Henry the Research Participant

This week I took Henry to the Tweety Lab at the U of A to be a participant in a language research study. I held Henry in my lap while he listened to Irish music and looked at lights. From the lab website, this is what the study was about: In spoken language, the ends of phrases and clauses tend to have particular pitch contours, and the last syllable is usually lengthened. In the 4- and 16-month-old studies, we are asking whether these same acoustic cues also help infants locate and remember musical phrases.

I thought it was quite interesting to see how an infant study works. I'm not sure what Henry thought about it. The person conducting the study thought Henry fell asleep halfway through. When it was over, Henry received a participation certificate and an ABC book. He fell asleep on the way home and this is a picture of him sound asleep in his car seat.

Henry also went grocery shopping for the first time this week. He was very good at the store!