Infants spend the majority of their time asleep. Nevertheless, surprisingly little was known about the effects of sleep on early learning and memory until recently. Some recent studies have shown that sleep supports memory functioning early in life already. Building on these findings we are investigating if sleep is relevant for selectivity in remembering and for qualitative changes in early memories.

Related publications:

Konrad, C., Schneider, S., Zinke, K., Herbert, J. S., & Seehagen, S. (2026). Nap-dependent declarative memory consolidation in 12-month-old infants–A conceptual replication study. Infant Behavior and Development, 83, 102180.

Hermesch, N., Seehagen, S., Barr, R., Herbert, J. S., & Konrad, C. (2025). Sleep and Selective Memory Consolidation in Infants: Exploring the Impact of Learning Contexts. Infancy, 30(5), e70045.

Konrad, C., & Voigt, B. (2025). No effect of napping on episodic foresight and prospective memory in kindergarten children. Journal of Sleep Research, 34(3), e14387. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.14387

Hermesch, N., Konrad, C., Barr, R., Herbert, J. S., & Seehagen, S. (2024). Sleep‐dependent memory consolidation of televised content in infants. Journal of Sleep Research, 33(4), e14121. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.14121

Konrad, C., & Seehagen, S. (2020). The effect of napping and nighttime sleep on memory in infants. In: Berger S., Scher A. and Harbourne R.T., (Eds.), Advances of Child Development and Behavior, Interdisciplinary perspectives on the relation between sleep and learning in early development, Vol. 60, 2020, Elsevier; Amsterdam. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.acdb.2020.08.003

Konrad, C., Herbert, J. S., Schneider, S., & Seehagen, S. (2016). Gist extraction and sleep in 12-month-old infants. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 134, 216-220. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nlm.2016.08.021

Konrad, C., Seehagen, S., Schneider, S., & Herbert, J. S. (2016). Naps promote flexible memory retrieval in infants. Developmental Psychobiology, 58(7), 866-874. https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.21431

Konrad, C., Herbert, J. S., Schneider, S., & Seehagen, S. (2016). The relation between prior night‘s sleep and measures of infant imitation. Developmental Psychobiology, 58(4), 450-461. https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.21387

Seehagen, S., Konrad, C., Herbert, J. S., & Schneider, S. (2015). Timely sleep facilitates declarative memory consolidation in infants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(5), 1625-1629. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1414000112

Contact person: Prof. Dr. Sabine Seehagen

The first years of life are crucial for development and well-being across the lifespan. So far, developmental psychology research has mainly focused on the negative impact of early aversive experiences, whereas the influence of positive experiences has been neglected. We want to change this and are particularly interested in the role of positive emotions in early development. Studies with adults have shown that positive emotions can change thoughts and actions in the short term and help build resources like social relationships and skills in the long term. However, we still do not fully understand how positive emotions develop early in life or how they interact with social experiences. To understand how positive emotions develop and influence social-emotional skills, kognitive abilities, and well-being in the first years of life, we use various methods and collaborate with researchers from several areas of psychology. This research could help us find ways to promote positive emotions and support development in the early years.

Publications:

Seehagen, S., Bartnick, C., Kärtner, J., Krasko, J., Luhmann, M., Schaal, N., Schneider, S., Witt, S., & Zmyj, N. (2025). Belong, broaden, and build: The role of positive emotions in early human development. Child Development Perspectives, 19(4), 237–243. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.70002

Contact person:

Contact persons: Gulizar Tel and Dr. Carolin Konrad

The present study aims to examine various factors that contribute to mothers’ mental load, including those that may increase or reduce it. In addition, it examines day-to-day fluctuations in maternal mental burden and explores its potential consequences for children. The mothers complete two online questionnaires and additionally keep a seven-day diary. Fathers are also invited to complete a questionnaire on mental load in order to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the family context.

Contact person: Gulizar Tel

Sibling relationships are among the earliest and longest-lasting social relationships in a person’s life and represent an important context for children’s social and cognitive development. We are therefore interested in the role of siblings in different domains of child development: Experiences with siblings may influence the recognition of children’s faces and may contribute to the maintenance of this ability during the first year of life. Imitation may also be fostered through the daily observation and copying of siblings. Furthermore, sibling relationships provide many opportunities to understand others’ thoughts, feelings, and intentions, which may support the development of Theory of Mind. Finally, children may learn to share, help, and take others’ perspectives in interactions with siblings, so that siblings may also contribute to the development of prosocial behaviour.

The range of media available to children has grown rapidly in recent decades: tablets, smartphones, televisions and the like offer a wealth of content tailored to younger and older children alike. The limits and possibilities of media use in the early years of life have not yet been comprehensively researched. However, it is already known, for example, that infants and toddlers find it more difficult to learn new things by imitating what they see in the media than through social interactions. We are investigating what might make it easier for young children to apply the knowledge offered by media to real-life situations.

Publications:

Konrad, C., Domoff, S. E., & Schneider, S. (2026). Validation of the German Version of the Problematic Media Use Measure (PMUM-SF) short form and its relation to child and parental mental health. Computers in Human Behavior Reports, 100911.

Hermesch, N., Konrad, C., Barr, R., Herbert, J. S., & Seehagen, S. (2026). Early Childhood Screen Use and Sleep: Evaluating the Strength of the Evidence. Computers in Human Behavior     Reports, 100921.

Konrad, C., Berger-Hanke, M., Hassel, G., & Barr, R. (2021). Does texting interrupt imitation learning in 19-month-old infants? Infant Behavior and Development, 62, 101513. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2020.101513

Konrad, C., Hillmann, M., Rispler, J., Niehaus, L., Neuhoff, L., & Barr, R. (2021). Quality of mother-infant interaction before, during and after smartphone use. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 929. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.616656

Seehagen, S., Schneider, S., Miebach, K., Frigge, K., & Zmyj, N. (2017). „Should I or shouldn’t I?“ Imitation of undesired versus allowed actions from peer and adult models by 18- and 24-month-old toddlers. Infant Behavior and Development, 49, 1-8. doi: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2017.06.001

Seehagen, S., & Herbert, J. S. (2011). Infant imitation from televised peer and adult models. Infancy, 16, 113-136. doi:10.1111/j.1532-7078.2010.00045.x

Contact person: Dr. Rebekka Heinen