Scaling developmental science with PsyNet

Building tools and paradigms to run high-powered, cross-cultural developmental experiments online.

Developmental science faces a fundamental paradox: infants and children are among the most important populations to study, yet also among the most difficult to test at scale. This project aims to remove key methodological bottlenecks by adapting PsyNet, a scalable online experimentation framework, to the unique experimental needs of developmental research.

By expanding PsyNet’s capabilities for child-centered studies, we seek to dramatically increase statistical power, enable fine-grained hypothesis testing across diverse linguistic and cultural contexts, and improve interpretability—supporting more generalizable theories of how prediction, environment, and diversity shape the developing mind.

PsyNet developmental experimental pipeline

What we do

  • Develop PsyNet features that support developmental workflows, including caregiver coordination, child-friendly interfaces, and adaptive experimental protocols.
  • Enable efficient, high-powered studies that can be deployed across multiple languages, cultures, and populations.
  • Combine methodological development with targeted empirical studies across developmental domains (e.g., child-directed speech, music cognition, statistical learning).
  • Use scalable experiments to probe core cognitive parameters, improving interpretability, replicability, and theoretical resolution.
Cross-cultural developmental paradigms

Why it matters

Early cognitive development shapes lifelong learning, individual differences, and cultural transmission. Yet methodological limitations have constrained the scope, diversity, and theoretical depth of developmental research. By building infrastructure that enables large-scale, cross-cultural, and theory-driven experimentation with infants and children, this project aims to transform how developmental science is conducted—supporting more inclusive datasets, more powerful statistical inference, and truly generalizable theories of human cognition.

Scaling developmental science globally
  • placeholder: PsyNet platform paper
  • placeholder: developmental replication study
  • placeholder: open-source code repository