The work of the Speech Perception and Cognition Research Lab is motivated by the overarching goal of improving speech communication ability in older adults. Speech communication, the ability to engage in conversation and communicate with others in social scenarios, is a crucial component in older adults’ social participation and directly impacts their psychosocial well-being. We know a common complaint from many older individuals is difficulty in perceiving speech under adverse conditions, such as in noisy environments or in group conversation. This problem is also exacerbated by multiple health issues, such as age-related hearing loss and cognitive impairment.

The research in our lab addresses this problem based on multiple lines of work:

  • Perceptual mechanisms in older adults’ speech perception under adverse conditions and the variability across individual listeners
  • Interplay between hearing loss and cognitive difficulty in the aging cohort and its impact on clinical service
  • Speech perception outcome measures that capture online processing of speech with fine-grained time sensitivity

Learn more about the Speech Perception and Cognition Research Lab.

Director 

Jing Shen

Assistant Professor
Communication Sciences and Disorders
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Office
Weiss Hall 145