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At the Child Vision Lab, we research visual development and plasticity to understand how children learn to see and interact with the world, and how the human visual system can overcome eye disease.
We create fun, child-friendly research studies that help us discover:
- What infants and children can see and how their visual skills develop
- How the brain can adapt when infants and children are born with visual impairments
- What processes cause the sensory system and motor system to start working together better during development
- How does the brain respond when adult vision becomes impaired, using our knowledge of visual development
We use state-of-the-art scientific approaches and techniques, whilst introducing parents and children to real scientific experiments in a fun and playful manner.
Talks and Events
In 2018 we launched Vision@UCL Talks, a free monthly event for everyone (from non-scientific public to expert scientists). The series features eminent international vision science speakers, who bridge the fields of psychophysics, fMRI, and computational modelling in vision science.
COVID-19
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we prioritised carrying out research that will help understand and mitigate the impacts of coronavirus, and continuing our important vision research where possible in line with covid restrictions.
Welcome back
We are happy to be able to restart our neuroimaging studies, with updated safety protocols to ensure we reduce the risk of covid-transmission.
Home Acuity Test
In 2020, we helped clinicians from Moorfields Eye Hospital develop a printable Home Acuity Test to allow ophthalmologic patients to attend remote appointments via telephone. This test can be downloaded for free from homeacuitytest.org - we hope it may help both Ophthalmologists and their patients by allowing necessary vision tests to continue even when in-person appointments may not be possible. You can read a news report about the Home Acuity Test here, and a full evaluation of the test here.
Moving Online
In order to continue other important studies during the pandemic, we have converted some of our research to be carried out online:
- The UCL COVID Impacts Study has helped us understand the effects on people's mental health and wellbeing during the pandemic via two online questionnaires. We'd like to say a massive Thank You to everyone who took part in this research - all 650 of you!
- We have also carried out a remote study looking at people's perception of exponential growth using a fun online decision-based game - perhaps the first of many 100%-online psychology studies to come!
See our Winter Newsletter 2019/2020 to find out more about what we've been up to!
