Participating in research at McGill University

When Kira was just about one year old, my auntie informed me about the McGill Infant Development Centre and how they kept a database of infants and children for their studies on cognitive and language development. Coming from a Psychology background myself, this interested me immensely and so I registered Kira without hesitation. She was called in shortly afterward to participate in a study on language perception. She watched a video where voiceless actors would act out a scene. I can't remember the exact details of the study, except that she was enthralled by the video presentation and was not old enough to verbalize what she was seeing and processing. We left the study with a new onesie for Kira and a certificate of participation. :)

Fast forward to three years later... I received a call just weeks ago from the MIDC, asking if I would like Kira to participate in yet another study calling for 4 year olds. "Yes! Absolutely!" I volunteered my daughter right away and got excited about the prospect of taking part in another study with Kira. As I played with Calvin in an adjoining room, I could watch Kira's participation on a tv screen - without sound the first session, and with sound the second session (our sessions were one week apart). My kids walked away with stickers, we got to go on an "outing", and without their knowledge of it, we were able to contribute to research.

Here are a couple of photos. They aren't great quality, but just to give you an idea of the set-up from were I was watching, in the top photo you can see Kira playing games with the first research assistant, and the bottom photo is the panel of equipment used for the observation / recording of the session.


If this type of opportunity interests you, please consider submitting your child(ren)'s information to the MIDC using the link above.

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