College of Communication
Communication Sciences & Disorders

The Speech Research Laboratory

The Speech Research Laboratory investigates speech perception and aims to improve speech recognition for adults with hearing loss. One line of research is focused on improving sentence-level speechreading abilities via computer-based training programs (funded by Butler University Holcomb Faculty Research Grant #027096). A secondary line of research is focused on the relative contribution of vowels and consonants to auditory-visual speech perception, for adults with normal hearing and adults with hearing loss (funded by an American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation Research Grant for New Investigators).

All persons affiliated with this lab work to create an atmosphere of respect for persons, and work to protect the rights and welfare of people who work as research participants in the Speech Research Laboratory.

Research participants are always needed!

We are always looking for adult listeners (18-70 years of age) with normal hearing or with hearing loss, to take part in our paid studies. Participants must have normal or corrected-to-normal vision, and be speakers of American English. The Speech Research Laboratory is located in Jordan Hall, room 248A. Free visitor parking is also available on campus, for study participants. In order to learn more about our ongoing work, please email Dr. Carrie Richie or call (317) 940-9493.

Current laboratory members

Carolyn Richie, PhD Director
crichie@butler.edu

Representative publications and presentations

Richie, C. (2007). The effects of visual-only speechreading training on speech recognition for adults with hearing loss. Presented at the 153rd meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Salt Lake City, UT, June.

Richie, C. (2005). The effects of speechreading training on viseme categories for vowels. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 118, 1963. Presented at the 150th meeting of the ASA, Minneapolis, MN, October.

Richie, C., and Kewley-Port, D. (2005). The effects of auditory-visual vowel and consonant training on speechreading performance, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 117, 2570. Presented at the 149th meeting of the ASA, Vancouver, BC, May.

Richie, C., and Kewley-Port, D. (2005). Vowel perception by noise masked normal-hearing young adults. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 118, 1101-1110.

Richie, C., and Kewley-Port, D. (2003). The effects of auditory and visual vowel training on speechreading performance, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 114, 2337. Presented at the 146th meeting of the ASA, Nashville, TN, November.

Richie, C., Kewley-Port, D., and Coughlin, M. (2003). Discrimination and identification of vowels by young, hearing-impaired adults. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 114, 2923 - 2933.

Davis, C., and Kewley-Port, D., and Coughlin, M. (2002). The time course of learning during a vowel discrimination task by hearing-impaired and masked normal-hearing listeners. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 111, 2426. Presented at the 143rd meeting of the ASA, Pittsburgh, PA, June.