Focus of Lab

The overarching goal of the Speech Acoustics Lab is to contribute to our understanding of speech production characteristics, speech motor control, and motor speech disorders. Current projects of the Speech Acoustics Lab focus on task-elicited variations in speech that are hypothesized to reflect different communicative demands. In addition to acoustic examination of speech, more recently, the Speech Acoustics Lab has also developed a protocol for speech kinematic research with the use of the Wave electromagnetic articulograph speech research system (Northern Digital Inc.).

Personnel

Dr. Christina Kuo, Ph.D., Director

Lab Alumni

(listed in approximate order of lab involvement)

• Claudia Darden, B.S. (Class of 2019)
• Dana Butterfoss, B.S.
• Samantha King, B.S. (Class of 2018)
• Abigail Marodi, M.S. (Class of 2019)
• Pamela Molnar, B.S. (Class of 2018)
• Madeline Sova, M.S. (Class of 2018)
• Briana Susca, B.S. (Class of 2017)
• Casey Behre, B.S. (Class of 2017)

Current Projects

• Acoustic correlates of speaker variability and its role in speech motor control
• Speech acoustic and movement characteristics associated with Parkinson’s disease

Funding

Kuo, C. (Principal Investigator) & Barrett, M. “Characteristics and clinical correlates of speech impairment in Parkinson's disease.” 4-VA Collaborative Research Grant, May 2018- May 2020 ($18,000). Funded.

Completed Undergraduate Senior Honors Thesis

Cox, A. (2019) "Speech characteristics of conversational speech"

Molnar, P. (2018) "Speech characteristics during entrainment
*Molnar was the 2018 CSD Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research Recipient. Molnar also presented this work at the 2018 Convention of ASHA and was selected as a PROGENY (PROmoting the next GENeration of Researchers) participant.

Behre, C. (2017) "The relationship between fundamental frequency variation and articulation in healthy speech production"
*Behre was the 2017 CSD Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research Recipient. Behre also presented this work at the 2016 Convention of ASHA and was selected as a PROGENY (PROmoting the next GENeration of Researchers) participant.

Selected Conference Presentations

Asterisks (*) indicate student projects

Kuo, C. (2022, December). A descriptive study on the acoustic and kinematic characteristics of internal open junctures: Implications for highly intelligible individuals with Parkinson’s disease. Poster presented at 183rd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.A.

Kuo, C., Berry, J., & Barrett, M. (2022, February). Acoustic and kinematic vowel space areas associated with varied intelligibility. Poster presented at the Motor Speech Conference, Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.A.

Kuo, C., & Barrett, M. (2020, December). A pilot study on the acoustic characteristics of ambiguous sentences in highly intelligible individuals with Parkinson’s disease. Poster presented at Acoustics Virtually Everywhere Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), virtual.

Kuo, C., Barrett, M., Kim, Y., & Berry, J. (2020, February). Vowel production in three connected speech tasks by individuals with Parkinson’s disease: Preliminary findings. Poster presented at the Motor Speech Conference, Santa Barbara, California, U.S.A.

Kuo, C. (2018, November). Descriptive analysis of American English schwa distribution in the quadrilateral vowel space. Poster presented at the annual convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

*Molnar, P. & Kuo, C. (2018, November). Conversational speech characteristics during entrainment: A pilot study. Poster presented at the annual convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

Kim, Y., Thompson, A., Berry, J., Kuo, C. (2018, February). Articulatory kinematics during stop closure in speakers with Parkinson’s disease. Poster presented at the Motor Speech Conference, Savannah, Georgia, U.S.A.

Kim, Y., Berry, J., Kuo, C. (2017, July). Articulatory kinematics during stop closure in speakers with Parkinson’s disease: Preliminary data. Poster presented at the 7th International Conference on Speech Motor Control, Groningen, the Netherlands.

Kuo, C. (2017, June). Vowel contrasts relative to schwa across tasks: Preliminary findings for Parkinson’s disease. Poster presented at the 173rd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) and the 8th Forum Acusticum, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

Kuo, C. (2017, May). Characterizing task-based variations of vowels in Parkinson’s disease: Preliminary data. Poster presented at the 21st International Congress of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

*Behre, C. & Kuo, C. (2016, November). The relationship between fundamental frequency variation & articulation in healthy speech production. Poster presented at the annual convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

Kuo, C. & Weismer, G. (2016, May). American English schwa characteristics in the context of vowel reduction. Poster presented at the 171st Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A.

Kuo, C., Weismer, G. & Behre, C. (2015, May). The relationship between fundamental frequency and within-speaker vowel reduction. Poster presented at the 169th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.