Project Overview

  • Status: Stage 2 manuscript has been submitted!
  • Stage 1 Registered Report given 'In Principle Acceptance' at Developmental Science

In this ongoing project we investigate an ability that lies at the heart of cognition: to learn and to apply rules. We ask whether infants (from 5 to 12 months-old) can learn abstract algebraic rules over patterned syllable sequences and generalize those rules to novel syllable sequences. Despite the large research effort on the topic, questions remain about the robustness of the core finding, as many studies failed to find significant learning effects. We believe that a multi-lab approach with a large and diverse sample of infants has the potential to uncover whether and to what extent this core cognitive ability is available in young infants and how it varies across age and different developmental circumstances.

Leads

MB3 Contributors

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Publications

Stage 1 Registered Report

Visser, I., Geambasu, A., Baumgartner, H. A., Bergmann, C., Byers-Heinlein, K., Carstensen, A., Doyle, F. L., Gervain, J., Hannon, E. E., Havron, N., Johnson, S. P., Kachergis, G., Kline Struhl, M., Kosie, J., Lew-Williams, C., Mayor, J., Moreau, D., Mueller, J., Raijmakers, M. E. J., … Levelt, C. C. (accepted pending data collection). ManyBabies 3: A multi-lab study of infant algebraic rule learning. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/aex7v

To cite, use (Visser et al., accepted pending data collection)

Stage 2 Registered Report (preprint)

Visser, I., Geambașu, A., Kachergis, G., Oliveira, C. M., Rocha-Hidalgo, J., Zettersten, M., … Levelt, C. (2025, August 28). ManyBabies 3: A multi-lab study of infant algebraic rule learning. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/ghrdt_v1

To cite, use (Visser et al., 2025)

Spin-off Projects