Research Labs
 

Audiology & Auditory Evoked Potentials Laboratory  (Room 7401)
Director: Dr. Brett Martin

Research in this laboratory focuses on behavioral and neurophysiologic processing of auditory information, especially speech.

Developmental Language Lab   (Room 7410)
Director: Dr. Richard Schwartz
Lab Meetings:

The goal of the Developmental Language Laboratory is to understand the nature and underlying causes of childhood language impairments. To this end, we study the relationship between speech perception, the processing of language, and the brain mechanisms underlying language processing in production in young children acquiring language typically and atypically.

Developmental Neurolinguistics Lab   (Room 7392)
Director: Dr. Valerie Shafer
Lab Meetings: 

The goal of the Developmental Neurolinguistic Lab is to understand the relationship between language and brain development, and later brain organization. Research projects are in progress that use electrophysiological methods to examine brain processes. An understanding of the relationship between language and brain development and later brain organization will help explain the nature of developmental language disorders.

Hearing Science Lab   (Room 7402)
Director: Dr. Glenis Long
Lab Meetings: 

Research in this laboratory attempts to improve our understanding of the role of the cochlear (inner ear). Otoacoustic emissions (sounds generated by the cochlea) are used a noninvasive tool for investigation of cochlear mechanics. This research is combined with psychoacoustic research to better understand the perceptual consequences of cochlear nonlinearity and distortion. The laboratory is fully equipped to synthesize, record and analyze acoustic stimuli. The experimental research is conducted along with the development of computer simulations of cochlear mechanics.

Neurolinguistics Lab   (Room 7404)
Director: Dr. Loraine K. Obler
Lab Meetings:

In this Laboratory work is conducted on bilingualism and bidialectalism in aphasia, morphological disorders in agrammatic aphasia across languages, processes involves in reading in normals and dyslexics, and language changes associated with healthy aging and dementia (e.g., the ability to comprehend accented speech).  The Neurolinguistics Laboratory meetings are held Thursday mornings during the school year and are open to all.  The laboratory currently sponsors two open study-groups as well, one on Bilingualism and one on writing up one's dissertation.

Speech Acoustics and Perception Lab   (Room 7303)
Director: Dr. Winifred Strange
Co-Investigator: Dr. James J. Jenkins Professor Emeritus
Lab Meetings: 

Research in this laboratory is concerned with understanding the nature of the acoustic structure of speech and how it is perceived by normal hearing adults. A central emphasis of this research is the investigation of speech materials that more closely resemble "real world" utterances, i.e., continuous speech utterances in which phonetic segments are co articulated within a prosodic structure. Another theme is the investigation of cross-language differences in speech production (as examined by acoustical analysis) and speech perception. A major project, funded by NIDCD, investigates the cross-language differences in production and perception of vowels of American English, Danish, German, French, and Japanese. Other projects examine perception and production patterns of adult second-language learners of English (native speakers of Haitian Kreyol, Russian, Spanish, and Hebrew). Finally, experiments are currently underway which examine similarities and differences in perception of speech and meaningful (environmental) non-speech acoustic signals.

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 Research Participants Needed!