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University of Arizona
Department
of Speech, Lang., & Hearing Sciences
Lab:
Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience Experience (ACNE)
Lab
Director: Dr. Andrew J. Lotto
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Lexical
System
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Acoustical
Influences: Spectrogram
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My role:
I am currently conducting research
with Dr. Andrew Lotto on general auditory context effects. As part of my studies, I am
responsible for conducting literature reviews and reading assigned articles
regarding this topic. I am also
helping to design an experiment that will examine normal hearers’
shifts in perceptual responses following the presentation of preceding
sounds. I will be responsible
for recruiting subjects, collecting/entering/analyzing data for this
project. In addition to this
study, I am also working as a graduate assistant in Dr. Lotto’s
Auditory Cognitive Science Lab.
I am responsible for conducting literature reviews and writing
summaries on a variety of topics related to Auditory Cognition as well as
providing general clerical duties, such as making copies, running errands,
retrieving books/articles from the library, etc. I am an active member in regularly
scheduled lab meetings and journal discussion groups.
Project:
A General Auditory Explanation for Lexical (i.e., TRACE model) Context
Effects
In
1988, Elman and McClelland presented data suggesting that context effects
can be triggered by “illusory phonemes.” In their study, listeners were asked
to participate in a phoneme identification task whereby context words
(e.g., “foolish” and “Christmas”) were followed by
a target sound (an ambiguous /t/-/k/ or /d/-/g/). Manipulations were made to the final
sound of the context word to create an intermediate
“sh”/”s” sound. The TRACE model was then used to
accurately predict listeners’ phoneme identification shifts, through
the use of top-down lexical influences. However, there may be a simpler
explanation for these findings, one that relies on general auditory
contrast effects like those obtained by Lotto and Kluender (1998). This study tests whether acoustic
characteristics of the context words, as opposed to the linguistic content,
can account for the findings.
Elman &
McClelland (1988) paper
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University of Arizona
Department
of Speech, Lang., & Hearing Sciences
Lab:
Voice Lab
Lab
Director: Dr. Julie Barkmeier-Kraemer
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Larynx
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Nerve Cells
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My role:
In the Spring of 2007, I was a
research assistant in Dr. Barkmeier-Kraemer’s lab. Her research focuses on normal and
abnormal laryngeal neuroanatomy and physiology. I digitized, montage, and code
images of nerve cells. This
work requires a lot of patience and attention to detail.
Project:
Relationship Between Laryngeal Motor/Sensory Nerve Structures &
Laryngeal Movement
Past
research that has led up to the current project involved comparing the
morphology of the left recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) to the left flexor
hallicus longus nerve in canine cadavers. This work motivated additional
studies of the connective tissue that covers the right and left RLN in
human cadavers. The aim of this
research is to help us better understand the factors related to
“idiopathic” nerve dysfunction, which occurs in 30% of cases of
unilateral vocal fold paralysis.
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University of Arizona
Department
of Speech, Lang., & Hearing Sciences
Lab:
Auditory Lab
Lab
Director: Dr. Ted Glattke
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OAE
Graphic
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OAE Test
Results
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My Role:
In
the Fall of 2006, I conducted an independent study with Dr. Ted Glattke on
otoacoustic emissions (OAEs).
As part of my studies, I conducted a literature review and read a
number of articles on the topic.
I also received hands-on training at performing different OAE
tests. I was oriented to the
OEA test equipment as well as trained to read/interpret the resultant
emission reports.
Project:
Otoacoustic Emissions Independent Study
My
independent study with Dr. Ted Glattke involved conducting a number of
evoked OAE tests on adult subjects and then analyzing the resulting
emissions. Otoacoustic
emissions (OAEs) are sounds generated by the ear itself (specifically, by
the outer hair cells of the cochlea).
OAEs were first reported by Kemp in 1978. While they are sometimes produced
spontaneously, they are usually evoked in the clinical/research
setting. Otoacoustic emission
testing is typically used as a clinical tool to assess auditory function of
the cochlea. OAE testing does
not require active involvement from the individuals being tested, making it
a particularly useful test when assessing infants (and adults, for that
matter). During OAE assessment,
a small probe is inserted into the ear canal. The probe contains a loudspeaker
that generates test sounds (either transient clicks or pairs of sounds that
differ in frequencies, depending on the type of OAE test) as well as a
microphone that measures the resulting OEAs. The OEA test results are then
digitized and analyzed.
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University of Arizona
Department
of Speech, Lang., & Hearing Sciences
Lab:
Speech Acoustics Lab (SAL)
Lab
Director: Dr. Brad Story
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Vocal Tracts
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Gender Differences
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My role:
In the Spring of 2005, I conducted a
speech analysis project under the supervision of Dr. Brad Story. I contributed to this project by
recruiting subjects (male and female adults with normal speech and hearing
capabilities). I helped Dr.
Story record speech samples (vowels) from these subjects and then we acoustically
analyzed their fundamental frequencies (f0).
Project:
Relationship Between Fundamental Frequency (f0), Gender, & Vocal Tract
Dr.
Story’s research focuses on the use of computer models to aid our
understanding of how the shapes, sizes, and movements of both the voice source
components and the vocal tract contribute to the sounds of speech. His lab is set up for recording and
analyzing acoustic, aerodynamic, and glottographic signals. In Addition, Dr. Story is conducting
a long-term project in volumetric (structural) imaging of the vocal tract
shape using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In this particular study, the
acoustic properties (namely fundamental frequency) of male and female
vowels were compared to physical vocal tract characteristics.
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