Recording speech for a university study: Paid opportunity

Sacramento CA

Description

We’re looking for a diverse set of people who are willing lend their voices to a university research study about spoken language. We’re recruiting people to read words that we will use in our later experiments. Why are we doing this? Most of what we know about how humans understand and remember language is based on data from college aged white listeners listening to “standard white" speech. In our research, we want to understand human behavior, not just the behavior of white students. We believe, based on previous data, that models based on white speakers and white listeners are not representative of what humans do on a regular basis, where variation in speakers and their speech abounds. In our studies, we’re investigating what happens when we conduct some of these prior studies that only used white speakers and listeners again, but this time with more diverse participants. We expect that doing so will show how memory for spoken language is affected by the categorization and stereotyping processes that humans regularly engage in. Who are we looking for? Because of our research questions, we’re looking for people whose voices are consistent with expectations or stereotypes that listeners have about how group members sound. For example, we’re looking for people who identify as Black males, who believe that their voices would be identified by listeners as Black males. We’re also looking for Black females whose voices make them readily identifiable as a member of that group. What will you do? What is the payment? To participate, you’ll go to Building 460 on Stanford University’s campus near Palo Alto and read a list of words into a microphone. You’ll read several hundred words and answer a few questions about yourself. Recording time is 1 hour or less, and you will be paid $250 for your time (via Venmo, Zelle, PayPal, or Amazon gift card). Who are we? This research is being conducted by Meghan Sumner and Will Clapp of Stanford University and Charlotte Vaughn of University of Oregon. How to be involved? If this opportunity sounds interesting to you, please complete the prescreening survey linked here: That survey will ask a few basic questions and ask you to read a short list of words, which you can record on your phone or computer. If you are selected after the prescreening survey, we will reach out to the email you provide to schedule a time to record.