Research Study Participation

The Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences Department is always looking for individuals who would like to participate in ongoing research across our specialty areas. Read on to learn more about how to sign up for upcoming projects.

Adult Cochlear Implant Rehabilitation Research

Diane Brewer is looking for adults with cochlear implants to study the benefits of post-implantation training. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of training for adults who have received cochlear implants. The study is assessing two training programs to determine whether they can improve speech understanding and communication in daily life. If interested, please contact Claire Bernstein at 202-448-7204 or [email protected].

Eligibility Requirements

• You are 18 years of age or older.
• You have had your cochlear implant between three months and three years.
• You experience post-lingual deafness.
• You are fluent in English.

Expectations

Total time required is eight weekly visits (90 minutes each), scheduled at your convenience. Additionally, there will be two follow-up visits; one at two months and one at six months following the last training session (also 90 minutes each).

Child Cochlear Implant Research

The Cochlear Implant Communication Lab is seeking participants for a research study; children with both implants/hearing aids and children with typical hearing are needed. If interested, please contact the Cochlear Implant Communication Lab at 202-994-3195 or [email protected].

Eligibility Requirements

• Participating children are between 4 and 8 years of age.
• They wear cochlear implants/hearing aids OR have typical hearing (no hearing loss).
• They are speakers of English as a first language.

Expectations

• Children will identify pictures, engage in an interactive language sampling and computerized listening games and be administered standardized tests of language and speech.
• Total time for testing is up to two-and-a-half hours and will involve one or two visits.
• Parents will receive information about their child's speech and language assessment results. Children will receive a toy following each session.
• Parents will be compensated up to $100 for time and cost of travel.

Infant Social Development Research

Francys Subiaul is looking for normally developing infants to participate in a 15-minute eye-tracking study that investigates how they make social decisions by tracking where they look.

Eligibility Requirements

• Participating children are between 3 and 12 months of age.
• They have no medical complications.
• They are not taking any prescription medication.

Communication Neuroscience Laboratory

The Communication Neuroscience Laboratory, overseen by director Lynne Bernstein, is seeking participants for experiments on lipreading, speech perception in noise, multisensory speech perception and vibrotactile perception. For more information and to see if you qualify, contact [email protected]. 

Eligibility Requirements

• You are between 18 and 45 years of age.
• You speak English as your first language.

Expectations

• The laboratory uses a range of methods. Some of the studies use methods from experimental psychology, and others use methods from cognitive neuroscience such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG).
• Volunteers are paid for their participation.