Talk like a dalek: 9-14 year old participants wanted for study on communication strategies in noise

This research study will explore how children and young people adapt their speech when they have to communicate through a barrier of noise or distortion.

In order to investigate this, two participants will be recorded whilst they are sitting in different rooms and communicate via headsets.

Their task is to play a spot the difference game. During some of the games background noise is present or the speech of one of the participants is distorted, making him/her sound 'like a dalek'. This usually leads to a fair amount of giggling!

A demo of the research was given at the 2011 Royal Society Summer show, and was enjoyed by young and older visitors.

We are looking for 9-14 year old volunteers who can team up with a friend and take part in two recording sessions of around 2 hours (including breaks). Participants should be monolingual and should not have a statement of special educational needs.

We pay travel costs and participants receive gift vouchers for taking part. Sessions can be scheduled after school, during INSET days, Saturdays or holidays.

If you can help with this, please contact Michèle Pettinato.

View the project website here.

This study has been approved by the UCL Research Ethics Committee (0534/002).

Dr Michèle Pettinato, Research Associate, UCL Speech, Hearing and Phonetic Sciences