Research Assistant in LSU Spoken Language Processing Lab
My interests in speech-language pathology and aural rehabilitation motivated me to work as a volunteer research assistant in the LSU Spoken Language Processing Lab under the direction of Dr. Brittan A. Barker, assistant professor at LSU. The lab focuses on examining the role of talker-specific information in the speech signal and how that signal affects listeners' linguistic processing.
Most recently in the lab, we examined typically developing, normal-hearing toddlers and their ability to fast map nonsense words in different talker-specific situations. My role in this particular experiment included researching and developing phonetically-balanced nonsense word stimuli, entering that literature into the EndNote database, recording voices to be used as stimuli in the experiment, editing the recordings using Adobe Audition, creating abstract objects to be used in the experiment, using Photoshop to edit the pictures of the abstract objects, and assisting in the design and programing of the experiment using E-Prime software. In the lab, I also learned to screen the hearing of adult and pediatric participants, score different types of standardized assessments, and run adult participants in an auditory story comprehension study. My work in the lab exposed me to the behind-the-scenes activities involved with running a research lab and conducting research.
My primary duties in the lab included:
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