Help us learn about how certain cues foster learning in early childhood!
We are seeking children ages 5- to 7-years to participate in a short (30 min) study! If you agree to participate, we will take a couple of photos of your child’s face, which will be used to determine how kindchenschema changes with age and how it might support child development through influences on caregiving (what is kindchenschema? See more below!).
The photos will NOT be linked to any information about your child, and the images of your child will not be shared publicly, and they will not be published anywhere.
In the second part of this study, you and your child will be asked play together for 10 minutes with toys provided in our lab. The session will be videotaped so that our team can code behaviors at a later time, but note that we are not looking for specific behaviors – we just want to know how a child and their parent naturally interact.
Time to complete: around 30 mins
Compensation: $20 (cash) plus a t-shirt for your child. Children will also get to take home a small toy or book.
Eligibility: Since we are looking at the typical course of development, we cannot include children who:
have disabilities affecting vision (wearing glasses is fine), hearing, or physical growth
have any known developmental disorders (such as ADHD or autism)
Our research report will be confidential, meaning we will not identify or describe individuals. This study is approved by George Mason University’s Institutional Review Board (Approval # 1941144).
Interested in Participating?
Fill out the form below and we will reach out to schedule your visit!
What is kindchenschema?
Kindchenschema refers to the set of physical characteristics that makes babies and young children appear cute and endearing. Generally, these characteristics include a round face, large eyes, chubby cheeks, and a small nose and mouth. Cuteness has long been theorized to trigger a strong desire to care for and protect, which is thought to be an evolutionary adaptation promoting the survival of species (Sherman et al., 2009).
Most research on this topic has focused on infants (e.g., Glocker et al., 2009; Kringelbach et al., 2016), despite theories suggesting that cuteness may elicit broader social interest that could support learning and development beyond infancy.
Previous work from our lab explored whether perceived cuteness elicited interest in playing with and caring for children between the ages of 2 and 7, and our results suggested that kindchenschema (cuteness) and related signals may guide adults’ interactions with children, fostering learning and development (Doebel et al., 2022). We hope to expand on these findings in our new study.
The above is an image from Glocker, et al., 2009, showing examples of low (image a and d, or left upper and bottom images), unmanipulated (image b and e, or middle two images) and high (image c and f, or right upper and bottom images) kindchenschema in infant faces.