What do you work on?

My work focuses on understanding the individual differences in word learning in typically developing children and children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

What did you do using Gorilla?

I used Gorilla to conduct behavioural experiments and recruit participants online.

Currently, I use Gorilla to run a study that examines the role of social interaction in word learning in school-aged children. Specifically, I have created and conducted a fill-in-the-blank task on Gorilla to pilot the stimuli in my project. In the future, I will also use Gorilla to conduct other tasks that investigate word learning outcomes and language comprehension in children!

Why did you choose Gorilla?

I have used other online experiment platforms too. However, Gorilla really wins it all because it is built from the perspectives of researchers. The tutorials, interfaces, and functionality supported in Gorilla are very suitable for researchers who are conducting behavioural experiments.

For you, what is the stand-out feature in Gorilla?

“Gorilla is a highly user-friendly platform for any researchers who are interested in conducting behavioural research. Even those who are not experienced in JavaScript can use it to build a well-designed web-based experiment.”

The monthly feature updates from Gorilla also provide many useful resources for experimenters that are looking for new functions on the platform.

How did Gorilla make your life or research better, easier or faster?

Gorilla has made it so much more convenient for me to collect data from participants remotely and significantly shortened the time I would have to spend building a web-based experiment.

Are there any online courses, podcasts, discussion groups or resources that you’d recommend to others?

I highly recommend this video for best practices in online experiments.

What is the biggest advantage of online research methods?

Online research can help us to reach a more representative sample and make research more convenient for both researchers and participants. Participants will not be restricted to a location or a time. Experiments can also be done in a comfortable environment at home.

How do you think online research is going to change your field?

Online research has the great potential for us to reach out to a more representative sample and to create a more participant-friendly research experience. It is tremendously helpful for studies that investigate individual differences and learning in children.

When you’re not working what do you enjoy doing?

I really enjoy working with children. Working with them is very fun and engaging. Trying to think about how to make my experiments more child-friendly is challenging but at the same time very rewarding.

Who or what originally inspired you to work in your field of research?

I have been interested in language since I was young. Being a bilingual growing up, I have always been fascinated by how children can learn languages. I am also very interested in how learning occurs in children that have different language profiles. Thus, coming to graduate school has inspired me to work on the individual differences in language learning in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder with my advisor, Zhenghan Qi, and our amazing lab members.