Dr Justin Lo and Dr Isobelle Clarke (Linguistics and English Language) are looking for participants for a new study exploring language and voice variation.

And, unusually for something described as “taking part in research”, this one really is quite short.

Participants will have three brief phone conversations with a member of the research team over the course of around two weeks. Each call lasts about one minute and involves acting out a short scripted scenario. So, in total, roughly three minutes of talking. If it helps to persuade you, that’s considerably less time than many automated phone systems spend assuring you that your call is really very important to them…

Anyway, the recordings will help the team investigate the different (and similar) ways that speakers use language and voice, with the longer-term aim of developing better ways of visualising this variation.

Who can take part?

The team is looking for people who:

• are 18 or over
• grew up in the UK
• speak English as a main language

Participants who complete the recordings will receive a £5 gift voucher as a thank-you for their time.

Interested?

You can find full information about the study and sign up here: https://bit.ly/MindViss. Alternatively, scan the QR code on the recruitment poster below. Questions about the study can also be directed to the research team using the contact details provided on the study information page. (See above link.)

Finally, please feel free to share this with others.