• Question: what do you do in the lab?

    Asked by anon-355211 on 30 Mar 2023.
    • Photo: Birsu Kandemirci

      Birsu Kandemirci answered on 30 Mar 2023:

      My research involves working with young children and the youngest I worked with were 2 years of age. I invite them to the lab with their caregivers because of how young they are. When I say lab, you might have a different vision in your mind, but our labs are just child-friendly rooms with a few quirks such as a camera system (similar to CCTV cameras) so we can watch their behaviours later, or with a two-way mirror (a mirror that is reflective on one side and transparent on the other, so a second researcher can watch the test in real time), but otherwise full of children’s books and toys. We always start off spending some time with the children and making them feel comfortable. Once they are ready, we start doing our experiments, which are also for the most part like games. If we are video and/or audio recording, we always let the caregivers know beforehand and ask them if they are happy for us to record the session. At the end of the experiments, we give children small presents like books, puppets, or stickers.

    • Photo: Eileen Xu

      Eileen Xu answered on 30 Mar 2023:

      I work on data that has already been collected, so most of what I do is on my computer. I use statistics for data analysis, and sometimes I teach and write papers too. And make sure I’m taking plenty of breaks, of course!

    • Photo: Emily McDougal

      Emily McDougal answered on 31 Mar 2023:

      I actually conduct most of my research in schools – I visit children at school and ask them to complete different tasks which measure their abilities. I’ve even taken some eye-tracking equipment into schools which is usually only done in the lab environment, but it is a lot more efficient on time if I can take it in and work with lots of children in a single day!

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