The speech lab provides services and facilities to all researchers (including students) who need to do experiments with human participants. Note: If you are planning to apply for a research grant that involves using the lab, please contact the lab director before starting to draw up a budget.

History and location

The speech lab of the University of Amsterdam was first set up by the phoneticians in 1933, then reinstalled at new locations in 1966, 2006, 2016 and 2022. The present speech lab is located on the ground floor of the Bushuis (Kloveniersburgwal 48) in rooms F0.21 and F0.21A (behind the porter), and is currently part of the UvA Humanities Labs under the name “Speech Lab” or “Spraaklab”.

Services

The speech lab is managed by electronic and speech engineer Dirk Jan Vet, who guides the researchers in their quest for optimal implementation of their experiments and supervises the lab manager(s) and any research assistants. The tasks of the lab managers (currently Marloes Roosingh and Ray Pelupessy) is to test human participants, to annotate recordings, to analyze data, and to generally help researchers and participants in all kinds of matters. The scientific director of the lab is Paul Boersma, who is responsible for general guidance, finances, and this website.

Facilities

The speech lab is equipped with:

• two sound-treated rooms of approximately 3x3x3 metres, which can host multiple experimental configurations
• audio recording equipment
• EEG equipment
• eye trackers: a fixed one (Eyelink 1000), two mobile ones mounted on laptops (Tobii X3-120), and a wearable one (Tobii Pro Glasses 3)
• an ultrasound machine (Telemed Echo Blaster 128) with Articulate Assistant Advanced software
• an electroglottograph (EGG) device (Laryngograph)
• equipment for recording a child throughout the day (LENA, Language ENvironment Analysis, including shirts with pockets)
• neonatal hearing screening (Natus Echo-Screen)
• galvanic skin response
• blood flow (plethysmograph)
• several MIDI devices
• specialized hardware and specialized software created by Dirk Jan Vet

If you want to use any of these lab facilities, you can look into the calendar for when there are free time slots. For obtaining a license to reserve lab hours, contact technician Dirk Jan Vet.

Users

Researchers that you can find in the speech lab are mainly the UvA phoneticians, other members of the linguistics research institute ACLC, and sometimes members of the interfacultary research institute ILLC. The lab also occasionally hosts other researchers from the Faculty of Humanities (e.g. literature researchers and musicologists) and the University (e.g. developmental psychologists), and researchers from other universities.

Contact

The speech lab is generally managed by technician Dirk Jan Vet. For discussing how the lab will fit into your future grant proposal (which could have to finance new facilities and/or to help financing the services), contact the lab director Paul Boersma before starting to draw up a budget.