Some of the questions we are interested in are:

· How do infant explore objects with their eyes and their hands?

· What types of play activities influence young children’s understanding of object categories?

· How does the exploration of objects change over the toddler and preschool years?

· How do tool-using skills emerge in the first years of life?

· How do young children apply knowledge gained from object exploration and play to solving simple problems (e.g., using a spoon to transport food, opening a simple container with a novel tool, retrieving a toy from across a barrier)?

· What types of distinctions do young children make between manmade things and living things like animals and plants?

We use a variety of methods to answer these questions. Some involve short interactive games in which children are given familiar or novel objects to play with. We also use "looking-time" methods in which infants watch video or live-action presentations; we use the differences in their looking behavior at different scenes to understand how they think about the world. Finally, we use eye-tracking technology to find out how children look at various features of objects and tool-using behaviors.