Become A Participant

Who are looking for:  Typically developing boys age 8-12, and girls age 8.

Are there other inclusionary criteria: To participate, children must be right handed, native speakers of  North American English, have normal hearing and normal or corrected-to-normal vision, and be free of speech, language, and neurological disorders and conditions (such as, language impairment, autism/Asperger’s, head injuries, seizures, brain tumors, cerebral palsy, stuttering, OCD, and depression).

What will my child do:  Children will first be administered a series of standardized tests that will evaluate working memory, attention, non-verbal intelligence, and language skills. Children will then participate in brain wave recording sessions, during which their brain activity to both speech and non-speech audio-visual information will be collected. Brain-wave recording sessions are structured as games. Children perform a task for 2-3 minutes, then take a play break, then do another 2-3 minutes of the research task. Brain waves will be collected with the help of a special cap with built-in electrodes. There is no discomfort involved, and the method has been safely used with infants, children, and adults. There will be some gel left in the hair after the brain wave recording session, but it comes out very easily with water.

How long will my child be in the study: There will be up to 8 research sessions that are 1 ½ to 2 ½ hours long.  The first 2 sessions will be language testing sessions. During the other 6 sessions we will record your child’s brain activity. The 8 sessions can be spread over a period of several months if necessary.

Will I receive payment:  Your child will receive $10/hour and get to pick out a small toy after each session.  You will receive $10 per session each time you bring the child into the lab for testing.  Payment will be made by check a few weeks after completing the study.

 Where does the study take place:  Our lab is in Lyles-Porter Hall, room 3155.

When are the sessions: We are available to run sessions starting anytime between 9am and 5:30pm on weekdays, and we have some Saturday availability as well. We run sessions year round.

What are the COVID safety precautions:  Only vaccinated personnel will work with participants.  Frequent hand washing/sanitizing and masks are mandatory.  Everything is thoroughly sanitized after each session.  Your child will need to remove his/her mask while they are doing the task in the sound booth.  The sound booth has its own air feed, and the flow has been turned up for high air exchange rate. 

If you would like to have your child participate in our study, please contact Jennifer Schumaker by email jschumak@purdue.edu or phone 765-4944445 (lab).

Who are looking for: Children age 8-12 who have difficulty using or understanding language , which may include some of the following:

• slow to process written/oral language or have difficulty following instructions

• grammatical errors when speaking (such as sometimes omitting the past tense -ed or the plural -s)

• poor short-term memory for language

• may have a diagnosis of learning disability, language delay, or sound processing disorder

Are there other inclusionary criteria: To participate, children must be native speakers of  North American English, have normal hearing and normal or corrected-to-normal vision, and be free of neurological disorders and conditions (such as, autism/Asperger’s, head injuries, seizures, brain tumors, cerebral palsy, stuttering, OCD, and depression (we can include children with ADD/ADHD).

What will my child do:  Children will first be administered a series of standardized tests that will evaluate working memory, attention, non-verbal intelligence, and language skills. Children will then participate in brain wave recording sessions, during which their brain activity to both speech and non-speech audio-visual information will be collected. Brain-wave recording sessions are structured as games. Children perform a task for 2-3 minutes, then take a play break, then do another 2-3 minutes of the research task. Brain waves will be collected with the help of a special cap with built-in electrodes. There is no discomfort involved, and the method has been safely used with infants, children, and adults. There will be some gel left in the hair after the brain wave recording session, but it comes out very easily with water.

How long will my child be in the study: There will be up to 8 research sessions that are 1 ½ to 2 ½ hours long.  The first 2 sessions will be language testing sessions. During the other 6 sessions we will record your child’s brain activity. The 8 sessions can be spread over a period of several months if necessary.

Will I receive payment:  Your child will receive $10/hour and get to pick out a small toy after each session.  You will receive $10 per session each time you bring the child into the lab for testing.  Payment will be made by check a few weeks after completing the study.

 Where does the study take place:  Our lab is in Lyles-Porter Hall, room 3155.

When are the sessions: We are available to run sessions starting anytime between 9am and 5:30pm on weekdays, and we have some Saturday availability as well. We run sessions year round.

What are the COVID safety precautions:  Only vaccinated personnel will work with participants.  Frequent hand washing/sanitizing and masks are mandatory.  Everything is thoroughly sanitized after each session.  Your child will need to remove his/her mask while they are doing the task in the sound booth.  The sound booth has its own air feed, and the flow has been turned up for high air exchange rate. 

If you would like to have your child participate in our study, please contact Jennifer Schumaker by email jschumak@purdue.edu or phone 765-4944445 (lab).

Who:  Adults age 18-40 who are right handed, native speakers of the North American dialect of English.

Are there other inclusionary criteria:  Because we don’t know whether brain activity is altered by speech or language disorders (for example, stuttering, dyslexia, or language impairment), neurological disorders (such as ADHD, Asperger’s/autism, seizures, or depression among others), or by brain injury, we can’t include participants with any of the above conditions, or participants taking medications which may be used to treat the above conditions.  Lastly, participants must be native speakers of North American English, be right handed, have normal hearing, and normal or corrected to normal vision. 

What will I do:  We use a special cap with electrodes attached to it, just like an EEG, to understand how your brain reacts to different stimuli, such as simple lights and sounds. In order for electrodes to get a good connection with the head, we squirt a little bit of gel in them. The gel may stick to your hair but comes out easily with water. You will first be asked to sign a consent form that explains the procedures, and then fill out several general forms that ask about your education level and background. We will screen your vision and your hearing.  We then put a cap with electrodes on and record your brain activity while you are doing a simple task. There is no discomfort involved.

How long will I be in the study: There will be up to 4 sessions which run from 1 ½ – 2 hours in length, during which we will record your brain activity. 

Will I receive payment:  You will receive $10/hour.

Where does the study take place:  Our lab is in Lyles-Porter Hall, room 3155.

What are the COVID safety precautions:  Only vaccinated personnel will work with participants.  Frequent hand washing/sanitizing and masks are mandatory.  Everything is thoroughly sanitized after each session.  Participants will need to remove their mask while they are doing the task in the sound booth.  The sound booth has its own air feed, and the flow has been turned up for high air exchange rate. 

If you would like to participate in our study, please contact Jennifer Schumaker by email jschumak@purdue.edu or phone 765-4944445 (lab).