A study conducted by psychology professor Terri Bonebright will look at the correlation between processes within the brain and the behavioral responses of the participant.
The study uses electroencephalography (EEG) to measure brain activity. The equipment consists of a net of 128 different electrodes with sponges on them.
"Four different computers are coordinating to run this software," senior psychology major Patrick Ledwidge, who has been involved in the study since this past summer, said.
In the study, Ledwidge and Bonebright are using the EEG to measure event-related potential.
"The great thing about it is that it's measuring brain activity at all times," Ledwidge said. "We have participants making certain behavioral responses."
Participants in the study, which is titled "An ERP study: does visual context affect the identification of sounds?" view a picture and a sound pair at the same time. They have to determine which category sound falls in correlation to the picture: exact same sound, similar sound or a completely different sound.
"Over time, we can average those brain responses to that specific stimulus," Ledwidge said.
As a result, the study looks at whether or not the brain recognizes that it is the wrong sound even if the participant thinks that it is the right sound.
The equipment used in the study, which costs around 150,000 dollars, is a loan from the University of Nebraska.
"It's so expensive that many schools like DePauw don't have the funds [for the equipment,]" Ledwidge said. "I think this a good example of the DePauw Liberal Arts education and what DePauw can really offer students. There'd be no way that we could learn this in the classroom."
In fact neither Ledwidge nor Bonebright could think of a similar school that also had the equipment available to them, but they both said that several larger schools have the equipment.
"I know, for example, that they just got one at IU a couple of years ago," Bonebright said.
The opportunity to actually use the equipment as an undergraduate student is even rarer than the possession of the equipment itself.
"The training to use it correctly is pretty intensive," Bonebright said. "If you don't know what all this equipment is doing, then, you're not going to be able to collect good data."
Junior Andres Munoz, who has been trained this semester to assist Bonebright in the study this summer, has also acted as a participant in the study.
"[Being a participant] can be sort of intimidating," Munoz said. "Part of the job of the researcher is to make sure that the subject has a good experience during the experiment."
According to Munoz, although the entire experiment only takes about 40 minutes, the most lengthly aspect of the experiment is putting on the net of electrodes.
Ledwidge believes that his involvement in this study has not only helped him get into graduate school, but also prepare him for future research. Munoz feels the same sentiment even though he is just beginning the process of participating in the research.
"I want to go to graduate school," Munoz said, "and having that research experience will help me a lot with that."