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Abstract Visual-world eye-tracking has long been a useful tool for measuring young children’s real-time interpretation of words and sentences. Recently, researchers have extended this method to virtual platforms to reduce equipment costs and recruit more diverse participants. However, there is currently limited guidance on best practices, which require individual researchers to invent their own methodologies and may prevent broader adoption. Here, we present three broad approaches for implementing nine remote visual-world eye-tracking studies, and show that this method is highly feasible for assessing fine-grained language processing across populations of varying ages, clinical statuses, and socioeconomic status backgrounds. We outline strategic methods for conducting this research effectively, including strategies for experimental design, data collection, and data analysis given the variable conditions outside of a lab setting. We adopt four criteria for evaluating success for this method: 1) Minimal subject attrition relative to in-person studies, 2) Minimal track loss relative to conventional eye-tracking, 3) Conceptual replication of previous findings, and 4) Evidence of broadening participation. These case studies provide a thorough guide to future researchers looking to conduct remote eye-tracking research with developmental populations. Ultimately, we conclude that visual-world eye-tracking using internet-based methods is feasible for research with young children and may provide a relatively inexpensive option that can reach a broader, more diverse set of participants. 

A wealth of evidence indicates that children use their developing linguistic knowledge to incrementally interpret speech and predict upcoming reference to objects. For verbs, determiners, case-markers, and adjectives, hearing linguistic information that sufficiently constrains referent choice leads to anticipatory eye-movements. There is, however, limited evidence about whether children also use spatial prepositions predictively. This is surprising and theoretically important: spatial prepositions provide abstract semantic information that must interface with spatial properties of, and relations between, objects in the world. Making this connection may develop late because of the complex mapping required. In a visual-world eye-tracking task, we find that adults and 4-year-olds hearing 'inside' (but not 'near') look predictively to objects that afford the property of containment. We conclude that children make predictions about the geometric properties of objects from spatial terms that specify these properties, suggesting real-time use of language to guide analysis of objects in the visual world.