We are looking for volunteers aged 16-50, to take part in a study examining how the left and right sides of the brain are involved in language processing. We are particularly keen to recruit left-handed participants. You will receive Amazon vouchers or SONA credits for taking part.

Participants must have native level English proficiency, have normal or corrected-to-normal vision (with glasses or contact lenses), no history of significant hearing loss, and no history of neurological disease or developmental disorders such as dyslexia or dyspraxia. This study is not suitable for participants who are in a clinically vulnerable or shielded group, due to the face-to-face testing in Session 2.

In this study, participants will complete one, two or three sessions:

Session 1: online testing (all participants)
There will be a series of tasks, including questionnaires to assess handedness as well as behavioural tasks that involve judging materials (e.g. faces, words, sounds, pictures) displayed on a screen. For one task, we will ask you to name some pictures aloud, and we will make audio recordings of your voice. Participants can complete this at a quiet place of their choice using either a desktop or laptop computer. Participants need to have stereo headphones and a microphone to do one of the tasks. Also, there will be a motor task that requires keyboard responses using both hands. In total, this will last around 1-1.5 hours. When you complete Session 1, you will be given a completion code. You will need to email us this code in order to receive your payment (a £15 Amazon voucher).

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IMPORTANT: Once you open the link to Gorilla, you will have 3 hours to complete the tasks. You can do this any time before the participation deadline. The testing session should only take 1.5 hours in total, so you can take breaks between tasks. If you do not finish within 3 hours, we will be unable to reimburse you for your time.
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You can access session 1 using the following link: https://research.sc/participant/login/dynamic/22D4CB65-46B2-4F7B-9FD2-C04C0B8715AD?external_id=%SURVEY_CODE%

Session 2: face-to-face testing (half of all participants)
Participants will be required to travel to a testing site at either Oxford, Lincoln, Lancaster, London or Bangor for this session. Current NHS and government guidance on social distancing and use of PPE will also be followed at this session to protect both participants and researchers from COVID-19 infection/transmission. The session will involve wearing a headset with two ultrasound sensors, which measure the speed of blood flow to the brain during language tasks. This is a safe and non-invasive procedure. This will last up to 2 hours.

Session 3: repeated online testing (optional; some participants)
A small number of participants will be invited to complete session 3, where the online tests will be repeated. This will be online only and the procedure will be the same as Session 1, lasting 1-1.5 hours.

All participants will be asked to complete Session 1, and half of participants will be asked to complete Session 2. A small number of participants will be invited to complete session 3 – participation in this session is optional.

Please feel free to contact the researcher, Jack Grant at jack.grant@psy.ox.ac.uk, with any questions.