3- to 12-months, toddlers from 18- to 21-months and preschoolers from 3- to 5-year olds. We would love you to join our Baby Scientists. Email us on earlylearning@unsw.edu.au or use the button at the top of the page to let us know that you are interested in participating
Newest Findings
Future Thinking in Preschoolers
4-year-old children are better at determining what their future desires are when they have already said what their current desires are, as found by our honours student, Amelia. Read more about Amelia's research in this blog post.
4-year-old children are better at determining what their future desires are when they have already said what their current desires are, as found by our honours student, Amelia. Read more about Amelia's research in this blog post.
Children with Down Syndrome "grow in to" their learning difficulties
Research from our lab has shown that, while preschoolers with Down Syndrome have general cognitive delays, their learning and memory abilities are no worse than typically-developing children who are matched on mental age, suggesting they may "grow in to" their learning difficulties. For more information about this research read our blog post.
Research from our lab has shown that, while preschoolers with Down Syndrome have general cognitive delays, their learning and memory abilities are no worse than typically-developing children who are matched on mental age, suggesting they may "grow in to" their learning difficulties. For more information about this research read our blog post.
Why do babies like what they like?
New research from our lab has found that baby's preference for objects and toys can be manipulated simply by smiling at them in a process known as evaluative conditioning. If you would like to find out more about our findings, read this blog post.
New research from our lab has found that baby's preference for objects and toys can be manipulated simply by smiling at them in a process known as evaluative conditioning. If you would like to find out more about our findings, read this blog post.
Angry expressions don't catch on in babies
Have you ever wondered how people become so good at picking up how people are feeling? New research from our lab found that babies mimic happy, but not angry facial expressions. If you would like to learn more about this research read our latest blog post.
Have you ever wondered how people become so good at picking up how people are feeling? New research from our lab found that babies mimic happy, but not angry facial expressions. If you would like to learn more about this research read our latest blog post.