Lehigh Little Learners Lab researches children’s knowledge of reasoning

From studying how children interpret emotions to how long an infant looks at an object, Lehigh’s Little Learners Lab researches how young people make sense of the world around them.

Located in Chandler-Ullman Hall, the lab examines how children and infants interpret social interactions and their physical surroundings. The lab studies how children use emotion to understand relationships, perspectives, and how infants respond to new information.  

Through its outreach to the community and research, the lab provides opportunities for Lehigh students to learn how children view their environment and gain research experience. 

Alexis Smith-Flores, assistant professor of psychology, started the lab after she joined Lehigh’s psychology department in 2025.  

“The lab mostly focuses on how infants and children reason about the social and physical world,” Smith-Flores said. “So how they think about emotions, social relationships and how those might lead to different preferences about the things that exist in the physical world.”

Researchers work with children ranging from 10 months old to 10 years old and use different methods depending on age. 

When working with infants, researchers have them look at a video of people interacting with objects and people. They then use this information to examine patterns of learning, expectations and beliefs. 

Older children, six to 10 years old, listen to stories and respond to questions that allow researchers to understand their comprehension and predictions. 

For Lehigh students, participating in the lab provides an opportunity to take part in this research firsthand.

Through the application process for student researchers, Smith-Flores said she ensures students are both interested in the lab’s research and in working with infants and children.

“You have to really want to work with infants and families and kids,” Smith-Flores said. “So it’s really important that there’s a good fit there.”

While student involvement is important and abundant in the lab, Smith-Flores said the lab struggles to recruit families to participate in the studies. 

She said the lab uses community outreach to connect with families in the Lehigh Valley by attending events like farmers’ markets and fairs. 

However, Smith-Flores said recruiting stands as a problem across developmental research labs because research involving toddlers requires active participation by parents as well. 

“I think that’s the biggest challenge,” Smith-Flores said. “Getting families to know that we exist and the kinds of questions we’re asking and just encouraging them to participate in science.”

Lauren Solorzano,‘28, a student research assistant, said she joined the lab because of her interest in child development and goal to become a psychologist.

One of her research projects took place at the Da Vinci Science Center in Allentown. Solorzano said she found this project exciting because it gave her the opportunity to directly interact with the children. 

She also said working in a lab has taught her new ways to research and organize.

“I had to learn how to code children’s responses and be accurate about that information because it influences the data and how we analyze everything,” Solorzano said.

Beyond gaining firsthand experience, Solorzano explains how the work she’s doing in the lab relates to her future career goals. 

“This research is important to me because I want to work with a population of infants and children, so seeing how they develop and how they operate in their day-to-day lives is really important to me,” Solorzano said.

Katherine Rand, ‘27, another student research assistant, said she got involved in the lab after taking a developmental psychology class and realizing she had an interest in working with children. 

Rand works with both infants and children by assisting multiple studies on emotional development. She’s also involved with coding and recruitment in the lab. She said she quickly became familiar with the lab’s commitments, like working full time over the summer. 

However, she said one of the biggest challenges in the lab is time management, because they conduct multiple studies a day.

“I had one day where I was in the lab for three hours, and I had six studies back to back,” Rand said.

She said researchers must run the study, complete the data sheets, upload consent forms and send emails following up with participants, sometimes while actively preparing for the next study. 

Regardless of the workload, Rand said the students in the lab are very supportive and helpful in the busy moments. 

“It really helps that everyone in the lab has each other’s backs,” she said.