SUMMARY STATEMENT 

PROGRAM CONTACT: ( Privileged Communication ) Release Date: 02/21 /2019 

Revised Date: 

Application Number: 1 R21 DC018070-01 

Principal Investigator 

MUNSON, BENJAMIN R 

Applicant Organization: 

Review Group: LCOM 

Language and Communication Study Section 

Meeting Date: 02/11/2019 

Council: MAY 2019 

Requested Start: 06/01 /2019 

RFAIPA: PA18-489 

PCC: HROS 

Project Title: 

SRG Action: 

Next Steps: 

Human Subjects: 

Animal Subjects: 

Gender: 

Minority: 

Children: 

Project 

Year 

1 

2 

Dual /C{s): MD 

Race, Ethnicity, and Speech Intelligibility in Normal Hearing and Hearing 

Impairment 

Impact Score:13 Percentile:3 + 

Visit https://grants.nih.gov/grants/next_steps.htm 

30-Human subjects involved - Certified, no SRG concerns 

10-No live vertebrate animals involved for competing appl. 

1A-Both genders, scientifically acceptable 

1A-Minorities and non-minorities, scientifically acceptable 

3A-No children included, scientifically acceptable 

Direct Costs 

Requested 

ADMINISTRATIVE BUDGET NOTE: The budget shown is the requested budget and has not been adjusted 

to reflect any recommendations made by reviewers. If an award is planned, the costs will be calculated by 

Institute grants management staff based on the recommendations outlined below in the COMMITTEE 

BUDGET RECOMMENDATIONS section.

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1 R21 DC018070-01 2 LCOM 

MUNSON, B 

1R21DC018070-01 Munson, Benjamin 

RESUME AND SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION: This application proposes a project to develop a large, 

racially and ethnically diverse corpus of audio-visual (AV) speech stimuli and to examine the effects of 

speaker race and ethnicity on speech intelligibility for normal hearing (NH) and hearing impaired (HI) 

adults. This project addresses an interesting and important issue, and if successful would provide much 

needed information on whether the impact of race/ethnicity on intelligibility is due to hearing impairment 

or age. This project would also produce a valuable, innovative corpus. The investigative team is 

outstanding and has the needed expertise for this project. The approach is excellent, with careful 

attention to important details and a strong recruitment plan. The direct comparison of expectationdriven and prediction-driven hypotheses and the use of eye-tracking were noted as particular strengths. 

The panel noted minor weaknesses, including that potential difficulties with AV speech by older adults 

is not sufficiently addressed and that young adults with hearing loss are excluded. Overall, this is an 

innovative and interesting project addressing a needed area using a rigorous approach, and it is likely 

to have a high impact on the field. 

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Hearing impairment (HI) affects a large proportion of older 

adults: 25% of 65-74 year olds, and 50% of people 75 and older have a HI that is sufficiently severe to 

be disabling [36,42]. The primary complaint of individuals with HI is difficulty understanding speech. 

Suboptimal speech communication by people with HI is a likely reason why they suffer from broader 

behavioral and physical health problems [35,53]. Understanding the factors that affect speech 

perception by people with HI, and finding methods to overcome the speech perception difficulties that 

these individuals face, is of great societal importance. Because of changing US demographics, 

communication between older individuals with HI and younger individuals—including those in 

caregiving and service-delivery roles—is increasingly likely to be between individuals of different races 

and ethnicities [44,54]. This presents a potential unique problem to individuals with HI. Research has 

shown that a talker's speech can become less intelligible to normal hearing (NH) individuals when they 

become aware of a talker's race or ethnicity by seeing a picture of the talker [6,37,48]. Given ongoing 

demographic changes, these findings have potentially profound implications for our understanding of 

speech perception by older adults with HI, as their communication with younger individuals is likely to 

be across lines of race and ethnicity. This may provide an additional challenge to speech perception 

beyond the challenge posed by the sensory loss itself. The proposed project seeks to remove two 

barriers to conducting large-scale studies of effects of race and ethnicity on speech perception by older 

adults with HI. One barrier is that there are no existing audiovisual corpora of speech stimuli that are 

produced by ethnically and racially diverse individuals. In specific aim 1, we will build a new corpus of 

audiovisual speech stimuli produced by individuals from diverse races and ethnicities. This corpus will 

include both standard-of-care sentences used in research on HI [26], and a new set of sentence 

materials designed specifically for this project. This corpus will be made available to the public at the 

conclusion of funding. The second barrier is that the previous studies have not determined the specific 

mechanism that explains why talker race and ethnicity affect speech intelligibility. In specific aim 2, we 

will use stimuli from specific aim 1 in a series of intelligibility experiments with younger listeners with 

NH, older listeners with NH, and older listeners with HI, using both behavioral and eye-tracking 

responses. We will also collect information on individuals' attitudes toward individuals of different races 

and ethnicities, as well as the ethnic and racial diversity in their peer groups. Results from this specific 

aim will help us better understand the mechanisms that underlie effects of race and ethnicity on speech 

intelligibility, and whether the speech perception of older adults with HI is disproportionately poorer in 

interactions with racially and ethnically diverse interlocutors. Given ongoing demographic changes and 

the high incidence of hearing impairment, these results will be of high 

PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Recent research has shown that speech intelligibility can change 

when a listener becomes aware of a talker's race and ethnicity. This project will build a corpus of 

audiovisual speech stimuli produced by ethnically and racially diverse talkers, determine the locus of 
1 R21 DC018070-01 3 LCOM 

MUNSON, B 

effects of talker race and ethnicity effects on speech intelligibility, and determine the extent to which 

talker race and ethnicity affect speech perception by older listeners with hearing impairment (HI). Given 

the large percentage of the population that has HI (50% of people over 75), and the large and growing 

percentage of the US population of the US that is Latinx (~17%) and non-white (~37%), these findings 

are of great public health relevance. 

CRITIQUE 1 

Significance: 2 

Investigator(s): 1 

Innovation: 1 

Approach: 3 

Environment: 1 

Overall Impact: This application addresses a significant public health issue – difficulty understanding 

speech in individuals with hearing impairment, which can contribute to poor health. The proposal has 

two elements: 1) to create a novel audiovisual corpora of speech stimuli produced by speakers that are 

ethnically and racially diverse, which does not currently exist and 2) to assess intelligibility using these 

stimuli with younger and older individuals with and without hearing impairment. This will provide key 

information about whether previously reported poor performance in older individuals with hearing 

impairment once they are aware of a speakers’ different race/ethnicity is a function of age or a function 

of hearing impairment. This work addresses potential increased communication challenges with an 

aging population with hearing impairment and shifting sociodemographics. 

1. Significance: 

Strengths 

• This application addresses a significant public health issue – difficulty understanding speech in 

individuals with hearing impairment, which can contribute to broader social-emotional and 

physical health problems. 

• In anticipation of increasing interaction across racial and ethnic groups, exploring the underlying 

factors on speech intelligibility are critical. 

• Audiovisual signals may provide rich information to the listener, and can potentially ameliorate 

some of the effects of HI by showing visible speech articulation. 

Weaknesses 

• If older adults with HI show poorer comprehension with speakers from different ethnic/racial 

backgrounds, it is not immediately clear how this is remediated. 

2. Investigator(s): 

Strengths 

• The Investigator has an impressive record of productivity in a range of areas of study relevant to 

the current proposal. 

• The Investigative team have a set of strengths well suited to the proposed work. Among them: 

Dr. Oxenham with speech intelligibility in populations with hearing loss, including cochlear 

implants and Dr. Nelson in evaluation and development of tests to measure speech recognition 

in those with hearing loss. 

• Consultants include Dr. Winn, who has expertise in eye tracking and pupillometry necessary for 

the project; Dr. Simpson brings experience about implicit attitudes and their impact on behavior 
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MUNSON, B 

and Dr. Davies-Venn a background working with individuals with hearing impairments, 

particularly health outcomes. Dr. Davies-Venn will also assist in recruiting older adults with HI. 

Dr. Babel will assist in development of materials and testing of AV stimuli. 

Weaknesses 

• No major weaknesses noted. 

3. Innovation: 

Strengths 

• Assesses speech intelligibility deficits due to social factors, a novel area of study. 

• A corpus of AV speech that has speakers of different racial and ethnic backgrounds allows for 

an assessment of the assumption that AV speech is better than A speech in degraded listening 

conditions. 

Weaknesses 

• No major weaknesses noted. 

4. Approach: 

Strengths 

• A corpus of speech stimuli produced by speakers that are ethnically and racially diverse does 

not currently exist. This is a meaningful resource that will make this and future projects (it will be 

shared) more ecologically valid. 

• Direct testing of the expectation driven and attention driven hypotheses, which have both been 

proposed as an explanation for social factors in speech intelligibility. 

• The inclusion of socially meaningful phonetic variation. 

Weaknesses 

• Older adults tend not to be as skilled at using visible speech to repair a degraded auditory signal 

as one would hope. It is possible that older adults comprehend less well both because of social 

factors and are less good at using visible articulation compared to young adults with HI. 

• Never using the same sentence twice means that it won’t be possible to estimate visual gain, 

which may vary by age group. 

• Familiarity with colloquialisms will vary by listener age. 

• There may be an effect of speaker familiarity on perception and gaze that interacts with race or 

ethnicity. That is, a watching a speaker of a different race may lead to different patterns of gaze 

on time 1, but once there is some familiarity with the speaker, the gaze pattern could more 

closely approximate gaze for a within-race speaker. 

5. Environment: 

Strengths 

• The environment appears very well suited to the proposed work. 

Weaknesses 

• No major weaknesses noted. 
1 R21 DC018070-01 5 LCOM 

MUNSON, B 

Study Timeline: 

Not Applicable (No Clinical Trials) 

Protections for Human Subjects: 

Acceptable Risks and/or Adequate Protections 

• Will there be a consent form for the speakers establishing consent for their images to be used? 

Data and Safety Monitoring Plan (Applicable for Clinical Trials Only): 

Not Applicable (No Clinical Trials) 

Inclusion of Women, Minorities and Children: 

• Sex/Gender: Distribution justified scientifically 

• Race/Ethnicity: Distribution justified scientifically 

• For NIH-Defined Phase III trials, Plans for valid design and analysis: Not applicable 

• Inclusion/Exclusion of Children under 18: Including ages <18; justified scientifically 

Vertebrate Animals: 

Not Applicable (No Vertebrate Animals) 

Biohazards: 

Not Applicable (No Biohazards) 

Authentication of Key Biological and/or Chemical Resources: 

Not Applicable (No Relevant Resources) 

Budget and Period of Support: 

Recommend as Requested 

CRITIQUE 2 

Significance: 2 

Investigator(s): 1 

Innovation: 2 

Approach: 1 

Environment: 1 

Overall Impact: The proposal is to build a corpus of audio-visual sentence stimuli produced by a 

racially and ethnically diverse group of speakers and to investigate the extent and nature of racial and 

ethnic effects on intelligibility (REI) as perceived by younger normal hearing and older normal and 

impaired hearing adults. The hypothesis that REI will interact with assessments of speech perception 

deficits in older populations is well motivated by recent work in sociophonetics. The work is intellectually 

coherent and will result in an important tool for future research on and assessment of speech 

perception. The approach is impeccable. Over all, this is an extremely strong application that will lay the 
1 R21 DC018070-01 6 LCOM 

MUNSON, B 

foundation for future research on assessment and intervention for speech perception deficits. The 

proposed work is also timely given the changing demographics of the United States. 

1. Significance: 

Strengths 

• Impaired speech perception is extremely common in older adults. 

• The focus on racial and ethnic effects on speech intelligibility (REI) as perceived by older adults 

is highly significant given that people from under-represented minority groups within the United 

States are nonetheless over-represented in the caregiving workforce for older adults. 

• The proposal to build a large corpus of AV speech stimuli using racially and ethnically diverse 

individuals and to make this corpus publicly available to researchers will advance assessment of 

speech perception deficits in the population. 

• Recent work in sociophonetics, including work completed by a member of the research team 

(Babel), provides a strong scientific foundation for the hypothesis that REI will interact with the 

assessment of speech perception deficits in older adults with and without hearing loss. 

Weaknesses 

• No major weaknesses noted. 

2. Investigator(s): 

Strengths 

• The PI is a pioneer in the field of sociophonetics. 

• The research team brings critical expertise in audiology, implicit bias testing, audiovisual 

processing, and work with older adults. 

Weaknesses 

• No major weaknesses noted. 

3. Innovation: 

Strengths 

• Investigation of race and ethnicity effects on speech perception in older adults is innovative. 

• The proposal to build a large corpus of AV speech stimuli using racially and ethnically diverse 

individuals is innovative. 

• The proposal to make the corpus publicly available could shift current research practice. 

• The focus on REI challenges theoretical frameworks adopted to explain speech perception 

deficits in the elderly. 

• The proposed method for building sentences for the corpus (mining social media) is innovative. 

Weaknesses 

• No major weaknesses noted. 

4. Approach: 

Strengths 
1 R21 DC018070-01 7 LCOM 

MUNSON, B 

• The focus on socially-meaningful, but otherwise neutral sentences is a strength. 

• Building a corpus of AV sentence stimuli produced by a racially and ethnically diverse group of 

speakers is a strength. 

• The proposed size of the corpus is a strength. 

• The careful attention to characteristics of the sentences to be included is a strength. 

• The recruitment strategy is a strength. 

• The comparison of performance in AV to A-only listening tasks is a strength. 

• The addition of eye-tracking measures will provide interesting information about how perceivers’ 

use of audio-visual cues to speech perception might interact with REI. 

• The statistical analyses are well thought out. 

Weaknesses 

• No major weaknesses noted. 

5. Environment: 

Strengths 

• The PI and research team all have access to adequate laboratory facilities. 

• The intellectual environment at is a strength of this application with its dense population of 

experts in auditory processing and speech perception. 

• The large metropolitan area of with its diverse population is a strength. 

Weaknesses 

• No major weaknesses noted. 

Study Timeline: 

Not Applicable (No Clinical Trials) 

Protections for Human Subjects: 

Acceptable Risks and/or Adequate Protections 

• Protections for human subjects has been adequately considered. 

Data and Safety Monitoring Plan (Applicable for Clinical Trials Only): 

Not Applicable (No Clinical Trials) 

Inclusion of Women, Minorities and Children: 

• Sex/Gender: Distribution justified scientifically 

• Race/Ethnicity: Distribution justified scientifically 

• For NIH-Defined Phase III trials, Plans for valid design and analysis: Not applicable 

• Inclusion/Exclusion of Children under 18: Excluding ages <18; justified scientifically 

• The sample demographics are well justified. 
1 R21 DC018070-01 8 LCOM 

MUNSON, B 

Vertebrate Animals: 

Not Applicable (No Vertebrate Animals) 

Biohazards: 

Not Applicable (No Biohazards) 

Authentication of Key Biological and/or Chemical Resources: 

Not Applicable (No Relevant Resources) 

Budget and Period of Support: 

Recommend as Requested 

CRITIQUE 3 

Significance: 1 

Investigator(s): 1 

Innovation: 2 

Approach: 2 

Environment: 1 

Overall Impact: All current publicly available AV speech databases consist of predominantly white 

speakers. This application seeks to remedy that by, in Aim 1, developing a database of AV speech that 

is racially/ethnically representative and gender balanced. This is sorely needed. Focusing on only race 

and gender misses an opportunity to be even more inclusive, given the difficulty of post-hoc additions to 

such a database. For example, there is no inclusion of transgender individuals or of individuals with 

physical, mental or cognitive disabilities. The potential impact of such a database would be even more 

powerful. In Aim 2, the AV speech database would be used to compare intelligibility measures from 

young NH controls, elders with NH and elders with HL. The applicant proposes not to include young 

participants with HL because the incidence is much lower. However, such individuals exist (and should 

therefore not be excluded prima facie) and would, in fact, be necessary to separate REI effects due to 

age cohort from REI effects due to HL and difficulties with speech comprehension. 

Study Timeline: 

Not applicable (No Clinical Trials) 

Protections for Human Subjects: 

Acceptable Risks and/or Adequate Protections 

Data and Safety Monitoring Plan (Applicable for Clinical Trials Only): 

Not applicable (No Clinical Trials) 

Inclusion of Women, Minorities and Children: 

• Sex/Gender: Distribution justified scientifically 

• Race/Ethnicity: Distribution justified scientifically 
1 R21 DC018070-01 9 LCOM 

MUNSON, B 

• For NIH-Defined Phase III trials, Plans for valid design and analysis: Not applicable 

• Inclusion/Exclusion of Children under 18: Excluding ages <18; justified scientifically 

Vertebrate Animals: 

Not Applicable (No Vertebrate Animals) 

Biohazards: 

Not Applicable (No Biohazards) 

Authentication of Key Biological and/or Chemical Resources: 

Not Applicable (No Relevant Resources) 

Budget and Period of Support: 

Recommend as Requested 

THE FOLLOWING SECTIONS WERE PREPARED BY THE SCIENTIFIC REVIEW OFFICER TO 

SUMMARIZE THE OUTCOME OF DISCUSSIONS OF THE REVIEW COMMITTEE, OR REVIEWERS’ 

WRITTEN CRITIQUES, ON THE FOLLOWING ISSUES: 

PROTECTION OF HUMAN SUBJECTS: ACCEPTABLE 

INCLUSION OF WOMEN PLAN: ACCEPTABLE 

INCLUSION OF MINORITIES PLAN: ACCEPTABLE 

INCLUSION OF CHILDREN PLAN: ACCEPTABLE 

COMMITTEE BUDGET RECOMMENDATIONS: The budget was recommended as requested. 

Footnotes for 1 R21 DC018070-01; PI Name: Munson, Benjamin R 

+ Derived from the range of percentile values calculated for the study section that reviewed 

this application. 

NIH has modified its policy regarding the receipt of resubmissions (amended applications). 

See Guide Notice NOT-OD-14-074 at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD14-074.html. The impact/priority score is calculated after discussion of an application by 

averaging the overall scores (1-9) given by all voting reviewers on the committee and 

multiplying by 10. The criterion scores are submitted prior to the meeting by the individual 

reviewers assigned to an application, and are not discussed specifically at the review meeting 

or calculated into the overall impact score. Some applications also receive a percentile 

ranking. For details on the review process, see 

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/peer_review_process.htm#scoring. 
MEETING ROSTER 

Language and Communication Study Section 

Biobehavioral and Behavioral Processes Integrated Review Group 

CENTER FOR SCIENTIFIC REVIEW 

LCOM 

02/11/2019 - 02/12/2019 

Notice of NIH Policy to All Applicants: Meeting rosters are provided for information purposes only. Applicant 

investigators and institutional officials must not communicate directly with study section members about an 

application before or after the review. Failure to observe this policy will create a serious breach of integrity 

in the peer review process, and may lead to actions outlined in NOT-OD-14-073 at 

https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-14-073.html and NOT-OD-15-106 at 

https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-15-106.html, including removal of the application from 

immediate review.

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