Little Lab Rat

Kate volunteered to take part in a memory development study at Emory University. Isn't that kind of her? She really sees the value in research -- especially in the area of child development. I thought it was awfully nice of her to volunteer to be a part of the study, seeing as she was the perfect age for the research being conducted.

We had to venture to the Emory campus twice this week to take part in the study (which was the hardest part of the whole experience -- it's 45 min away). It was a very simple procedure . . . I held Kate on my lap and some research assistants spent 12 minutes trying to keep her attention focused upward. Alongside our chairs were 2 speakers that produced some tones, and each tone was followed by a short puff of air aimed at Kate's face. (Think glacoma test puff of air, but like 1/3 the strength). The puff would make her blink, and then we'd wait 30 seconds or so to go through the process again. The idea being that, in time, her brain would begin to associate the tone with the puff of air . . . and a flinch or a blink on Kate's part when a tone was sounded and no puff was given would indicate to the researchers that she was, in fact, making the correlation.

Kinda like Pavlov's dogs. Although the researcher didn't seem to excited when I made that comparison. She said it was something about the hippocamus and it's development . . . not about behavior, like the dogs.

Anyway, our reward for the participation was a few toys and a $25 gift card to Target. Not a huge pay off . . . but I (I mean Kate) was more interested in seeing how the research was conducted than in the compensation they offered.

In the future, Kate can look at these pictures and ask, "MOM! What did you let them do to me?!"

Big Sister was a good sport . . . she played in the lab's playroom and was delighted to pick out a special treat when it was all over.

Just something else to add to our family experiences. And I can add it to Kate's baby book . . . I'll title that section, "My Little Lab Rat."