Max Planck Child Study Centre
The Centre is directed by Professors Elena Lieven and Michael Tomasello, both of whom are based at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.
At the University of Manchester the centre is staffed by Claire Noble (co-ordinator) and Mickie Glover (Research Secretary). We currently have three research associates; Eileen Graf, Grzegorz Krajewski and Paul Ibbotson and two PhD students, Keith Austin and Bianca Junge. We research early language development in typically developing children. Our experimental research relies on the generous help of schools and families in the local community.
In addition to running experiments we also have a database of naturalistic child speech, managed by Jeannine Goh. For more information about participating, see: Volunteering.
Studies on grammar
When we hear children say things like ‘I goed home’ we know that they have picked up on some of the regularities of their language and put them to creative use. It is unlikely that they often hear the word ‘goed’ but they can use it on the basis of a pattern they do hear very often: adding ‘–ed’ to a verb to make a past tense.
A clear demonstration of this kind of creativity is seen when children are shown a funny puppet bird called a ‘wug’. If children see two of these puppets and spontaneously called them ‘wugs’ then we know they can creatively add ‘-s’ to nouns to talk about several objects.
One wug, Two ………..?
Our studies often use naming games and novel toys to investigate how and when children begin to use different words and sentences in a creative manner.
Studies on effective communication
Another strand of research considers how children learn to communicate effectively with other people. Some aspects of language require that we understand other people's point of view. For example, it is no good asking for a biscuit by simply saying ‘I want it’ if the person you are asking doesn’t know what ‘it’ is. Instead you have to use a more informative word – like ‘a biscuit’. Some of the centre’s studies simply look at how children talk about things with other people to see how they learn to adapt their language to the person they are speaking to.
A typical study
- When the centre is running a study, we write to volunteer parents describing what it involves and the dates it will be taking place
- Interested parents then ring to arrange a convenient time for them to come in
- Most studies take 15 - 30 minutes
- Free parking and a travel allowance are provided
- Parents are sent a yearly review summarising what the studies have found
- All the studies are designed to be fun and engaging. There is no pressure for children to take park if they do not want to
- Researchers don’t assess children’s individual performance but instead look at language used across groups of about 20 children
- All the centre’s studies adhere to the standards of the British Psychological Society, are approved by the Ethics Committee of the School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester and are run by researchers with enhanced CRB clearance for working with children
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