Children create knowledge - website for online studies in developmental psychology.

The Corona pandemic and the spatial distancing associated with it not only influence everyday life, but also the research of psychologists who have set themselves the goal of better understanding human knowledge, behavior and experience.

The Department of Developmental Psychology at the University of Kassel focuses, among other things, on the development of children's understanding of justice, as well as their thinking and knowledge. With the help of playful studies, exciting questions are being investigated here, such as whether the sharing of goods differs depending on whether children share with someone they know or someone they don't know; how well children can estimate quantities; or which strategies children use to learn best. 

Before the pandemic, these studies were conducted in daycare centers and schools / after-school programs in Kassel and the surrounding area. Numerous children took part and supported the developmental psychology department in its research. Now, in times of the pandemic, the studies can no longer be conducted in this way and not only the local research group has to deal with the question of how to continue their research in the current situation in order to gain scientific knowledge. Therefore, in order to bundle the digital offering of online studies in the field of developmental psychology research and to make it more easily accessible to families, various research groups at universities, universities of applied sciences or other institutions in Germany, Austria and Switzerland have joined forces and created a website called "Kinder schaffen Wissen": www.kinderschaffenwissen.de. 

On this website, parents can find out about the online studies on offer and choose suitable studies for their children. The studies differ in their duration, tasks and structure, as well as in which technical devices must be available (e.g. smartphone, laptop, speakers). In some cases, studies can be started immediately; these do not run interactively. Other studies, however, consist of a video chat with a study leader, for which an appointment must be made in advance. All data is treated confidentially.

By participating in our online studies, parents not only support the research of the Department of Developmental Psychology at the University of Kassel and other institutes, but can also immerse themselves in the world of their children and make an important contribution to better researching and understanding child development. Experience shows that children have a lot of fun with the exciting stories or games they engage with during a study. Last but not least, the website also offers studies for parents (or other adults) that they should not miss.