Cambridge BabyLab
Welcome to the Cambridge Babylab!
We are one of the Common Experimental Areas at the Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge. Our facilities are housed in the Craik-Marshall Building on Downing Site and are open to host any study in developmental psychology by members of the Department.
To date, a number of research groups have collected their data from our youngest participants in Cambridge Babylab. You can read about our past projects in Affiliated Projects Past and about our ongoing studies in Affiliated Projects Present. If you are specifically interested in participating in psychological research, please refer to Ongoing Data Collection section below.
Please, keep in mind that we share the floor with the CNE Babylab, - a research laboratory that accommodates members of Professor Usha Goswami's Center for Neuroscience in Education. To read more about their work, please follow this link.
Statement by the Cambridge Babylab Users:
We are a group of scientists interested in how babies and toddlers develop and learn about the world around them. We are fascinated by all of the changes that take place from birth – and even before – that help babies grow into walking, talking, curious toddlers.
We study early development in lots of different ways including brain imaging, tracking eye movements, and observing babies' behaviour. Please explore the links below to learn more about our research groups and about the studies you can participate in with your Little Scientist. We have research studies for Junior Scientists, Little Scientists & even Little Scientists who haven't been born yet!
If you live in or around Cambridgeshire, or are willing to travel to us, and are interested in participating in our studies, please send us an email or register your interest by filling out this questionnaire: we need to know a little bit about you first, in order to send you details of any studies your family might be suitable for. All information is kept confidential and will only be used to match you with suitable studies.
Ongoing Data Collection | |
 The newBONDS study, led by Dr Borja Blanco, is looking for participants. The researchers investigate how your baby's brain develops during sleep and play in the first 2 months of life. If you are interested in taking part, email babylab@psychol.cam.ac.uk to arrange for a virtual screening call. Any questions please direct to the same email address. The study consists of one in-person session either in your home or at our lab for your convenience and a set of questionnaires. |  Cognition and Motivated Behaviour Lab, run by Dr Lucy Cheke, is recruiting participants for their double WaM-BaM project! They are interested in understanding how different experiences during pregnancy impact memory and cognition of both babies and mothers. The first part of the study (WaM) is fully online, while the second (BaM) takes place in Cambridge Babylab on Downing Site.  The CRAFT study under the supervision of Professor Sarah Lloyd-Fox is recruiting participants. With this new project, the researchers aim to include caregivers' voices in developmental science. Whether you are an expectant parent, a current parent, a grandparent, or a caregiver, we want to hear from you! You will be invited to take part in an open discussion with other caregivers during a 90-120min session. For details, please email babylab@psychol.cam.ac.uk |
Affiliated Projects Present | |
 The PIPKIN project, led by Professor Sarah Lloyd-Fox and Prof Mark Johnson, has concluded its data collection. The study investigates the effects of pregnancy and birth on the baby's brain development with a wide range of methods. A heartfelt thank you to everyone for participation! The project is currently in the analysis stage and will be publishing its results over the future period. If you have an interest or any questions, please email pipkin@psychol.cam.ac.uk  The CoCoPIP study branched out from the PIPKIN project in 2020 with the hit of the pandemic. CoCoPIP aimed to understand the experiences of families parenting young infants or expecting a child amidst COVID-19, and provided a platform for voicing such experiences. |  Prof Becky Lawson's Prediction and Learning Lab housed their Baby PaL project in Cambridge Babylab in 2020-2022. The project featured a series of collaborations and addressed a number of questions from how babies' brains build new associations between sounds and images to EEG oscillations during play to how brain absorbs light while the baby giggles. All these help scientists understand how our brains compute complex cognitive input and what typical and atypical information processing is.  The BRIGHT project is a long-term global study looking at how nutrition and environment affect neurocognitive development. Over the years, the data has been collected from infants in the Gambia and the UK. BRIGHT is partner with UCL, Birkbeck (UL), KCL, and MRC Unit The Gambia – London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. At its current stage, no new participants in the UK are being recruited, however the team based all over the world and often featuring familiar faces from the PIPKIN project, CoCoPIP, CRAFT, and newBONDS, works tirelessly on data analysis and publications. Keep an eye out for new research outputs! |
Affiliated Projects Past | |
 The ANIMATE project concerned itself with early diagnosis of cerebral palsy using wearable neuroimaging technologies. The highly collaborative project has since moved its operations to UCL: it is now based at DOT-HUB, UCL and neoLAB, but depends upon critical collaborations with Prof. John Suckling (Cambridge University), Dr. Tom Arichi (Kings College London), Dr. Betty Hutchon (The Royal Free), Prof. Frances Cowan (Imperial College London) and industrial partners Gowerlabs. |  Dr Hana D'Souza's Embodied Lab investigated how a range of factors affects the development of children with genetic syndromes. The factors they focussed on included motor abilities, attention, sleep, parental mental health, and health comorbidities. The lab has since moved to the Cardiff University Centre for Human Developmental Science. Visit their website for more! |