401 Goodnight Hall @ 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
The monthly meeting of the DEIAB Committee is dedicated to discussing the latest developments, announcements, and updates across all our task forces. This meeting provides a platform for committee members to collaborate, share insights, and …
Ruth Litovsky, Ph.D.
62 Goodnight Hall @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Learn more about Prosem
Humans function best in their auditory environment when they successfully hear speech in noise, locate sound sources, and can engage neural mechanisms that reduce cognitive load demands. Individuals who are deaf and use cochlear implants are challenged by having limited access to acoustic cues, but they also benefit from access to sound in both ears, i.e., bilateral hearing. While bilateral hearing promotes benefit over one-ear (unilateral) hearing, there are many limitations that need to be addressed in order to promote greater success with cochlear implants. Many factors play a role in determining success for cochlear implant users, including neural health along the cochleae, how well patients integrate information across the two ears, neural plasticity, and recovery from auditory deprivation. Our studies use an array of methods to investigate these factors. This presentation will introduce results from studies on spatial hearing abilities, and the impact of using reverse engineering to design novel signal coding strategies for improving outcomes; studies on pupil dilation as an assay for cognitive load in noisy environments and the cost of integrating information from two ears; and eye gaze as measures of decision-making.
Emily Bagan, M.A., CCC-SLP
62 Goodnight Hall @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
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Despite ambiguity and variability in naturalistic environments, adults and children demonstrate a remarkable ability to learn words. Cross-situational word learning (CSWL) is a proposed mechanism for learning where individuals track co-occurrence probabilities to resolve word-referent ambiguity. One aspect of everyday linguistic environments – accented speech – has not yet been tested in the context of CSWL. Yet, learners are regularly faced with situations requiring them to learn words from diverse multilingual speakers, who often have accents. In a series of three experiments, we examine how monolingual English-speaking adults learn and retain novel words across native English-accented and Spanish-accented speech and different time scales. We find that adults can retain novel words learned in both the native and the Spanish-accented accent, and that the effects of accented speech on learning are moderated by both the cognitive load of the learning task, and the retention interval. These findings have implications both for models of learning and memory, and for structuring linguistic environments that are most conducive to learning.
Agudemu Borjigin, Ph.D.
Waisman Center @ 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Learn more about the Hearing and Donuts Seminar Series
Cochlear implants (CIs) are the most successful neural prostheses, restoring hearing for over a million individuals with severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss and enabling most recipients to achieve satisfactory speech intelligibility in quiet settings. However, CI users continue to face significant challenges in understanding speech in noisy, everyday environments. My primary research focuses on identifying the factors contributing to these listening difficulties and developing solutions to address them. Specifically, I have been investigating the potential benefits of incorporating temporal fine structure (TFS) encoding into CI sound coding strategies. TFS, a fundamental component of all sounds, is currently absent in most CI sound coding strategies. Beyond improving sound coding strategy by introducing TFS encoding, I have also explored deep learning-based approaches to eliminate noise interference before it reaches the sound coding stage of CIs. My work in enhancing both the sound coding and pre-processing stages has demonstrated significant improvements in the auditory capabilities of CI users. These advancements hold promise for informing the next generation of CI technology, aiming to provide CI users with a better auditory experience, particularly in complex and noisy listening environments.
Erik Jorgensen, Au.D., Ph.D., CCC-A
62 Goodnight Hall @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
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Self-report measures are a core tool for evaluating intervention effectiveness in speech and hearing science. Traditionally, these measures are implemented retrospectively, where individuals provide information about their behaviors and feelings during the past month or longer. There are inherent limitations to this approach due to biases in how individuals answer questions about their past. One increasingly popular method to address some of these limitations is to use ecological momentary assessment (EMA), where the behaviors and feelings of individuals are sampled frequently and repeatedly, yielding data with low recall bias and high context resolution. In this talk, I will provide an overview of EMA, including arguments for its feasibility and validity in speech and hearing science. The analyses of these data and the statistical benefits of repeated measures will be discussed. I will also review practical, logistical, and technological considerations for individuals looking to implement this method in their own work. Finally, I will present some of my lab’s recent work using EMA to measure fatigue among adolescents who are hard of hearing and to try and improve predictions of real-world speech-in-noise perception.
Waisman Center @ 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Learn more about the Hearing and Donuts Seminar Series
TBA
@ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
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Final Steps. Examples of Personal Statements & Resumes
In Person & Virtual Options @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
TBA
@ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Learn more on our Canvas page
Certificates, Double Majors, and CSD Scheduling
401 Goodnight Hall @ 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Our upcoming Faculty Discussion Group meeting this spring would be focusing on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Accessibility and Belonging (DEIAB) themes. This session is part of our initiative to engage faculty and staff in meaningful …