Researchers, parents, and teachers all assume that infants and children learn from their social experiences. However, little is known about how social learning happens in infants and children. For example, even in a simple turn-taking game, how do toddlers and adults adapt to one another? How do they fall into a "rhythm," or affect one another's next turn? When and why do toddlers and parents show enjoyment of the game and of one another? We know almost nothing about how toddler's brains produce these social actions and emotions. The proposed research will measure moment-by-moment changes in the behaviors of toddlers and parents playing a turn-taking game, while also recording their electroencephalograms (EEG): changes in electricity on the scalp, partly caused by the brain's neocortex, which controls actions and communication. Two-year-old toddlers and parents play turn-taking games on a touch-screen table. They produce many unscripted social actions, and are sometimes rewarded for their cooperative actions. The positions of toddlers' and parents' hands and heads are motion-captured, so that their EEG can be precisely synchronized with their actions. State-of-the art analyses will derive the most meaningful information from the EEG of both toddler and parent, synchronized with their own actions and with their observation of the other's actions. Advanced statistics will be used to analyze patterns of actions and EEG events throughout the game.
This paradigm will be used to investigate two major topics: First, how do toddlers' brains register not only their own actions but also other people's actions? Toddlers' brain networks for processing people's actions are virtually unknown, and have not been studied during ongoing social interactions. The results will document toddlers' brain responses to perceiving a parent's actions. This might help researchers understand how parents promote children's engagement and learning during face-to-face activities. It might also indicate why some toddlers are more socially responsive than others. Second, the rewards obtained during face-to-face interactions are crucial for children's learning, but almost nothing is known about how their brains respond to rewards during social interactions. The results will document toddlers' and adults' behavior and brain responses to rewards, especially rewards for cooperation. This will help researchers understand how toddlers develop social skills for learning in social contexts. These skills are critical when children begin school. In sum, a new paradigm for measuring time-locked brain signals and actions of turn-taking toddlers and parents will shed light on the development of skills for social connection and cooperation. The project will also provide training for undergraduate and graduate students, and interns from a charter high school for non-traditional students. The participating laboratories will also host field trips for high school seniors from underserved neighborhoods to learn about neuroscience.
