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CHILDREN'S RESEARCH LABSCOPE OF OUR RESEARCH | PARTICIPATION | RECRUITMENT | OUR LIBRARY | DIRECTIONS
Scope of our ResearchThe Children’s Research Laboratory (CRL) was founded in January 1982 to facilitate training and research on a wide variety of topics relating to infant and child development. We are located in the Seay Psychology building at the corner of Dean Keeton and Speedway on the University of Texas campus. Approximately 7 faculty members and 20 graduate students currently conduct research at the CRL. While most are affiliated with the Department of Psychology, research assistance also has been provided to faculty from the Linguistics Department, the Department of Human Ecology, and the College of Education. Our current facility includes a waiting room for parents, numerous laboratory suites, offices for faculty and graduate researchers, a student lounge, and a developmental psychology library. Space is also available for visiting faculty and post-doctoral fellows. In addition, the CRL provides invaluable training to approximately 150 undergraduate students per year. Their close work with both graduate students and faculty on specific research projetcts prepares them for graduate work toward advanced degrees or other careers involving children. Our research has examined a broad range of topics, including studies of infant vision and audition, the early development of cognitive and intellectual ability, the development of language, parent-infant interaction, social stereotypes by young children and adults, and the causes of parental abuse of children. Research projects at the CRL are funded primarily through federal and private foundation funds. ParticipationThe CRL contacts as many as 5,000 families from the greater Austin community per year. Since 1982, at least 16,000 infants, children, and parents have participated in our research. All participants are volunteers from a variety of socio-ethnic groups. We have found that most parents really enjoy participating in our research at the CRL and find the research experience in itself to be interesting and informative. Many agree to participate in more than one study and often recommend the CRL to their friends or neighbors. Convenient, free parking is located in front of our main doors. Childcare in our large toy-filled lobby is provided for accompanying children. Flexible scheduling opportunities are available. Most of our studies are able to accommodate working parents by providing evening and weekend appointments. The majority of our studies involve parents bringing their children to our lab once per study for approximately 30 minutes. All of our child studies involve parents being with their children at all times. If parents are not with their children in the study room, then they are watching them through a two-way mirror in an adjoining room. We try to avoid contacting parents more than once every two months, but you may participate in our studies as often as your child is eligible, if you wish. As children become older, they are eligible less frequently. Our current studies especially need children between the ages of 4 to 12 months. In our effort to continue to diversify our research, we also are actively recruiting Mexican-American and African-American families. We strive to accommodate speakers of languages other than English, but cannot always gurantee the availability of translators within our labs. RecruitmentThe voluntary, confidential, and beneficial nature of our research has been reviewed by the Texas Department of Health, allowing us use of parental contact information from the Bureau of Vital Statistics. Our studies are also approved as legitimate research studies by the UT Instituitional Review Board (IRB), which is mandated by the federal government. After obtaining parental contact information from the Texas Department of Health, phone numbers are found using the online AT&T directory. Those wishing to be deleted from our contact lists may request deletion at any time. The CRL also supplements its research pool with referrals from family members, friends, and community organizations. If you are interested in having you or your child participate in one of our studies, or have any questions, please contact our research coordinator, Julie Wall, at wall@psy.utexas.edu or fill out our online form. We will contact you as soon as you or your child is eligible for one of our research studies. Our LibraryLocated within CRL is the Hakes Library, named for Professor David Hakes, a developmental psycholinguist and chair of the developmental psychology program, who died in 1983. The Hakes Library, supported entirely by private donations, provides up-to-date journals and books in developmental psychology for students at the CRL. Graduate seminars are held in the library and it is also the site of the developmental area’s seminar series in which speakers from UT and other communities across the country present their current research. Map and DirectionsNeed help finding us? DIRECTIONS |
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Updated 5 March 2009
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