The 3rd Biennial Meeting of the Cognitive Development Society was held in Park City, Utah this past October. Held at the Yarrow Resort and Conference Center, the conference discussed ongoing research in the development of children from ages zero on up through college. There were lectures on fantasy play, symbolization, and neural substrates.

Not wanting to miss too many classes, we took a flight into Salt Lake City and on the way to the hotel we had the pleasure of seeing some of the countryside. Deer crossing the road, the amazing homes built in the mountains, and the cold winter descending upon the city. The next morning we bundled up and headed out into the frigid air. We had a mile walk to the conference hotel, which allowed us to relax and see some of the venues left behind from the Olympics..

The conference began with a light breakfast and a warm welcome. All day was spent in symposiums listening to various professors and doctors speak about child development. Our presentation was not until later that night during the evening poster session. In the meantime, from the University of Virginia, Judy DeLoache’s, presentation “The Dawn of Symbolism” sparked our interest. We were fascinated with the idea that children do not recognize size orientation in life-size versus toy-size objects. Children were asked to play with life-sized toys and then were removed from the room. All large toys were replaced with small toy-sized replicas. When the child came back into the room they would try and sit on a tiny miniature chair that we all knew would not work, but this was not clear to the child. One child, in particular, captivated us. She tried diligently to get into this mini-toy car. Not recognizing that she was too big, she took off her shoe in order to aid the process along. Research like this keeps us digging for answers to why children behave this way and the ages when they really do start to differentiate between symbolism and real items.

At lunchtime we headed back to our hotel to rest and get ready for our poster presentation. At 5:00 p.m. we set up our poster and stood nervously waiting for people to ask us questions. After looking around we realized we were the only undergraduates present among all of these graduate students and PhD’s. Our nervousness intensified. Finally, we were full swing into our presentation with doctors and graduate students. Through working in Dr. Valerie Reyna’s lab, Informatics and Decision Making, on a research project concerning interventions for risk reduction and avoidance in youth, we were able to present new data about age differences in how adolescents understand the risks and benefits of sex, and the chances of a person getting or having an STD based on their past sexual history. We also discussed some ethnic differences between Hispanic and non-Hispanic populations. The research is based on applying fuzzy-trace theory to risky decision-making.

For two hours questions were asked, flyers handed out, and information was shared. Since we were among ninety other posters that night there were large numbers of people crammed into the conference room and the adjoining tent. But we all shared the same interest: research for the bettering of development. People were so interested in our research that we were not able to take down our poster on time and we spent extra time sharing our data.

Later that night, we reflected on our accomplishments. We were the first undergraduates in our lab to present new and up-coming data regarding decision-making in adolescents. It was exciting to be able to present our data and do what very few others had done. We even found confidants and friends from Canada and Arizona State University!

The following day was filled with even more research and paper discussions. We settled in for a long day of symposiums discussing different papers written by professors at multiple universities. Our very own Dr. Brainerd from the College of Education gave an invited address on fuzzy-trace theory, which he and Dr. Reyna developed. Close to our hearts, we were captivated. This is what we had been studying for the past three years. Supporting Dr. Brainerd and having him there to support us was great. We enjoyed every moment of our conference.

But a conference also means there are a few hours to explore the place we were staying. Main Street was the happening place and we window-shopped for trinkets to bring back to our lab and families. We also located the Olympic Park and took a short tour of some of the events that had occurred. Had we arrived a week earlier or a week later we could have taken a trip in a bobsled! The fun had to end and we were back at the conference that night supporting our ASU friends as they talked about spatial reasoning and mental processing.

Unfortunately, we had to leave early the next morning on a flight back to Tucson. We will always remember the opportunity we had and the information we were able to share with other researchers. It is amazing to see all of the people interested in such similar things coming together to understand child development.

Kirsten Metz and Jennifer Roberts, UBRPers in Dr. Valerie Reyna’s lab, Informatics and Decision Making