Welcome
We're CEU Babylab
We are a research group at the Cognitive Science Department at Central European University studying human cognitive development.

Through fun and engaging studies involving watching animations or playing games, we investigate how babies and children learn to understand the world. How does it happen that by the end of infancy they become able to talk about things around them as well as about imaginary characters, such as fairies or ghosts,  they readily recognize who is friends with whom, whether the cookies were fairly distributed, and much more? Find out why developmental science is important and discover our research here.

Our studies are for children from 3 months to 8 years of age. We are always looking for families to volunteer to participate, either by visiting us at the Babylab in Budapest or Vienna, or during an online appointment. We highly appreciate your contributions to developmental science and strive to give you the best experience of science and fun.

Appointments are typically 30-45 minutes long. If you choose to participate, we try to make it as easy as possible: we offer free parking,  a family-friendly reception area with a changing room, a high chair for everyone to use, toys for babies and children, and child care if siblings come along. Read more about the Babylab experience here and check out our Frequently Asked Questions.

Participate in our Studies

To participate and do science together, please sign up for our participant database. We will give you a call when we have a study for your child’s age. If you would like to talk to someone from our team to learn more about our studies, please call +43 1 252307440.

What does signing up entail?

By signing up to participate you agree to be contacted about research opportunities, but there’s no obligation to actually participate. We ask for the parents’ consent for each study separately and they may withdraw that at any point.

Privacy

We only use this data to get in touch with the families in relation to research and we don’t share it with any third party. We store the applicants’ personal information no longer than the child’s tenth birthday, but we delete it upon request at any point.

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Participate

The Experience

Making an appointment

We invite families to each study separately, usually via phone. We make an appointment with the parents about a week ahead so that everyone can choose a convenient time slot.

Warmup (10-15 mins.)

As families arrive in our center, they meet the person running the study who explains the procedure and the goal of the study in detail and engages the children in play to make them feel comfortable. This takes place in a colourful, friendly reception area.

Study (5-10 mins.)

We escort the family to a separate room where we involve the child in a game or show them a short video, and record their different responses and looking patterns.

Debriefing

After the session we return to the reception area where the children can choose a small gift and we discuss the study with the parents.

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Budapest

CEU Central European University
Cognitive Development Centre
Babylab, Hungary

+36 1 328 3660
+36 30 462 5942
babakutato@ceu.edu

Zrínyi utca 8-10
1051 Budapest
HUNGARY

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Wien

CEU Central European University
Zentrum für kognitive Entwicklung
KiKo-Forschungszentrum

+43 1 25230 7440
+43 676 886 49610
kinderkognition@ceu.edu

Quellenstraße 51
1100 Wien
AUSTRIA

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