11 Stimuli
11.1 Overview
Please note that stimuli have not yet been finalized!
We are still finalizing study materials based on community feedback. We will notify everyone when final study materials are available via an announcement to the MB5 listserv.
All (in development) materials are available in the MB5 materials directory.
Because the sample size possible in ManyBabies projects provides a unique opportunity to test generalizability across multiple stimulus types, we chose two different categories of stimuli: ManyFribbles1 and ManyFractals2. These two classes of stimuli were chosen because:
1 These stimuli were inspired by the Fribbles stimulus set (Barry et al., 2014). We are calling the stimlus set developed for MB5 “ManyFribbles” to distinguish them from the original Fribbles.
2 We’re calling our custom sets of stimuli “ManyFribbles” and “ManyFractals” because… well, it’s fun.
- they allow for variation in complexity within the same stimulus category (i.e., by manipulating the number of features)
- infants are unlikely to have previous experience with either set of stimuli
- the inclusion of two stimulus sets allow us to begin examining the generalizability of any observed effect
We created 12 unique ManyFribbles and 12 unique ManyFractals. Within each stimulus type, 6 items were designed to be low-complexity and 6 were designed to be high-complexity. Complexity is operationalized as the number of features present (these features are appendages in the case of ManyFribbles and iterations of the same structure for ManyFractals; see Table 11.1
ManyFribbles
ManyFribbles are colorful, computer-generated models of 3D figures. All ManyFribbles are made up of one of twelve possible body shapes and one (low-complexity) or four (high-complexity) appendages.
ADD MORE INFO ABOUT COLOR SELECTION, SIZING, ETC
ManyFractals
ManyFractals are geometric shapes in which the same structure is repeated iteratively at different levels of scale.
ADD MORE INFO ABOUT FRACTAL GENERATION
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| ManyFractals |  |
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Attention-getter stimuli
- Between Trials: Please use the provided “laughing baby” stimulus to re-center babies between each trial (i.e., before familiarization begins). If your lab uses a different attention-getting stimulus that you feel is more appropriate for your community, please check with us.
- Within Trial: Please use the the “Hoehle circle with chimes” stimulus to re-center babies within each trial (i.e., between familiarization and test and between test phases 1 and 2).