Internship Report

Internship Report

Source: https://www.kellyservices.ca/ca/contentassets/b09e7bc19029447caca2c6dfffc92388/sm-aug-2019-dyslexia.jpg

MA Neurolinguistics Faculty of Arts University of Groningen

Student: I.S. Boonstra Student number: 2355868 Internship Supervisor: A. Salcic, MSc

Date: July 19

, 2020

Index

1. Introduction page 2

2. Internship page 3

3. Evaluation page 3

4. Literature page 5

5. Appendices page 6

1. Introduction Institution

For the Master program of Neurolinguistics 2019/2020, I did an internship facilitated by the Faculty of Arts, University of Groningen. This internship covered an EEG-testing experiment, which took place in an ERP-lab in the Harmonie building. Due to the COVID-19 crisis we had to continue our internship activities at home from March onward.

Assignment

Together with two fellow Neurolinguistics master students – Iris Janssen and Michelle Warta – I assisted PhD candidate A. Salcic in her PhD research on dyslexia in adults. The main internship assignment was to administer EEG-experiments in the ERP-lab. Other important activities which were part of the internship were making the participants feel comfortable in the ERP-lab, creating test stimuli for the experiment and collecting data.

Goals of internship

The primary goal of the internship was to learn how to perform an EEG-experiment as

accurately and professionally as possible. It was important that we learned how to carry out diagnostic

dyslexia tests on participants with and without dyslexia, and how to make them feel comfortable in

the lab while participating in an experiment. Our aim was gathering data for research on dyslexia in

adults.

2. Internship

I was assisting PhD candidate A. Salcic in her research on dyslexia in Dutch adults. Together with two other students of the master Neurolinguistics, I administered EEG-experiments in the ERP- lab. We had to make sure that the ERP-lab and all the tools that were needed for the experiment (the EEG-cap, the syringe with the gel, the computer, the testing-documents, etc.) were in place before the experiment started. In addition, we needed to make the participants feel comfortable in the lab.

Furthermore, outside of the ERP-lab, we needed to create test stimuli which could be used in an experiment with grammatical and ungrammatical sentences. Other tasks that were part of the internship consisted of analysing the test results of participants, and analysing spoken data in a Dutch program called PRAAT.

3. Evaluation

This internship in the ERP-lab has taught me many new things and improved certain academic skills, such as gathering data academically and using that data adequately. I think I have reached the most important learning goals of this internship: performing an EEG-experiment and working professionally with participants in the ERP-lab. Moreover, I acquired more knowledge about how to work with Survey Monkey and Qualtrics. I administered quite some diagnostic dyslexia tests to adults with and without dyslexia, so that is one skill I really developed during this internship.

Furthermore, I learned how to work with an EEG-cap: applying the cap to the head, applying the gel which is used for conducting the brain waves from the cap into the computer, and reading the information from the brain which was translated onto the computer.

Unfortunately, I was unable to spend more time in the ERP-lab because of the COVID-19 crisis. I really liked the practical side of the internship: talking to the participants, making them feel comfortable in the lab, administering the EEG-experiment and working with Aida, Iris and Michelle in real life.

I hope that I have made a positive contribution to Aida’s PhD research and that I, together with Iris and Michelle, have been supportive of Aida during her research in the ERP-lab.

During the premaster and the first semester of the master Neurolinguistics, I had already

learned much about dyslexia in adults. In the dyslexia class, we had become familiar with diagnostic

dyslexia tests from the GL&SCHR (Depessemier & Andries, 2009). Still, a considerable amount of

new information was presented to me during the internship, as the internship was much more practical

and teaching us how to use an EEG-cap.

This internship has had a positive influence on my perspective for my future. I did not really know what to expect of the internship before I started, but along the way I have learned many new things and it has encouraged and motivated me to look for a career in this direction. I may decide to look into jobs in helping children or adults with dyslexia, or other language impairments. The internship in the ERP-lab prepared me for my professional career in different ways: I was taught how to work with participants professionally, and the ins and outs in a research lab were shown to be by my internship coordinator, Aida Salcic.

Personally, I experienced the collaboration with Aida Salcic, Iris Janssen and Michelle Warta as very positive. Our contact was really pleasant, and it was productive to collaborate in this internship. Whenever I was having a problem – regarding the data or my motivation – I could contact them, and they would always try to help me out and support me.

I would like to end this internship report by thanking Aida Salcic, Iris Janssen and Michelle

Warta for their support and companionship during this internship.

4. Literature

Badian, N. A. (1993). Phonemic awareness, naming, visual symbol processing, and reading. Reading and Writing, 5(1), 87-100.

Cantiani, C., Lorusso, M. L., Guasti, M. T., Sabisch, B., & Männel, C. (2013). Characterizing the morphosyntactic processing deficit and its relationship to phonology in developmental dyslexia. Neuropsychologia, 51(8), 1595-1607.

De Bree, E., Rispens, J., & Gerrits, E. (2007). Non word repetition in Dutch children with (a risk of) ‐ dyslexia and SLI. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 21(11-12), 935-944.

Depessemier, P., & Andries, C. (2009). GL&SCHR: dyslexie bij+ 16-jarigen: test voor Gevorderd Lezen & SCHRijven. Garant.

Dollaghan, C., & Campbell, T. F. (1998). Nonword repetition and child language impairment. Journal

of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 41(5), 1136-1146.

Gathercole, S. E., & Baddeley, A. D. (1989). Evaluation of the role of phonological STM in the development of vocabulary in children: A longitudinal study. Journal of memory and language, 28(2), 200-213.

Heitmann, R. R., Asbjørnsen, A., & Helland, T. (2004). Attentional functions in speech fluency disorders. Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology, 29(3), 119-127.

Kuperman, V., & Van Dyke, J. A. (2011). Effects of individual differences in verbal skills on eye- movement patterns during sentence reading. Journal of memory and language, 65(1), 42-73.

Leikin, M., & Bouskila, O. A. (2004). Expression of syntactic complexity in sentence comprehension:

A comparison between dyslexic and regular readers. Reading and Writing, 17(7-8), 801-822.

Nag, S., Snowling, M. J., & Mirković, J. (2018). The role of language production mechanisms in children's sentence repetition: Evidence from an inflectionally rich language. Applied Psycholinguistics, 39(2), 303-325.

Papageorgiou, C., Giannakakis, G. A., Nikita, K. S., Anagnostopoulos, D., Papadimitriou, G. N., &

Rabavilas, A. (2009). Abnormal auditory ERP N100 in children with dyslexia: comparison with their control siblings. Behavioral and Brain Functions, 5(1), 26.

Ramus, F., Rosen, S., Dakin, S. C., Day, B. L., Castellote, J. M., White, S., & Frith, U. (2003).

Theories

of developmental dyslexia: insights from a multiple case study of dyslexic adults. Brain, 126(4), 841-865.

Schatschneider, C., Fletcher, J. M., Francis, D. J., Carlson, C. D., & Foorman, B. R. (2004).

Kindergarten prediction of reading skills: A longitudinal comparative analysis. Journal of

educational psychology, 96(2), 265.

Van Bon, W. H., & Van Der Pijl, J. M. (1997). Effects of word length and wordlikeness on pseudoword

repetition by poor and normal readers. Applied Psycholinguistics, 18(1), 101-114.

5. Appendices

Appendix A – Example of stimuli

Long Grammatical Subject SG De kandidaat is zeer euforisch, omdat hij het goede antwoord op de laatste vraag raadt in de spelshow.

Subject PL De atleten zijn erg fit, omdat ze elke dag tien kilometer op een hoog tempo rennen op de atletiekbaan.

Ungrammatica l

Subject SG *De kandidaat is zeer euforisch, omdat hij het goede antwoord raden op de laatste vraag in de spelshow.

Subject PL *De atleten zijn erg fit, omdat ze elke dag tien kilometer op een hoog tempo rent op de atletiekbaan.

Short Grammatical Subject SG Mijn opa hoest heel vaak, omdat hij elke dag een pijp rookt in de woonkamer.

Subject PL De jongen voelt zich verantwoordelijk, omdat hij voor de eerste keer vrijwillig de stemmen telt voor de verkiezingen.

Ungrammatica l

Subject SG *Mijn opa hoest heel vaak, omdat hij elke dag een pijp roken in de woonkamer.

Subject PL *De jongen voelt zich verantwoordelijk, omdat hij voor de eerste keer vrijwillig de stemmen tellen voor de verkiezingen.

Appendix B – Diary

Month Hours

December 2019 2

January 2020 7.50

February 2020 49.50

March 2020 61.50

April 2020 48.50

May 2020 68.50

June 2020 42.50

July 2020 1.50

Total 281,25