IRVINE : Silence Put to Test on SAT Scores

A woman who makes her living helping people hear wants to plug up the ears of a few high school students.

It’s part of an experiment to determine the effect of complete silence on the Scholastic Aptitude Test scores of local students, who are taking the test next month.

Michele Wilson, an Irvine audiologist and speech pathologist, is following up on the doctoral dissertation she made while studying at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., where she earned a Ph.D. in audiology.

But her real inspiration is her son Roger, an 18-year-old University High School student who scored 80 points higher on the SAT after retaking the exam wearing earplugs. She tried the experiment on some of his friends and found similar results. She is now looking to recruit about 100 students for her study.

“My theory is that noise distraction is a neurological process,” Wilson said. “It’s not something to which we can say: ‘Now don’t pay attention to this background noise.’ ”

Wilson is recruiting high school students who have already taken the SAT test so she can compare before and after scores.

Because Wilson is receiving no grant funding for the study, she is charging students $25 each for a set of custom-molded earplugs they will keep after the experiment is over. Westone Laboratories of Colorado Springs, Colo., will supply the plugs, which normally cost $50 to $60 when molded for a specific individual, Wilson said.

“I’m not making money on this,” she said.

Information: (714) 857-6051.