For summer 2019, the Hamilton Lab is looking to work with a limited number of undergraduate volunteers who are interested in speech perception and production in the brain using electroencephalography (EEG). To start, we are especially looking for volunteers who have experience using the software package Praat (http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/) for phonetic transcription and alignment. This involves listening to lots of auditory stimuli, transcribing very carefully what was said, and performing phonetic alignment. Dr. Hamilton will oversee this process along with graduate student Garret Kurteff or other graduate students in the lab, but you will also be expected to work independently.
We are also looking for volunteers who have experience with computer programming (python or swift especially).
Required qualifications:
- Interest in gaining experience in auditory neuroscience research
- Detail-oriented, reliable, and professional
- Works well independently and as a team
Preferred qualifications:
- Familiarity with the following software: Praat
- Knowledge of python or other programming languages a huge plus
- Previous classes in linguistics, phonetics, neuroscience, neuroanatomy, or physiology are helpful
Summer 2019, with the possibility to continue on as a research volunteer in Fall 2019 and Spring 2020.
As a volunteer, you will be expected to:
(1) Spend 10 hours a week in the lab working on projects (these may include background reading, stimulus design and transcription in Praat, or helping with EEG data collection). These hours will be scheduled so that research volunteers overlap and can support each other in teams.
(2) Faithfully attend a weekly lab meeting where we discuss relevant papers and give updates on lab projects
(3) Work collaboratively with others (either Dr. Hamilton directly, graduate students in the lab, or other undergraduates)
(4) Be detail-oriented, professional, and tenacious! Research often involves troubleshooting why something went wrong -- don't be afraid to ask questions, but also show initiative and look for answers on your own wherever you can (google is your friend!)
(5) Communicate! Be communicative about your achievements and your failures! We are all here to help each other to do good work.
(6) Learn a lot and have fun.
