Research Themes & Projects

How does language develop?

The lab studies how children's language develops. What learning mechanisms support language development? How and why do developmental trajectories vary?

Representative publications:

  • Weaver, H.*, Zettersten, M.*, & Saffran, J. (2024). Becoming word meaning experts: Infants' processing of familiar words in the context of typical and atypical exemplars. Child Development, 95(5), e352-e372. *equal authorship preprint pdf
  • Zettersten, M.*, Cox, C.M.M.*, Bergmann, C.*, Tsui, A.S.M., Soderstrom, M., Mayor, J., Lundwall, R.A., Lewis, M., Kosie, J.E., Kartushina, N., Fusaroli, R., Frank, M.C., Byers-Heinlein, K., Black, A.K., & Mathur, M.B. (2024). Evidence for Infant-directed Speech Preference Is Consistent Across Large-scale, Multi-site Replication and Meta-analysis Open Mind, 8, 439-461. *equal authorship preprint pdf

How does curiosity support learning?

We study how children's active interest and curiosity shapes their early learning environments. What are core drivers of infant and child attention and interest? How does informating-seeking change children's learning curriculum?

Representative publications:

  • Zettersten, M., Foushee, Ruthe, & Goddu, Mariel K. (2025). "Helpless" infants are active, goal-directed agents: Response to Cusack et al. Trends in Cognitive Science preprint pdf
  • Zettersten, M., & Saffran, J. (2021). Sampling to learn words: Adults and children sample words that reduce referential ambiguity. Developmental Science, 24(3), e13064. pdf

How do language and cognition co-develop?

We study how language and cognition interact and scaffold one other across development. What are the consequences of learning and using language for cognition and communication?

Representative publications:

  • Lupyan, G., Gentry, H., & Zettersten, M. (2026). How important is language for human-like intelligence? Perspectives on Psychological Science. preprint
  • Zettersten, M., Bredemann, C., Kaul, M., Vlach, H., Kirkorian, H., & Lupyan, G. (2024). Nameability supports rule-based category learning in children and adults. Child Development, 95(2), 497-514. preprint pdf

ManyBabies: Building a generalizable science of infant development

The lab is an active member of the ManyBabies consortium and Dr. Zettersten is a co-lead of the ManyBabies 5 and ManyBabies 7 projects, studying the drivers of infant visual attention and curiosity around the world. To learn more, check out this podcast interview with co-lead Dr. Jessica Kosie (ASU) and the short video introducing the project below.

Peekbank: An open database of infant eyetracking data

The lab is part of a team of researchers leading the development of Peekbank, an open database of eyetracking data on infant word recognition, collecting and sharing data from thousands of children in a standardized format. You can learn more about the project by visiting the Peekbank website.