Early Language and Learning Group

Department of Psychology

Early Language and Learning Group

Photo: Colourbox

Welcome to the NTNU Early Language and Learning Group (ELLG). We are a research group and baby-lab focusing on language, learning, and child-caregiver interaction in the first years of life.
  
Our research primarily examines the communicative and linguistic development of infants and toddlers. That is, how they–in a remarkably short amount of time–progress from making sense of the speech around them, to learning their first words, and using these to express their thoughts, feelings, and intentions in increasingly sophisticated ways. We are interested in (i) the mechanisms and (ii) social environments that support this process, particularly how everyday experiences shape language development. This includes both the characteristics of the language input children receive and the interactions they have with their caregivers, whether at home or in early childhood education and care settings.

We use a range of methodological approaches in our work, including eye-tracking, pupillometry, touch-based tasks, questionnaires, and audio and video recordings of parent–child interactions. We are committed to Open Science practices and contribute to large-scale collaborative projects such as ManyBabies to promote replicability and generalisability in developmental psychology.

Participate in our studies

Do you have a child under 3 years of age, and wish to contribute to increase our knowledge of early development? We invite families to take part in our studies! These consist of short, child-friendly activities (typically 5–10 minutes), and are conducted either online (from the comfort of your home), or in our child-friendly lab facilities at NTNU. In some studies, your child will look at pictures or animations while we measure their eye movement. In others, you will complete a questionnaire about your child’s development and everyday environment. Each study is a little different, and we are happy to tell you more if you get in touch.

For students

Students interested in early development, particularly topics related to language, cognition, parent-child interaction, or early childhood education and care, are encouraged to get in touch to discuss supervision and projects for their thesis (BA/MA/hovedoppgave). Students working with us may gain hands-on experience with the full cycle of a research project in developmental psychology, including design, data collection, and data processing–or work with existing data. We are happy to support students who wish to develop their work further, for example toward conference presentations or journal publications. 

Recent and ongoing projects

Recent and ongoing projects

Preference for familiarity versus novelty

Preference for familiarity versus novelty

In this ManyBabies project we examine a key principle of developmental psychology research: Infants’ attention allocation to familiar versus novel stimuli. The project tests predictions from the Hunter & Ames model, which proposes that preferences for familiarity and novelty depend on factors such as age, exposure duration, and stimulus complexity. Infants are presented with different visual stimuli while their gaze is recorded using eye-tracking. By combining data from several baby-labs across the world, the project aims to provide robust, generalisable evidence about early attentional processes.

The sound and purpose of infant-directed speech

The sound and purpose of infant-directed speech

Caregivers typically adopt a distinct speech register when interacting with infants, a communicative signal that may play an important role in socio-emotional development, parent-child attachment, and for language learning. In this project we study the acoustic and linguistic properties of such speech across various contexts, and their impact on developmental outcomes throughout infancy. The project also includes building and curating an open database of Norwegian infant-directed speech and developing innovative ways to use and present this resource for research and applied purposes. 
 

Early language learning from digital media

Early language learning from digital media

This project examines how young children may engage with and learn from language exposure in digital contexts. While digital media (e.g., video platforms and interactive apps) can provide rich linguistic input, their specific contribution to language learning is difficult to disentangle from input received through live social interaction. Here we use a combination of caregiver diaries and child-based ‘mini-interventions’ to provide new insights into the role of digital media in early language learning, with potential implications for children with diverse neurodevelopmental profiles.
 

Nationwide mapping of Norwegian children’s emerging lexicons

Nationwide mapping of Norwegian children’s emerging lexicons

In this project we collect data from thousands of Norwegian 1–3-year-olds across the country. The study combines (i) an extensive caregiver questionnaire covering factors such as socioeconomic status, parenting stress, personality, and child temperament, and (ii) a touch-based task measuring word comprehension, completed by the child. The large-scale design allows us to examine how environmental and demographic factors may contribute to variation in early lexical development, as well as providing the starting point to create valid and reliable tools for early language assessment to be used by practitioners in e.g., health stations.

Scientific work

Scientific work

Journal publications

Journal publications

Stage 1 Registered Reports

Stage 1 Registered Reports
  • The ManyBabies Consortium (accepted pending data collection). ManyBabies 5: A large-scale investigation of the proposed shift from familiarity preference to novelty preference in infant looking time. Nature Human Behaviour
  • Laeng, B., Mayor, J., Rosslund, A., & Kartushina, N. (accepted pending data collection). Pupillary response to a brightness illusion in infants. Collabra: Psychology
  • Serres, N., Mayor, J., Rosslund, A., & Kartushina, N., (accepted pending data collection). The role of dialect variability on mispronunciation sensitivity: An insight to infants’ early language development from a Norwegian context. Infancy 
  • The ManyBabies Consortium (accepted pending data collection). ManyBabies 3: A multi-lab study of infant algebraic rule learning. Developmental Science
  • The ManyBabies Consortium (accepted pending data collection). Action anticipation based on an agent’s epistemic state in toddlers and adults. Child Development
     

Media outreach

Media outreach

Logo ELLG

person-portlet

Leader

Members

Members

Collaborators

Collaborators