[Nfbnet-members-list] National Convention Research Participation Request: Effects of visual experience on neurocognitive development

[David Andrews]

Subject: National Convention Research Participation Request: Effects 
of visual experience on neurocognitive development.



The below research participant solicitation is being provided for 
informational purposes only. The National Federation of the Blind has 
no involvement in this research, but we believe that it may 
contribute to our research mission.




Research Title: Effects of visual experience on neurocognitive development.



Being conducted by: Johns Hopkins University





Purpose of the Study

We are conducting multiple research studies at the NFB annual 
convention 2025. Some of our studies will examine Braille reading and 
language comprehension among people who are born blind. We have 
previously found that people who are born blind show advantages 
during sentence comprehension, such as listening to sentences twice 
faster than sighted people. We plan to test the hypothesis that this 
advantage is driven from better use of prosodic cues. We also plan to 
investigate if these advantages can be found in Braille reading 
during a more naturalistic approach.

Another set of studies aims to uncover the rich knowledge blind 
individuals have about vision, light, and color. It is sometimes 
assumed that blind individuals know little about vision and visual 
phenomena, such as color and light. In our previous work, we have 
found instead that blind and sighted people alike have rich visual 
knowledge. For example, blind and sighted people alike know that two 
bananas are likely to have the same color, whereas two cars are not. 
Blind and sighted people alike know that staring is long and intense, 
whereas peeking is brief and flashing is periodic, whereas glowing is 
continuous. Our current research is following up on these 
experiments, revealing more of what blind individuals know about 
so-called 'visual' phenomena.




Role of the Participants and Anticipated Length of the Study

The studies involve listening to short vignettes, listening to 
sentences, listening to tones, reading Braille, and answering 
questions. Each study takes approximately two hours.


Proposed Participant Compensation

Yes, Participants will be compensated with a $15 gift card for taking 
part in a phone screening interview to determine whether they 
qualify. Participants who take part in the actual studies will be 
compensated $30 per hour for their time.





Link or Instructions for Participants to Enter the Study

To find out if you qualify and to sign up for a study appointment, 
please contact us by either calling (410) 870-9895 or emailing 
<mailto:braillebrain at jhu.edu>braillebrain at jhu.edu

Participants will be compensated with a $15 gift card for taking part 
in a phone screening interview to determine whether they qualify.





Contact the following individual with any questions

Emily Silvano

4439911201

braillebrain at jhu.edu


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