What to expect?

What to expect when you visit us as a participant -- or parent of a very young participant -- for an experiment? Of course, the details vary across experiments, but we can tell you something about the types of settings/labs you may encounter when you participate in an experiment.

Baby lab

In the Baby Research Centre we investigate infants' social, cognitive, and linguistic development in the first three years of life. The main rooms are located in a building of the Radboud University. more >

Behavioral labs (sound proof cabins)

The institute has many facilities to run behavioral experiments (where we just measure your speech or manual responses in a task). Most rooms have soundproof cabins and are equipped with high-fidelity headphones, microphones, and pushbutton devices. more >

EEG lab

In our EEG lab at the MPI, we record brain potentials as you are carrying out a task (e.g. read or listen to text, evaluate words or texts on some dimension, etc.). We first fit an electrode cap over your head, and then do the measurements as you do your task. Sometimes we also make use of EEG labs elsewhere (at the Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging). more >

Eyetracking labs

The institute has three experimental rooms with eye-tracking equipment. Two of these eye-trackers are head-mounted. In addition, the institute also has two portable eye-trackers for field studies, one of which can also be used with children. more >

fMRI lab

The fMRI labs for our research are located at the Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging. An fMRI scanner is basically a huge fancy magnet with a bed inside, where you can lay down as you carry out your task. more >

Gesture lab

The Gesture lab is especially designed to study gestures and sign language. It is equipped with audio recorders and multiple synchronized video cameras allowing the same scene to be recorded from many angles. more >

MEG lab

The MEG lab used in our research is located at the Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging. It basically looks like a giant professional hairdryer, and it is positioned over your head just like a hairdryer while you carry out some task. Most MEG experiments also involve a short visit to the fMRI lab to get an anatomical picture of your brain. more >

Virtual reality lab

We are building a state of the art immersive Virtual Reality (VR) laboratory; you'll hear more about this soon!