January 2022

Happy New Year!

Yes, we know January is almost over (??!?!!?!), but we're excited to share some ManyBabies news & updates as we settle into 2022.

Please take a moment to read the following announcements. There are a couple of small/easy/quick requests for action you won't want to miss.

ManyBabies Town Halls

MB leaders are developing plans to expand Governing Board membership and establish committees (e.g., Stats, Communications), and we want to include MB community members in the process. The Town Halls will be a great chance to voice your opinion, get your MB questions answered, bring up any other MB-related topics you’d like to discuss, and meet fellow MB members. All members of all career levels are welcome!

Town Hall #1: February 1 @ 7am GMT
Town Hall #2: February 1 @ 7pm GMT

RSVP to let us know you're coming (you can submit a question or topic in advance), or just show up. Zoom links will be provided on the MB Calendar (view/subscribe via the buttons below).

(Note: These times were chosen to accommodate as many global time zones as possible, but we know they might not work for everyone. Please contact us if you are interested in participating but unable to attend either meeting.)

View the MB Calendar in a browser

Subscribe to the MB Calendar

ANNOUNCEMENTS

MB5 Leaders Win Award!

Congrats to MB5 project leaders Jessica Kosie and Martin Zettersten for winning the Einstein Foundation Berlin’s 2021 Early Career Award! This prestigious award comes with €100,000 to be put toward the MB5 project. You can find more information about the award and watch a recording of the award ceremony on the Einstein Foundation Berlin website. We are thrilled for Jessica, Martin, and the MB5 team for this amazing recognition!

Update your MB Profile

Please update your contributor profile if you have not done so already. (You can check the MB dashboard to make sure your info is up-to-date.)

Data Validator

The ManyBabies Data Validator is live! This tool will help all data-collecting labs ensure that their files are formatted properly before uploading. Contributors will get more information from Project Leads on how and when to use the validator for each project. Many thanks to Francis Yuen for making this happen.

LabID List

We are planning to make a list of data-collecting labs (and their corresponding LabIDs) public to the MB community to make it easier to standardize and coordinate LabIDs across projects. Please let us know if you have any concerns.

MB Activity Tracking

Don’t forget to keep an updated record of your ManyBabies-related activities and initiatives (e.g., workshops, talks, etc.), which are tracked in this spreadsheet. To add an entry, please complete this form.

Award and Fellowship Applications

CogSci Diversity & Inclusion Awards [Feb. 1]
CDS Excellence in Cognitive Development Research at Undergraduate-Focused Institutions Award [Feb. 15]
ICIS Founding Generation Summer Fellowship [Feb. 15]
CogSci Rumelhart Prize Nominations [Feb. 24]
James S. McDonnell Foundation Opportunity Awards [Apr. 1]

PROJECT UPDATES

MB–ManyWebcams

In MB–ManyWebcams, we aim to validate a remote automated web-based eye-tracking tool for use with 18- to 27-month-old children. Our experiment is based on WebGazer.js (Papoutsaki et al., 2016) and jsPsych (de Leeuw, 2015). WebGazer captures gaze coordinates by predicting the participant’s gaze location on the screen from the head and eyes position recorded via webcam, relative to the displayed stimuli. To evaluate whether this method is comparable to lab-based eye-tracking, we aim to replicate findings of an in-lab paradigm from the MB2 project, which revealed spontaneous goal-directed action anticipation measured by anticipatory looking using commercial eye-tracking systems (Schuwerk, Kampis et al., 2021). The group formed in September 2021 and 41 researchers from 24 institutions in 13 countries are currently involved in the project. We preregistered our study and started testing in January 2022, with 15 labs participating in testing. If you are interested in the project, email Tobias Schuwerk and/or join the mailing list.

MB2–Theory of Mind

MB2 recently re-submitted a revision of their Registered Report at Child Development (read the preprint). Congrats to the MB2 team on this milestone!

MB3–Rule Learning

MB3 also recently re-submitted a revised Registered Report to Developmental Science (read the preprint). Congrats to the MB3 team as well!

CONFERENCES

Cognitive Development Society

CDS is still planning to hold their conference in-person in Madison, Wisconsin, USA in April 2022. ManyBabies will be co-hosting a CDS pre-conference, BIG TEAM SCIENCE FOR STUDYING SMALL PEOPLE, on April 21. Stay tuned for information regarding registration and other details.

MB–ManyWebcams will present their project in a symposium on web-based eye-tracking chaired by Shari Liu and Joshua Hartshorne.

Congress of the German Psychological Society (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychologie, DGPs)

ManyBabies is coordinating a submission with the Psychological Science Accelerator and ManyPrimates. The goal is to spread the word about the different projects and also discuss and exchange amongst us. For more info, contact Manuel Bohn.

The submission deadline for presentations of all types (in German or in English) is February 11.

Do you have an announcement for the next MB Newsletter?
Send it to manybabiesconsortium@gmail.com.

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For questions, please contact MB's Executive Director,
Heidi Baumgartner at heidib@stanford.edu

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