Florida State University’s School of Communication Science & Disorders Assistant Professor Kaitlin Lansford, is being recognized by the ASHFoundation, an extension of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

Lansford will receive the 2014 New Century Scholars Research Grant for her proposal entitled “Use of Crowdsourcing to Assess the Ecological Validity of Perceptual Learning Paradigms in Dysarthria.” The $10,000 grant is designed to advance the knowledge base in communication science and disorders. Lansford worked with student Lukas Bystricky, who programmed the experiment and helped set up the crowdsourcing element.

“Crowdsourcing websites, such as Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, offer behavioral researchers a promising platform for the collection of perceptual data,” shared Lansford.  “It is my hope that through the use of crowdsourcing, this research will establish the ecological validity of listener-based interventions for spouses or caregivers of persons with dysarthria whom are not candidates for traditional speech therapy.”

“They are very selective awards,” said Hugh Catts, Director of the School of Communication Science & Disorders.

For more on Lansford and her recent awards, click here.