Infant Cognition Lab (Oakes)

The first years after birth are critically important for the development of the baby's brain and mind. We know that experience plays an important role in shaping this development. The Infant Cognition Lab studies the baby's developing mind; particularly investigating infants' memory, attention and categorization.

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Research Topics

Infant Categorization Development

This research makes sense of how infants organize and remember the objects they encounter – which is important for uncovering the origins of language and conceptual understanding.

Infant Memory Development

Short-term memory is the kind of memory we use when we recognize that an object that is briefly out of sight is the same when it reappears. This kind of memory is critical to see the visual world as unchanging as we blink and move our eyes around.

Infant Visual Perception Development

One important feature infants must perceive is object boundaries or edges. We have found that infants’ perception of this edge – that is, whether they perceive it as the edge of one object but not the other – changes at about 6 months of age.