My study of infant and child facial cues was originally conducted with the Hypothetical Adoption Paradigm. While this is an effective paradigm (see here for details), it is limited by its presentation of static pictures. I wanted to create an experimental study of infant faces that would be more dynamic than still pictures, but I also wanted to avoid the ethical and practical concerns associated with studying actual facial cues of real infants and children (e.g., you can't experimentally starve a child to get cues of low weight!).

My solution to this problem was the Virtual Infant Paradigm. This paradigm allows adults to care for one or two virtual infants over the infant. The infants respond to the click inputs of the parents by changing their facial cues. So far, this paradigm has proved to be an effective compromise between experimental control and real-world validity.

If you are interested in learning more about the Virtual Infant Paradigm, or in participating in the paradigm, please feel free to contact the lab.