Families with young children are at the heart of everything we do at the DEN Lab. Led by Dr. Ece Demir-Lira at the University of Iowa, we study how children develop, and that research depends on families like yours. Two studies are open for enrollment right now, and if you have a young child, you may be eligible to take part.

We work hard to make our studies serious for science but still fun for families. Your child joins an ongoing adventure with the DEN Pack's friend Flynn the fox, helping him find his friends along Winterberry Road. Each activity your child completes moves Flynn a little farther down the road and closer to finding everyone. Along the way your child earns gifts from the DEN Pack, and your family receives monetary compensation for completing the study.

Details on each study are below.

ACORN (Advancing Children's Outcomes through Research on Neurodevelopment) Study

Now recruiting: families with kids ages 4–6! The DEN Lab at the University of Iowa is studying how children learn and how parents and children interact. We would love your family to participate in our study! Here are the details: 

To participate, your child must:

• Be 4 to 6 years old
• Be fluent in English
• Have normal or corrected-to-normal vision (no color blindness)
• Have normal hearing

If you choose to participate, the study will involve four visits to our laboratory over two years. The DEN Lab is located in Spence Laboratories on the University of Iowa campus. Each visit will last around three hours. At each visit, you and your child will play with different sets of toys, your child will complete some cognitive tasks, and we will also measure their brain activity using functional near-infrared spectroscopy, or fNIRS, and you will be asked to complete questionnaires. Compensation is provided. If interested, please complete this online survey to see if you are eligible for this study! 

Many Numbers Project 

Now recruiting: families with kids ages 2–6! The DEN Lab at the University of Iowa is studying how young children think about numbers, and we'd love for your family to be part of it. We're proud to be one of 100+ sites worldwide in the ManyNumbers research network. Here are the details: