More experimentation on babies

Last month, I wrote about taking The Girl to participate in a language development study up on campus and today we were back in the Psychology Building again – actually just a few doors down the hall – to donate our baby girl’s brain waves to science.

Today’s adventure had to do with the Infant Cognition Lab, where they study object cognition in youngsters between six and eighteen months of age. And just like last time, it involved goofy headwear for The Girl.

Unlike last time, I actually got to go into the testing room and see the set up. I hadn’t thought about it before, but it must be pretty hard to devise a way to attach a whole bunch of wires to an infant without having them grab and yank on it. The solution they devised is pretty simple, but it also kind of lent a “cut-rate evil scientist’s laboratory” vibe to the whole thing.

Once again, I wasn’t in the room during the actual experiment, but The Wife said they basically had a puppet show stage set up in front of the The Girl and moved several objects across it at varying speeds. Sometimes they would bring in a second object or obscure the object from view at different points. The Girl’s job was to sit there and take it all in.

As payment for her hard work, The Girl received a green “Aggie Baby Lab” shirt and they gave us $5 to defray travel costs (which The Boy promptly pocketed for himself). They say we can bring her back in a month if we want. I think we probably will.

Fries at the bottom of the bag

• Holy crap. If you didn’t think the Astros’ season was in the toilet already, here’s your sign.
• The prescription cream appears to be working on The Boy’s mystery bumps. They’re not gone completely, but they’re definitely fading.
• The Wife has decided to hire someone to come do some deep cleaning around our house once a month. I tried to get her to get someone to do the yard too, but no such luck.