Brain Training to Improve Language Learning

Train your working memory and help scientists at the University of Maryland Center for Advanced Study of Language (CASL) learn how to help you learn and use foreign languages! You can receive $10 per hour of participation in this study, with participation time varying between 10 and 20 hours.

Working memory is what you use to store and process information in real time. You use working memory whenever you have to: focus, filter out distraction, switch between tasks, understand text or speech, or learn a new language.  CASL scientists have developed a training regime to train working memory.

What will you be asked to do?

The length of participation ranges from 9 hours to 19 hours, spaced over several weeks and multiple 1 and 2-hour sessions. During these sessions you will be asked to complete tasks of memory, reading, thinking, and problem solving.

To be eligible to participate:

•             You must be a Native English speaker between the ages of 18-40.

•             You must have normal, or corrected to normal, hearing and vision. 

•             You must have unimpaired use of your dominant writing hand.

•             You do not have a personal history of neurological, neuropsychiatric, psychiatric disorders, or learning disabilities.

•             You do not have a recent history of excessive alcohol consumption, drug use, or substance abuse.

The study will take place at the University of Maryland, College Park: Biology-Psychology Building, Benjamin Building, or Cole Fieldhouse

For more info, please contact: braintraining@umd.edu