Current lab activity The PLAY Project The Infant Lab is currently collaborating with New York University (NYU) on the Play and Learning Across a Year (PLAY) project! The PLAY project is a collaborative research initiative by 70 researchers from 50 universities across the United States and Canada. It serves as a model system for doing development science from a “big data” approach. Natural free play represents the foundation of infant learning, but we know little about how infants play, how play unfolds in real time and across development, and how individual and group differences promote infant learning and development through play. Addison in the UGA Infant Lab collected 31 mother-child dyads for this project. Currently, Addison, Kate, and Meg are all using PLAY data in different ways for their Master's Projects: Addison is assessing the time-dependent relationship between maternal attention-directing behaviors and infant engagement. Kate is evaluating links between maternal mind-mindedness and infant vocabulary acquisition, and looking at the moderating effect of infant negative affect. Meg is exploring the influences of movement and language development on different types of infant attention and infant engagement. Infant Knowledge Study: Our undergrads are currently working on a project assessing college student's knowledge of infant development. This study is being conducted through a Qualtrics survey in the Undergraduate Research Pool. Check back soon to hear about the findings! Future Projects: Check back soon to see updates on upcoming in-person studies! Click here to see the titles of Dr. Frick's publications
