Accomplishing LIFE's purpose and mission requires across-strand research collaboration. Our strategy is to nurture and conduct ever-increasing across-strand collaborations. Below are several exemplars of LIFE's year 1 across-strand research.

Center-Wide Research Collaboration for Year 1 : Interactivity and Learning

In our first year, our Center's common focus will be on interactivity and learning. Interactivity refers to the range of ways that people interact with other people and machines. We will synthesize a theoretical perspective on what forms of interaction--with humans and machines--support different types of human learning and to do so in a way that is constrained by neurobiological, cognitive and socio-cultural levels of analysis.

Strands 1 and 2 Exemplar: Social Interaction as a Measure of Learning
How do social factors regulate learning? In a study on foreign-language learning in young children, we investigate whether the amount and quality of social interaction during language sessions predicts what children learn. The study will inform us about the modularity of mind and whether social and linguistic streams interact in deeply interesting ways.

Strands 2 and 3 Exemplar: From Everyday Argumentation to Classroom Debate in Science
Children employ sophisticated arguments in everyday, informal settings but have difficulty constructing scientific arguments in the classroom. This study explores how an in depth understanding of children's out-of-school linguistic competencies with argument can directly inform the design of formal science instruction where students learn through scientific argumentation and debate.

Strands 3 and 1 Exemplar: People Knowledge
Recent research highlights the propensity of humans to organize their knowledge around people whom they meet and know. This idea supports fertile across-strand collaboration that examines how people-infused curricula and technology influence learning. One project combines biological and behavioral measures with media techniques to examine how the presence or absence of real versus imagined people influences what and how people learn.