Research in the Speech Perception and Cognition (SPAC) Lab seeks to understand how people successfully communicate in complex real-world listening environments.
Our work combines hearing science, cognitive psychology, language science, and quantitative modeling to identify the perceptual, cognitive, and behavioral mechanisms that support successful communication in older adults with hearing loss.
A central goal of our research is to bridge the gap between traditional laboratory studies of speech perception and the complexity of everyday communication. We develop experimentally controlled paradigms that progressively increase ecological validity while preserving the ability to identify the mechanisms underlying successful communication. This work provides the scientific foundation for future hearing technologies and communication interventions that respond to individual listeners’ needs in real-world situations.
Mechanisms of Speech Perception in Complex Listening Environments
Understanding speech in noise requires the interaction of multiple perceptual and cognitive processes. Our research investigates how acoustic cues, linguistic context, listening effort, and individual differences jointly contribute to successful speech understanding under adverse listening conditions.
Current topics include:
- Speech perception in background noise
- Listening effort and pupillometry
- Perceptual and cognitive interactions during speech processing
- Individual differences associated with hearing loss and aging
Discourse Comprehension and Continuous Speech Processing
Everyday communication involves understanding connected speech rather than isolated sentences. This line of research investigates how listeners integrate acoustic, semantic, and contextual information during continuous speech and conversation.
Using behavioral measures, pupillometry, and computational time-series analyses, we study how speech comprehension unfolds over time and identify the mechanisms that support successful communication in realistic listening environments.
Face-to-Face Communication and Visual Attention
Face-to-face communication depends on the continuous integration of auditory and visual information. We use AI-generated conversational agents together with eye tracking and pupillometry to investigate how listeners allocate visual attention during communication under adverse listening conditions.
Rather than studying audiovisual speech perception in isolation, our goal is to understand how gaze behavior and physiological responses contribute to successful communication in realistic face-to-face interactions.
Adaptive Communication Systems
Communication is a dynamic process that changes continuously as acoustic environments, conversational partners, and communication demands evolve. Our long-term research seeks to develop mechanistic models of adaptive communication by integrating behavioral, physiological, and computational approaches.
This work lays the foundation for future intelligent hearing technologies and AI-assisted communication systems capable of adapting to users’ moment-to-moment communication needs.