Participants
Current Research Projects: Children and Adolescents
We are currently conducting a research study on the development of orthographic processing skills with college students, 7-year-olds, and 11-year-olds. Participants in this study get to see their own brain waves (EEG) and make decisions about what letters appeared on a screen in front of them. This study is supported by funds from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).
We are also conducting a study with college students and children ages 6 to 8 years old on the development of brain systems important for rhyming. Participants in this experiment get to see their own brain waves (EEG) and make decisions about what rhymes and what does not rhyme. This study is supported by funds from the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences at Dartmouth College.
You can find informational flyers about these studies with children posted around campus and in the local community. We are looking for participants who are right-handed, speak only English fluently, and have no history of language or reading disorders or neurological disorders. If your child meets these criteria and you and your child are interested in participating, please contact us and see the "Getting Involved in Our Research" and "Special Preparations" sections below.
Current Research Projects: Young Adults/College Students
We are currently investigating phonological processing, orthographic processing, and semantic processing in college students. Participants in the phonological processing experiment get to see their own brain waves (EEG) and make decisions about whether pairs of visually- and/or auditorily-presented stimuli rhyme or do not rhyme. Participants in the orthographic processing experiment get to see their own brain waves (EEG) and make decisions about what letters appeared on a screen in front of them. Participants in the semantic processing experiment get to see their own brain waves (EEG) and make decisions about the semantic category of words presented on a screen in front of them.
In addition to these lab projects, a number of student projects are conducted in the lab:
During the 2009-2010 academic year, one Senior Honors Thesis research project will be conducted in the lab. This study with college students will investigate neural processing during basic arithmetical problem solving (conducted by Emily Jasinski).
During the 2008-2009 academic year, three Senior Honors Thesis research projects were conducted in the lab. One was a study comparing auditory and visual memory in college students with extensive musical training and college students with little musical training (conducted by Elyse George). A second study with fluent texters compared the neural processing of English and text sentences (conducted by Natalie Berger). The third thesis study concerned morphemes, the smallest pieces of language that carry meaning; college student participants in this study were asked to make decisions about whether stimuli (some composed of morphemes and some not) were real words or not (conducted by Allie Landers). Check our Publications page for updates.
During the 2007-2008 academic year, one Senior Honors Thesis research project was conducted in the lab. This study compared the neural processing of single real letters and made-up letter-like stimuli (conducted by Priya Mitra). This study has been published in Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience (see our Publications page).
You can find informational flyers posted around campus for all of our ongoing studies. In general, we are looking for participants who are between the ages of 18 and 24 years old, who are right-handed, who speak only English fluently, who have no history of neurological disorder or injury, who have no history of language or reading disorder, and who are not taking medications that may affect brain functioning. For some experiments, being a monolingual English speaker is not required. Some experiments may have more specific criteria. If you are interested in participating, contact us and see the "Getting Involved in Our Research" and "Special Preparations" sections below.
Getting Involved in Our Research
If you are interested in participating in our behavioral and electrophysiologial (ERP) studies of reading skills, please contact us. If you are a student, faculty, or staff member at Dartmouth or live in the Upper Valley area, please contact us about participating in our studies with adult readers. If you are a parent or child in the Upper Valley area and you would like to participate in our studies on the development of reading skills, please let us know by phone or by e-mail. If you would like to know more about our lab and our research before you participate in an experiment, you are welcome to schedule a visit to the Reading Brains Lab to find out more about what we do.
Special Preparations Before Participation
If you can, please try to get a good night’s sleep the night before coming into the lab. It will not be as fun to do the experiment if you are tired and would prefer to be napping.
Please plan to shampoo your hair either the day you come in or the night before. However, please do not use conditioner or any other hair products that stay in the hair. Also make sure that your hair is completely dry before coming into the lab (we do have a hairdryer if you forget). The electrodes can listen in more clearly if your hair is just plain clean.
Please plan to have your usual amount of caffeine before coming into the lab (no more, no less). If you can refrain from taking any unnecessary medications – either over-the-counter or prescription – on the day you come into the lab, then we can be sure that the brain waves that we record have not been influenced by medications.
If you wear glasses, please bring them to the Reading Brains Lab with you. If you wear contact lenses, please bring both your contacts (if you are wearing them already) and your glasses with you. Because you might be looking at a computer monitor for a long time, some participants are more comfortable wearing glasses rather than contacts.
Past Participants
If you have already been involved in our research and would like to learn about the results of the study in which you participated, please check our Publications page or contact us and we will send you the most current information that we have. Note that it can sometimes take more than one or even two years to have a study published.
If you have already been involved in our research and would like to participate again, let us know!
