Jennifer Silvers, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Developmental and Social areas of the Psychology Department at UCLA as well as at UCLA’s Brain Research Institute. She is the Principal Investigator for the Social Affective Neuroscience and Development (SAND) Lab, which studies how children, adolescents, and adults regulate their emotions and the effects of […]
Babies around the world often have similar first words – why? Did you know that babies around the world usually have first words that are similar to each other? Many babies start talking with “mama” or “doggy,” but you would be surprised to hear a baby’s first word was “cartwheel” or “the!” Have you ever […]
Studying language through infants’ brainwaves. How babies learn language is deeply fascinating. Many experimental methods can help us understand when and how they acquire new words. In earlier posts, we discussed using behavioral methods and observational methods. A third type of method that is used to study word learning directly investigates how children’s (or adult’s) […]
When we measure baby brainwaves, what do we measure and what does it mean? When scientists measure brainwaves, they find a lot of them happening at different times. Scientists call these waves components, but we will continue to call them waves in this post. Some of the waves show up […]
Where infants look can tell us what they know about the world. As any parent knows, infants cannot readily tell you what they want or need. This also means that they cannot directly express what they know. For developmental psychologists, who are often interested in what infants know when, this can be pretty challenging. So […]
How do scientists learn what babies know? Babies learn language from the language (or languages) they experience in the world around them. But what is early language experience actually like for babies? Observational methods can give us a glimpse into children’s everyday lives – what they hear, see, and say. One approach uses naturalistic recordings […]
Both hearing devices help people hear. Some individuals with hearing loss use amplification devices to hear the sounds in their environment. Two main types of amplification devices are hearing aids and cochlear implants. Quick note at the outset: whether or not to get a hearing aid or cochlear implants is a complicated decision that is best to discuss with an […]
Hearing works by converting sound into signals to the brain. To begin understanding how hearing works, the first thing to understand is how sounds travel. Sounds are pressure waves that move through a substance (usually air!). Our ears and brains let us understand these pressure changes as music, language, or ambulance sirens. The ear has […]