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AUDIOLOGY STUDENT RESEARCH
On May 3, 2012, students and faculty participated in a colloquium where the third-year
AuD students presented the results of their research projects. Each AuD student completes
a research project during the second and third years of study. The colloquium provided
a setting where students and faculty could discuss their research and share their
ideas on a variety of topics. Below is a brief synopsis of the research projects completed
this year.
Response Time and Confidence Ratings in Monosyllabic Word Recognition
Chantee Brakeville; Dr. Lisa Lucks Mendel, Research Advisor
This research investigated methods of assessing the effort required by a listener
during word recognition testing. The purpose was to study the relationships between
a listener’s response time (the time required for the listener to respond to the stimulus),
confidence rating (a self-assessment of the listeners’ confidence of the correctness
of their response), and confidence response time (the time required for the listener
to provide a confidence rating) when monosyllabic words were presented in quiet and
in noise. Results suggested that subjects take more time responding to difficult stimuli
and that their confidence in their responses accurately reflects their perception
of the stimulus item. In addition, this study also showed that as the difficulty of
the listening task increased, the subjects’ confidence rating time also increased.
Measures of Cochlear Efferent Activity and MP3 Player Music Exposure
Paul Carter; Dr. Shaum Bhagat, Research Advisor
The purpose of this study was to determine whether a significant correlation existed
between contralateral suppression of Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions (TEOAEs)
and a decrease in TEOAE amplitude after exposure to MP3 music. Twenty normal hearing
subjects were recruited for the project. TEOAEs were measured with and without contralateral
suppression before and after thirty minutes of MP3 music presented at 85 dBA. No significant
correlation was observed between contralateral suppression and decrease in TEOAE amplitude
after exposure to MP3 music.
Spanish Speech Recognition Threshold Test for the Pediatric Population
Rachel Elkins; Dr. Lisa Lucks Mendel, Research Advisor
Although most healthcare fields have sought out efficient methods to accommodate the
needs of non-English speaking patients, the field of audiology remains in need of
modernized methods for evaluating and assisting this client population. The purpose
of this study was to develop a Spanish Speech Recognition Threshold (SRT) Picture
Board test to be used with children aged 2 to 5 years. In addition, the goal was to
create a two-channel recording (Spanish stimulus item on Channel 1; English translation
on Channel 2) for ease of administration and scoring by monolingual clinicians who
may be unfamiliar with the Spanish language. Initial steps in test development were
completed as part of this project including the selection of stimulus items that were
considered to be familiar to children, the creation of pictures representing the stimuli,
and recognition of the pictures by Spanish-speaking children. The remaining steps
in test development (creating Spanish and English recordings of the stimuli and validating
the test on a Spanish-speaking pediatric population) will be completed in the coming
year as part of the second phase of this research.
VEMP - A Study on the Impacts of Gender and Height
Katie Isbell; Dr. Shaum Bhagat, Research Advisor
The purpose of this project was to examine the response amplitude differences on the
Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potential (VEMP) between 10 male and 10 female subjects
who had been matched for height. We also looked for a correlation between neck length
or height and amplitude or latency of the VEMP response. Results indicated that gender
had no impact on the overall amplitude of the VEMP response. No strong correlations
were found between height or neck length and amplitude or latency of the response.
It is possible that once a person reaches adult size, gender, height and neck length
have no impact on the VEMP response.
Word in Context Intelligibility Test (WICIT) Results Compared Between Children and
Young Adults
Elizabeth Meenen; Dr. Herbert J. Gould, Research Advisor
In this study we compared results on the Word in Context Intelligibility Test (WICIT)
between young adults and third grade children. Since the WICIT measures how well a
person utilizes the context of speech to decode the message, we were interested in
how sophisticated children are with this "top-down" processing ability. Our results
indicated that children have a lesser ability to utilize context to decode speech
in background noise compared to adults. In addition, we evaluated a modified testing
protocol that did not utilize the standard sound booth but instead a portable calibrated
testing protocol that was proven equivalent to previous testing methods. While much
research is still needed, this project provided a beginning step toward the use of
the WICIT as part of an Auditory Processing Disorder battery that can be given in
schools as a measure of top-down processing abilities in children.
An Assessment of the Validity of a Subjective Hearing Aid Verification Procedure
Whitney Vineyard; Dr. Robyn M. Cox, Research Advisor
The objective of this research was to determine if a structured subjective test battery
could be used to verify that a hearing aid was matching a prescription. Twenty subjects
were fit with test hearing aids that were programmed to their hearing loss, and a
subjective test battery was used to evaluate soft, average and loud sounds. In addition,
real ear measurements were taken to see how close the fitting came to matching the
prescription. Results from this study showed that a structured subjective test battery
can be used to verify that a hearing aid is working appropriately as a backup method,
in case a real ear system is unavailable.
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