We are a developmental social cognitive neuroscience lab at UC Davis. Our lab is working to uncover how the 'social brain' develops! We are excited to be sharing developmental research and fun activities that you can do with your baby. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram!

My first first-author paper is now published: doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.… Mixed effects models include infants and children who only complete a few ERP trials in an experiment and would otherwise be casewise deleted in ANOVA, resulting in unbiased mean amp estimates! UC Davis BASC Lab

Did you know? 👶 Infants as young as 5 months can retain the memory of faces for two whole weeks (Bauer, Larkina, & Deocampo, 2011)! Try at home: If you have a baby of 5 months, invite family over and see how many family members your baby will recognize after a two week period!

Did you know? 6- to 7-month-old infants are able to predict other people's goals by observing their actions. Try placing a box between yourself and a ball and watch your baby follow your hand as you reach over the box. Does your baby look at the ball before you grasp it?

Come join us at #CDS2022 4/22 and 4/23!

Did you know? A reflex smile is the smile that babies develop in the womb. It tends to be short and occurs randomly. Your baby's reflex smile will disappear by the time they are 2 months old, and their first real one will make an appearance somewhere between 6-8 weeks of life.

How long babies look at a video or picture can tell us about what they know! For example, 5-month-olds' looking patterns have shown that they understand that objects still exist even if they're hidden. See the full article here: bit.ly/3ImaFyu

What underlies "peek-a-boo?" From 4- to 6-months-old, infants are able to remember object locations over longer stretches of time. Try this at home: Hide a toy under a cloth over the course of your baby's first year. Watch as they progress in their ability to look for the toy.

Did you know? Many of your babies' movements in their first few months of life are done through involuntary or automatic actions called reflexes. Try this at home: If you have a baby of under 6 months, stroke your baby's palm and you'll notice that they'll grip your finger!

Help researchers at UC Davis learn about infants' healthy social development and how parents can foster important infant social skills! Compensation provided for participating families in $$ and infant toys. For more information: studypages.com/s/how-do-babie…

Congrats to our recent BASC Lab graduates!! Best wishes on your next steps! Check back tomorrow as we highlight more of our fantastic grads 🎓

Congrats to our BASC Lab research assistants who graduated this past week!! Thank you for being part of the lab and best wishes on your next steps! 🎉

The BASC Lab will be presenting at #ICIS2022 this weekend! Hope to see you there!

Did you know? 😄 If a baby turns their head to one side, then they'll stretch out their corresponding arm and bend the opposite one back. This is also called the fencing reflex! Try at home: 👶 Try keeping an eye on your newborn baby next time they turn their head.

Did You Know? 12-month-old infants are more likely to imitate actions that have a purpose rather than ineffective actions. Try this at home: Demonstrate actions with purpose and see if your baby imitates: stack blocks, put balls in a bucket, give a stuffed animal a kiss.

Thank you to Steve and Emily for letting me share my work on LMEs for mean amplitude analyses at this year's ERP bootcamp! Time really flies in grad school -- in 2019 I attended the bootcamp! The ERP Boot Camp UC Davis BASC Lab

Graduate student MJ Heise presented research about the advantages of linear mixed effects models for ERPs, and how to prepare ERP experiments for these analyses at this year's ERP bootcamp hosted at UC Davis!

Did You Know? 6- to 9-month-old infants pay more attention to books that have characters with individual names (e.g., "Bobby") than to books that have characters with categorical names (e.g., "boys"). Try this: Look for books that have named characters or name them yourself.