Hearing-related Behavior and Its Relationship to Hearing Loss, Hearing Aid Use, and Social-emotional Health
Why are people with hearing loss at greater risk of depression and social isolation? How does hearing loss change how we engage with the world? Does hearing loss cause behavior changes that affect our social and emotional health? Can hearing aids limit behavior changes that reduce the risks of depression and social isolation in listeners with hearing loss? This study is investigating how auditory lifestyle and communication engagement changes with hearing loss and hearing aid use and the subsequent effects on mental health and well-being. This study is currently recruiting adults aged 55-85 with hearing loss who do and do not use hearing aids.
Perception of Environmental Soundscapes among Listeners with Hearing Loss
Hearing aids are designed to improve speech perception; this makes sense, as speech is a vitally important part of life that enables us to connect with others and effectively navigate the world. But many of the things we listen to in daily life are not speech-like the sounds of cities and nature. How does hearing loss affect how we perceive these sounds? Can hearing aids both limit the environmental sounds we may not enjoy while enhancing the sounds we might want to hear, like birdsong? This study is investigating how hearing loss and hearing aid use affect environmental sound perception and the impact on quality of auditory life. This study will be recruiting adult hearing aid users in the spring of 2025.
Listening to Speech in Real-world Noise
Every noisy place we encounter in the world is unique. Every cocktail party, restaurant, busy office environment, or even noisy home environments contain their own sounds, architectures, and contexts that make them unlike any other noisy place. How can we measure these unique factors and use them to better predict how individuals will hear in specific places? Can we bring the tests we traditionally use in audiology closer to the environments we experience in the real world? In this study, we are investigating how unique acoustic and non-acoustic properties of different soundscapes affect listening performance and developing ways to improve our predictions of how listeners will perform in real-world environments. This study is no longer recruiting.
Soundscape Experience and Listening Performance
What do people listen to in their daily lives? How do our experiences listening in the world affect how well we are able to listen? Can we get better at listening, especially in noisy places? This study is investigating what sounds comprise listeners’ lives and how the soundscapes listeners engage with in daily life affect their ability to listen efficiently in complex and noisy environments. This study is no longer recruiting.
Optimizing Presets for Over-the-counter Hearing Aids
Over-the-counter hearing aids recently became legal in the US and are on the market. But when someone buys an over-the-counter hearing aid, how do they fit it themselves? How can we make sure these hearing aids have the right settings for most users? This study is working to design and test gain-frequency settings for over-the-counter hearing aids and efficient methods for users to find their preferred setting. This study is no longer recruiting.
Sound Classification Using Machine Learning
In addition to human subjects research, our lab also works on new methods for analyzing real-world data, particularly audio recordings and ecological momentary assessment data. We are currently working to improve artificial intelligence approaches for classifying the soundscapes and communication behaviors of hearing aid users.