For four students in the Infant Development Lab, dedication and consistent preparation over the last academic year made it possible for them to attend and present research at the International Conference on Infant Studies.
Four undergraduate researchers in the Infant Development Lab traveled with their mentor Sabrina Perkins, associate professor of psychology, to present at the International Conference on Infant Studies.
Olivia Guarino ’26, Ella McGlynn ’26, Anna Grace Gilbert ’27 and Jessica Garcia-Bastida ’27 presented their research at the International Conference on Infant Studies from July 6-9 in Panamá City, Panamá. Attendance at the conference regularly includes over 1,100 attendees and members from various fields such as developmental psychology, cognitive neuroscience, pediatrics and education.
The Infant Development Lab, which is directed by Perkins, focuses on understanding the acquisition of motor skills in infancy (such as crawling and walking), and how they relate to other cognitive and social skills.
Guarino and Garcia-Bastida presented a poster titled, ‘’Can you get the toy?: How walking infants use whole-body problem solving during an object retrieval task.” The two have been working on the project over the past year and have contributed meaningfully to data collection appointments with infants and behavioral video coding and analyses. Data collection for the project is still ongoing.
Gilbert and McGlynn presented a poster titled, “Take a step!: Links between infant play and mother vocalizations as crawling infants learn to walk” and were co-authors on a symposium presentation titled “Tiny hands, big transitions: Analyzing crawling infants’ target interactions during play as they learn to walk,” and presented by Perkins. This work is part of an ongoing collaboration with Daniela Corbetta, who is a professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Gilbert has made meaningful contributions to the project for the past two years and presented preliminary findings at a different international conference in Prague, Czech Republic last year. McGlynn’s contributions spanned the past year in behavioral video coding and analyses.
Student members of the Infant Development Lab benefitted from networking and professional development opportunities at the conference, including meeting authors whose work they had read for literature reviews, group discussions, and lab meetings, and participating in an Undergraduate Networking Session designed to help researchers and students in making valuable connections for employment and/or graduate study. A notable event was the civic reception, which is usually themed based on the conference location. This year’s reception was on an outdoor terrace and featured dancers and music in culturally traditional attire.
The group also had opportunities between conference sessions to explore Panamá City,
Student travel to the conference was supported by the Undergraduate Research Program and the Department of Psychology, and Perkins’ travel was supported by Dean’s Office of Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences. Mentored students in the Infant Development Lab come from a variety of diverse backgrounds and go on to graduate and professional programs.
Perkins is an active scholar in developmental psychology and mentoring relationships in higher education. Her research has been published in journals such as “Child Development,” “Infancy,” and “Infant Behavior and Development,” “Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology,” the “Journal of First-generation Student Success” and “Perspectives on Undergraduate Research Mentoring.” She is currently working on a co-edited book on mentoring and/as meaningful relationships as a high-impact practice published by Routledge, cross-listed in the AAC&U series, and the series on engaged learning and teaching.
