Title: "Understanding difficulty: Indicators of cognitive demands during speech recognition"
Speaker: Stefanie Kuchinsky, Ph.D.
Date: Wednesday, February 19; 12-1 PM
Room: LeFrak Hall Room 0135
Abstract:
Listening to speech in challenging conditions often requires considerable focus of attention. Such attentional demands may lead to declines in recognition and/or increases in effort and fatigue, particularly for older adults with hearing loss. Previous research suggests that even when recognition for hearing-impaired and normal-hearing adults is similar, there may be important differences in the effort exerted to achieve that level of performance. In my research, I aim to identify the neural systems that support speech recognition as well as objectively quantify the cognitive effort associated with correctly identifying speech in challenging conditions. I will discuss how the results of these functional neuroimaging and pupillometry studies may bear on training interventions that aim to improve speech and language comprehension.
