Project Description
Due to the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus, face masks are increasingly commonplace throughout the world (Matusiak et al., 2020). By obscuring the talker’s mouth and presenting a literal barrier for the speech signal, face masks could potentially make everyday communication more difficult, especially in noisy conditions. Indeed, prior work shows that face masks alter the acoustic signal (Bond et al., 1989; Fecher & Watt, 2011; Saeidi et al., 2016; Saigusa, 2017), reducing speech transmission by an estimated 3-4% (Palmiero et al., 2016); accordingly, we might predict that listeners will have more difficulty understanding people who are wearing masks. Only a handful of studies have previously investigated this issue; all of them used extremely small participant groups and their results are therefore inconclusive. The current research proposes a set of speech perception experiments, conducted entirely online in Qualtrics in order to maximize participation, that will assess the ability of American English listeners to understand speech produced by talkers wearing a face mask.
Tasks and Responsibilites
The student will be involved in several different aspects of the research. First, the student will be responsible for collecting high-quality recordings of speakers. Due to current health requirements, this will involve coaching speakers remotely about the recording set-up (positioning the microphone relative to the face mask, ensuring there is no background noise, etc) and delivering accurate instructions about how to speak (e.g., "read each sentence in a casual but clear manner"). The student will also be responsible for processing the recordings (e.g., cutting them into individual sound files, overlaying them with noise, etc). Second, the student will assist with recruiting and screening appropriate participants. Third, the student will build Qualtrics surveys which will allow the experiments to be run online; this process includes designing the logic of the experiment, adding the relevant structure to Qualtrics, uploading audio files to a server for access by Qualtrics, testing and refinement. Finally, the student will also be responsible for clean-up of the data we collect and, if desired, preparation of graphs and basic statistic analysis. The student will also have the opportunity to propose and develop their own related research project, if they desire.
Desired Qualifications
None Listed.