Parental info sheet for Katarina Begus' study at Birkbeck Babylab

1. Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development
School of Psychology, Birkbeck, University of London
The Henry Welcome Building, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX
Tel: (+44) 20 7631 6258 • Fax: (+44) 20 7631 6587 • Email: babylab@bbk.ac.uk
Who
vs.
What
Babies
hear
new
words
while
looking
at
unfamiliar
things
in
their
environment
all
the
time.
How
do
they
know
when
the
adults
around
them
are
referring
to
specific
items
-­‐
e.g.
telling
the
baby
what
their
pet
dog
is
named;
and
when
they
are
teaching
them
about
a
category
–
e.g.
that
the
animal
they
are
looking
at
is
called
a
dog
and
that
this
label
applies
to
all
dogs.
In
English,
one
can
distinguish
whether
someone
is
referring
to
a
specific
item
or
the
category,
by
the
use
of
the
article
‘a’
or
‘an’.
When
faced
with
a
novel
object,
if
someone
tells
us
“This
is
blicket”,
we
would
understand
the
sentence
as
the
object
in
front
of
us
being
called
Blicket.
But
if
we
were
told
“This
is
a
blicket”,
then
the
correct
interpretation
would
be
that
what
we
are
looking
at
is
one
example
of
the
category
called
‘blicket’.
There
is
evidence
that
even
infants
around
the
age
of
20
months
can
already
make
this
distinction.
With
this
study,
we
want
to
investigate
whether
infants
in
fact
prefer
to
learn
about
categories
than
specific
items.
We
will
use
a
novel
measure
of
theta
oscillations
–
a
rhythmic
activity
in
the
brain,
which
reflects
when
infants
are
actively
preparing
to
intake
new
information.
We
will
introduce
them
to
two
ladies
on
a
screen,
one
who
gives
them
item
specific
information
and
another
who
gives
them
category
information
(as
distinguished
by
the
use
of
the
article
‘a’)
about
novel
animals.
By
observing
infants’
brain
activation
using
EEG,
we
will
be
able
to
tell
whether
infants
selectively
prepare
to
encode
one
type
of
information
more
than
the
other.
In
addition,
we
will
check
whether
infants
in
fact
learned
either
type
of
information
better.
Thank
you
for
your
valuable
participation
in
this
study!
The
results
of
the
study
will
be
reported
in
our
next
newsletter.
Researcher:
Katarina
Begus,
PhD
student,
k.begus@bbk.ac.uk
Supervisors:
Dr.
Victoria
Southgate,
v.southgate@bbk.ac.uk
Dr.
Teodora
Gliga,
t.gliga@bbk.ac.uk