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.
Cognition and Language Laboratory
Director: Dr. Klara Marton (Room 7307)
Research in the Cognition and Language Laboratory focuses on the interaction among different cognitive functions and language processes in children and adults. The main goal is to examine how various cognitive functions, such as working memory, inhibition, and attentional capacity impact language comprehension and production in different populations. We examine specific executive function processes and consider how these develop in monolingual and bilingual individuals, how they may influence or be influenced by language processing, and how they are affected in specific clinical populations, such as children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). This research is based on behavioral testing including online tasks and neuropsychological measures.
Developmental Language Laboratory (Room 7410)
Director: Dr. Richard G. 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 Laboratory (Room 7392)
Director: Dr. Valerie Shafer
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
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 Laboratory (Room 7404)
Director: Dr. Loraine K. Obler
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). During Spring 2009, Neurolinguistics Laboratory meetings are held on Wednesdays from 11:30-1:30; in Fall, they will be held Thursday afternoons from 2-4. They are open to all.
Speech Acoustics and Perception Laboratory (Room 7303)
Director: Dr. Douglas Whalen
The goals of the Speech Production Lab (SProL) and the Speech and Acoustics Perception Lab (SAPL) are to understand the organization of the articulatory underpinnings of linguistic structure, to find the critical components of the acoustics for perceiving speech, and to explore the interrelationship between the two. Research in production currently focuses on examining tongue shape with ultrasound, tracking the movement of the jaw with both video and electro-articulometery data, measures to distinguish the speech of persons who stutter from those that do not, a physiological study of the Japanese nasal mora, and using electroglottography for feedback in second-language speech production. Research in perception has ongoing projects in the accessiblity of allophonic information in perception, perception of final stops by second-language speakers of English, and the calibration of synthetic vowel spaces to an assumed speaker vocal tract. Other projects are in the development phase.
Speech Production Laboratory (Room 7303)
Director: Dr. Douglas Whalen
The goals of the Speech Production Lab (SProL) and the Speech and Acoustics Perception Lab (SAPL) are to understand the organization of the articulatory underpinnings of linguistic structure, to find the critical components of the acoustics for perceiving speech, and to explore the interrelationship between the two. Research in production currently focuses on examining tongue shape with ultrasound, tracking the movement of the jaw with both video and electro-articulometery data, measures to distinguish the speech of persons who stutter from those that do not, a physiological study of the Japanese nasal mora, and using electroglottography for feedback in second-language speech production. Research in perception has ongoing projects in the accessiblity of allophonic information in perception, perception of final stops by second-language speakers of English, and the calibration of synthetic vowel spaces to an assumed speaker vocal tract. Other projects are in the development phase.