Soon after Katherine was born, we received a letter from the Ohio State University’s Cognitive Development Lab.  The researchers at the lab are working on some study relating to how infants learn and categorize information.  I disregarded the first letter as well as the follow-up letter we later received.  However, when I received a call from Diana, the research associate at the lab, I let her convince me that this would be a worthwhile expenditure of our time.

The experiment consisted of having Katherine sitting on my lap and watching a computer monitor. Attached to the monitor was an infrared device which could tell where Katherine was looking on the screen.  For about half an hour, broken into much shorter modules, various objects flashed on the screen.  By tracking her eyes and where she looked, the researchers would be able to tell how she was identifying the objects and then later distinguishing them from different objects.

The lab itself is located in the Horseshoe, so I was able to get a picture of Katherine inside of the Shoe (unfortunately not on the field).

Quite appropriately, Katherine is clutching her Brutus doll

As a token of the lab’s appreciation, Katherine also received a diploma of sorts from OSU:  her bachelor of infancy.  How many people receive a bachelor’s before they step foot in kindergarten?