ARC Research Network for Enabling Human Communication. The Human Communication Network promotes interdisciplinary research in speech, language, and sound by and between humans and machines. The network connects leading and emerging researchers across disciplines, exploits previously unrecognised intersections, supports interdisciplinary graduate training and exchanges, provides database storage infrastructure, and consults with industry and government to set, not follow, research agendas. By ge ....ARC Research Network for Enabling Human Communication. The Human Communication Network promotes interdisciplinary research in speech, language, and sound by and between humans and machines. The network connects leading and emerging researchers across disciplines, exploits previously unrecognised intersections, supports interdisciplinary graduate training and exchanges, provides database storage infrastructure, and consults with industry and government to set, not follow, research agendas. By generating an explosion of new approaches and knowledge, the network will build Australia's reputation as a leader in communication science and technology via advances in automatic speech recognition, distress call monitoring, hearing prostheses, web interfaces, and data retrieval and data mining systems.Read moreRead less
A longitudinal study of language learning to assess early intervention outcomes in pre-school children with impaired hearing. Overseas research suggests that young children with impaired hearing and normal non-verbal cognition can develop normal language if hearing aid fitting and intervention occur before 6 months of age. Australian studies show considerable language delays in most hearing-impaired children of primary-school age. We will study the spoken language learning of hearing-impaired ....A longitudinal study of language learning to assess early intervention outcomes in pre-school children with impaired hearing. Overseas research suggests that young children with impaired hearing and normal non-verbal cognition can develop normal language if hearing aid fitting and intervention occur before 6 months of age. Australian studies show considerable language delays in most hearing-impaired children of primary-school age. We will study the spoken language learning of hearing-impaired children up to age 6 years in Victoria. The project will investigate crucial factors in achieving normal language learning in hard-of-hearing children and the role of early intervention. Normal language outcomes would enhance the educational and career prospects of hearing-impaired children and result in community cost savings.
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Determinants of Audio-Visual effects in degraded and non-degraded speech. Seeing a speaker's face can affect the perception of their speech in a number of ways. This project proposes a detailed comparison of factors that affect Audio-Visual (AV) facilitation of degraded speech detection and identification. Detection-based tasks should be more sensitive to signal based correlations whereas identification-based effects more sensitive to complementary information. The significance of the current pr ....Determinants of Audio-Visual effects in degraded and non-degraded speech. Seeing a speaker's face can affect the perception of their speech in a number of ways. This project proposes a detailed comparison of factors that affect Audio-Visual (AV) facilitation of degraded speech detection and identification. Detection-based tasks should be more sensitive to signal based correlations whereas identification-based effects more sensitive to complementary information. The significance of the current proposal is that it offers both a strategy and a connected series of experiments for determining key behavioural constraints on AV speech integration. Understanding AV interactions will build links between neurophysiological processes and coherent perception and have important implications for AV application.Read moreRead less
The effect of cochlear implants on cognitive decline in ageing Australians. This project aims to investigate the impact of cochlear implants on cognitive function in elderly people with deafness. Deafness has been found to be independently associated with a 30–40 per cent accelerated rate of cognitive decline in elderly adults. There is currently no effective treatment for cognitive decline. The intended outcomes of this observational study will help us to understand the biological process of co ....The effect of cochlear implants on cognitive decline in ageing Australians. This project aims to investigate the impact of cochlear implants on cognitive function in elderly people with deafness. Deafness has been found to be independently associated with a 30–40 per cent accelerated rate of cognitive decline in elderly adults. There is currently no effective treatment for cognitive decline. The intended outcomes of this observational study will help us to understand the biological process of cognitive decline, whether hearing loss is causal, and whether the process can be altered. These findings should be applicable to all individuals with hearing loss. If cochlear implants delay cognitive decline, this would significantly affect policy, quality of life for the elderly, and the cost to society.Read moreRead less
Language processing in children with high functioning autism: Evidence from eye tracking. The language abilities in people with autism predict their response to intervention and their cognitive outcome. Young children with autism with poor language abilities are severely disadvantaged. Yet we understand little about what impedes their language development and their interpretation of what others say. The research findings will make a significant contribution by enriching our understanding of why ....Language processing in children with high functioning autism: Evidence from eye tracking. The language abilities in people with autism predict their response to intervention and their cognitive outcome. Young children with autism with poor language abilities are severely disadvantaged. Yet we understand little about what impedes their language development and their interpretation of what others say. The research findings will make a significant contribution by enriching our understanding of why and how comprehension may go astray, as well as helping us to identify subgroups within the autism population.Read moreRead less
Using written language to probe speech recognition models. Speech recognition models fall into two principal classes, with fundamentally different processing architectures. Feedback models (e.g. TRACE, McClelland & Elman, 1986) allow lexical knowledge to exert top-down control over phonemic analysis. Feedforward models (e.g. Merge, Norris, McQueen & Cutler, 2000) assume that information flow is entirely bottom-up. Our project adopts an innovative approach to testing between these model classe ....Using written language to probe speech recognition models. Speech recognition models fall into two principal classes, with fundamentally different processing architectures. Feedback models (e.g. TRACE, McClelland & Elman, 1986) allow lexical knowledge to exert top-down control over phonemic analysis. Feedforward models (e.g. Merge, Norris, McQueen & Cutler, 2000) assume that information flow is entirely bottom-up. Our project adopts an innovative approach to testing between these model classes, by examining the influence of written-word knowledge on speech perception. To distinguish the models, contrasts must test different processing levels and examine strategy effects. TRACE favors broad effects with limited strategic influence; Merge favors lexical effects that are necessarily sensitive to strategic factorsRead moreRead less
Reconciling perceptual and cognitive accounts of dyslexia: The neural rate deficit hypothesis. The proposed research will form part of a co-ordinated program to understand the causes of dyslexia, a disorder that affects a large number of children and often persists into adulthood. It complements parallel efforts to elucidate the genetic basis of dyslexia, the heterogeneity and subtypes of dyslexia, and the developmental precursors to the disorder. This research will inform early intervention and ....Reconciling perceptual and cognitive accounts of dyslexia: The neural rate deficit hypothesis. The proposed research will form part of a co-ordinated program to understand the causes of dyslexia, a disorder that affects a large number of children and often persists into adulthood. It complements parallel efforts to elucidate the genetic basis of dyslexia, the heterogeneity and subtypes of dyslexia, and the developmental precursors to the disorder. This research will inform early intervention and remediation efforts and will also assist in the understanding of the normal process of reading acquisition in children.Read moreRead less
Sleep and speech: objectively monitoring the residual effects of sleep promoting compounds. This project will benefit the one in 11 Australians with sleep difficulties. The project will improve how the safety of drugs for insomnia are evaluated by examining the changes in our speech that occur when we are impaired. The findings are expected to reduce the cost of accidents and injuries due to impairment from sleep medications.
Resolving multi-sensory conflict as we age: audio-visual integration and the role of normal and abnormal sensory decline. Australia has an ageing population. Even the healthiest older individuals undergo some deterioration of vision and hearing, however, these senses are almost invariably studied in isolation. The real world is multisensory. This project will enhance our knowledge of how ageing impacts on the interpretation of visual and auditory information regarding the timing and location of ....Resolving multi-sensory conflict as we age: audio-visual integration and the role of normal and abnormal sensory decline. Australia has an ageing population. Even the healthiest older individuals undergo some deterioration of vision and hearing, however, these senses are almost invariably studied in isolation. The real world is multisensory. This project will enhance our knowledge of how ageing impacts on the interpretation of visual and auditory information regarding the timing and location of objects; essential precursors to many real world tasks, for example: driving, interpreting speech, and hazard avoidance. This knowledge is essential for the optimisation of audio-visual environments for the elderly, and for the development of tools to improve performance in the presence of sensory decline due to age-related eye disease.Read moreRead less
From sound to hearing: the integration of behavioural, neurophysiological, and neuroimaging research with computational models. McLachlan and Wilson have recently published a ground-breaking new model of the auditory system with important implications for treating deafness and understanding neurological disorders. In this research the predictions of the model will be experimentally validated using advanced neuroimaging techniques.