Research programs headed by Moya Andrews , Kirrie Ballard , Karen Forrest , Diane Kewley-Port , and Claudio Milstein are described below. The current focus is on the processing of vowels by listeners with normal or impaired hearing. The Voice Laboratory is also studying the nature of perceptual ratings of voice quality and its relation to acoustic and physiological characterisitics. The laryngeal physiology laboratory examines laryngeal function in individuals with normal voices, and those with vocal pathology, such as hyperfunctional voice disorders.
Current projects examine the interactions between the respiratory and laryngeal systems.
Two primary goals that motivate this research program are the determination of differential diagnostic markers of speech impairments and the development of treatment protocols that are consistent with speakers' competencies. A wide range of methodologies, including acoustical, physiological, and perceptual analyses are employed to investigate issues that impact speech production. Speech research includes applying theories of motor control and learning to enhance our understanding of changes in motor control over the lifespan, the nature of acquired motor speech disorders, and ways to improve treatment efficacy for motor speech disorders. Language research includes applying linguistic theory to analysis and treatment of the morpho-syntactic impairments in agrammatism and investigating the interaction between language and speech motor skills in spoken language production. Treatment efficacy studies specifically investigate methods to enhance long-term maintenance of treated behaviors and generalization across stimuli and responses.