Centre for Early Childhood Cognition

We aim to understand what is happening in the minds of babies and young children, what they understand, and how they learn so much, so quickly. We are especially interested in babies’ developing understanding of the social world, when they begin to understand that other people have minds and that these minds contain thoughts that might be different from the babies’ own thoughts. These skills are fundamental to navigating our social world and can be impaired in some developmental disorders like Autism. Our research investigates the origins and development of social understanding in healthy babies and young children in the hope that our findings will, in the future, lead to a better understanding of developmental disorders of cognition.

Our research uses a combination of techniques that include behavioural approaches (e.g. how long babies look at different social events shown to them on a screen, or who they choose to interact with) and baby-friendly brain imaging approaches, which enable us to see what’s happening in the brain at different ages. You can read more about our different methods by clicking on the relevant links.

The Centre for Early Cognition is located at the Department of Psychology at the University of Copenhagen, close to Noerreport Station. Parking spaces are also available if required.

If you are pregnant, or have a child under the age of 3 years and are interested in taking part in our studies, please get in touch by filling out the online registration form. We will then contact you when we have a study for which your child is the right age. Babies receive a gift and a diploma as a thanks for participating. If you like we will also send you photos of your baby participating in our studies.