What do we do in the OCD studies?

We study how toddlers and young children can find objects in a cluttered scene. In our tests, we show them a series of images and we would like to know which ones will the children find interesting. We measure how fast they can find an interesting object and how do they search for it. We are comparing typical children to children with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and children whose parents are affected by OCD. Adults with OCD scan these displays in a different way than typical adults, and we would like to see if this difference is already present in young children.

Dr. Kaldy and her toddler daughter are watching one of the experiments.

Our study is approved by the Institutional Review Board of UMass Boston.