Use of speech cues by older and younger listeners to understand speech and emotion

We are conducting a research study to determine how older and younger listeners use cues in speech to aid their understanding of speech and the emotions expressed by a speaker - are they for example happy, sad, angry, or anxious?  This knowledge will help us and others design better speech coding strategies for cochlear implants.

We are looking for adults aged between 65 and 78 years old who have normal hearing for their age.

You will be asked to the following:

• Participate in tests where you will be played sounds that have been processed to simulate a cochlear implant.
• In one test, you will be played sounds similar to musical notes and we will find the smallest difference in frequency that enables you to determine that one sound is different from another sound.
• In another test, you will be played sentences and you will be asked to repeat what you hear.
• In a a final test, you will be played sentences and asked whether you think the speaker was angry, sad, happy, anxious, or speaking in a neutral tone.

This study will be supervised by Dr Lendra Fiesen Ph.D.  You may have the results of any testing provided. There are no other direct benefits, but you will be helping us to learn about the ability of older adults to use speech cues. This could lead to the development of better cochlear implants. Participants will be paid $15/hour for any testing, $10/day for travel to the UCONN clinic.

For more information or to sign up, please contact Lendra Friesen.
Email: lendra.friesen@uconn.edu

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