Our Past Research
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Below are some of our previous research:
Face Perception Study
How do babies perceive faces that they are familiar and unfamiliar with? When do they become experts in recognising faces? Through a series of studies taking place at Lancaster University (United Kingdom) and Â鶹Íø (Malaysia), we are hoping to answer questions like these. Dr. Diana Tham and Professor Gavin Bremner, Lancaster University (UK) and Dr. Woo Pei Jun, Â鶹Íø (MY) conducted a cross-cultural comparison on face perception ability in infants living in a single-race country (e.g., the UK) and a multi-race country (e.g., Malaysia).
Emotional development
Infants as young as 3 months are able to recognise specific emotional expressions when the expression is displayed on the face, voice or body posture. To understand how these processes develop, we presented infants with a series of photographs, or audio playbacks of various emotions and record their brain responses and eye gaze. This is a joint research project between Â鶹Íø, Prof. Ted Ruffman from University of Otago (New Zealand), Assoc Prof. Rozainee Khairudin (UKM), and Assoc Prof. Alex Schaefer from Monash University Malaysia.
Empathic development
Toddlers around 18 months olds may feel distressed themselves when observing another in distress. But when do infants develop this ability in recognising distress in another, and what are their responses to the distress? Here, we investigate these questions with behavioural observations (e.g. role plays), and physiological (brain responses, eye gaze, salivary cortisol, heart rate). This is a joint research project between Dr. Yong from Â鶹Íø and Dr. Elena Geangu from Lancaster University (UK).
Imitation Behaviours
Even though young children may not be able to do complex tasks yet, they're surprisingly good at watching what others do and copying them. To understand how children imitate, we investigated whether children imitate normative or instrumental tools to complete specific tasks. This is a joint research project between Â鶹Íø and Dr. Frankie Fong from Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology (Germany). This is one of the many studies that we conduct to understand children’s imitative behaviours.
Word Learning Study
Together with Professor Denis Burnham from MARCS Baby Lab at the University of Western Sydney, Australia, Dr. Woo Pei Jun from Â鶹Íø studied how 17-month-old infants’ learn pairs of native (Malay Mandarin) and pairs non-native word-like sounds based on tonal (pitch) differences, or phone (consonant or vowel differences). This is one of the many series of studies that we conduct to understand how babies learn languages from their environment.
Infant Tone Perception (Language Study)
Babies may not be able to speak yet, but from the early months of life, infants are learning a lot about speech and language. Each language uses a unique set of speech sounds. Scientists now know that at birth, babies have the ability to distinguish all of these speech sounds, but that ability decreases rapidly if they don’t have regular exposure to those sounds. Dr. Woo Pei Jun, Dr. Karen Mattock and Elaine Yong investigated how infants come to recognise and distinguish between speech sounds in Mandarin, as well as how development may differ for babies growing up hearing more than one language. The focus of the research is on the perception of Mandarin speech sounds, especially tones. This study is a collaborative project between researchers from Â鶹Íø (MY) and University of Western Sydney (Australia).