From studying how children interpret emotions to how long an infant looks at an object, Lehigh\u2019s Little Learners Lab researches how young people make sense of the world around them.<\/p>\n
Located in Chandler-Ullman Hall, the lab examines how children and infants interpret social interactions and their physical surroundings. The lab studies how children use emotion to understand relationships, perspectives, and how infants respond to new information.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Through its outreach to the community and research, the lab provides opportunities for Lehigh students to learn how children view their environment and gain research experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alexis Smith-Flores, assistant professor of psychology, started the lab after she joined Lehigh\u2019s psychology department in 2025.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe lab mostly focuses on how infants and children reason about the social and physical world,\u201d Smith-Flores said. \u201cSo how they think about emotions, social relationships and how those might lead to different preferences about the things that exist in the physical world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Researchers work with children ranging from 10 months old to 10 years old and use different methods depending on age.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When working with infants, researchers have them look at a video of people interacting with objects and people. They then use this information to examine patterns of learning, expectations and beliefs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Older children, six to 10 years old, listen to stories and respond to questions that allow researchers to understand their comprehension and predictions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Lehigh students, participating in the lab provides an opportunity to take part in this research firsthand.<\/p>\n
Through the application process for student researchers, Smith-Flores said she ensures students are both interested in the lab\u2019s research and in working with infants and children.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to really want to work with infants and families and kids,\u201d Smith-Flores said. \u201cSo it\u2019s really important that there\u2019s a good fit there.\u201d<\/p>\n
While student involvement is important and abundant in the lab, Smith-Flores said the lab struggles to recruit families to participate in the studies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She said the lab uses community outreach to connect with families in the Lehigh Valley by attending events like farmers\u2019 markets and fairs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, Smith-Flores said recruiting stands as a problem across developmental research labs because research involving toddlers requires active participation by parents as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s the biggest challenge,\u201d Smith-Flores said. \u201cGetting families to know that we exist and the kinds of questions we\u2019re asking and just encouraging them to participate in science.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lauren Solorzano,\u201828, a student research assistant, said she joined the lab because of her interest in child development and goal to become a psychologist.<\/p>\n
One of her research projects took place at the Da Vinci Science Center in Allentown. Solorzano said she found this project exciting because it gave her the opportunity to directly interact with the children.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She also said working in a lab has taught her new ways to research and organize.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to learn how to code children\u2019s responses and be accurate about that information because it influences the data and how we analyze everything,\u201d Solorzano said.<\/p>\n
Beyond gaining firsthand experience, Solorzano explains how the work she\u2019s doing in the lab relates to her future career goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis research is important to me because I want to work with a population of infants and children, so seeing how they develop and how they operate in their day-to-day lives is really important to me,\u201d Solorzano said.<\/p>\n
Katherine Rand, \u201827, another student research assistant, said she got involved in the lab after taking a developmental psychology class and realizing she had an interest in working with children.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rand works with both infants and children by assisting multiple studies on emotional development. She\u2019s also involved with coding and recruitment in the lab. She said she quickly became familiar with the lab\u2019s commitments, like working full time over the summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, she said one of the biggest challenges in the lab is time management, because they conduct multiple studies a day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had one day where I was in the lab for three hours, and I had six studies back to back,\u201d Rand said.<\/p>\n
She said researchers must run the study, complete the data sheets, upload consent forms and send emails following up with participants, sometimes while actively preparing for the next study.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Regardless of the workload, Rand said the students in the lab are very supportive and helpful in the busy moments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really helps that everyone in the lab has each other\u2019s backs,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From studying how children interpret emotions to how long an infant looks at an object, Lehigh\u2019s Little Learners…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[5877,153,155,154,1197,1198],"class_list":["post-291811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-4-minute-read","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-feature","tag-student-and-campus-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}