About the

Infant Development Research Center

Mission Statement

The mission of the Infant Development Research Center is to develop and promote interdisciplinary collaborative research and theory in the areas of perceptual, cognitive, social, and emotional development in infancy and childhood. It joins the efforts of four research labs at Florida International University and a number of affiliated research labs at other institutions both within and outside Florida to advance knowledge and theory in developmental science, translate research findings to applications and contribute to the visibility of FIU as a leading research institution. The Center’s interdisciplinary approach includes research across species (human and animal), across developmental stages (prenatal through childhood), across children of typical and atypical development, across disciplines (biology and psychology), and across levels of analysis (neural, physiological, psychological, and social) under an integrated developmental framework. This convergent approach promotes the discovery of fundamental principles of learning and development not possible through individual research programs or single levels of analysis. A primary aim of the Center is to make research and theory more relevant to the natural, multisensory contexts of development and thus facilitate translation of research findings to applied settings. To this end, our research focuses on the development of selective attention, perception, learning, and memory across multiple sensory systems and for dynamic events. We translate our findings to applied issues in areas such as autism and pre-term birth. The Center also serves as a forum for undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate teaching and training in developmental science. This research is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.