Dr. Tom Carrell presents on ‘Recent Developments in Speech Perception’

UNASA hosted a seminar on March 4, 2013, featuring Dr. Tom Carrell from UNL’s Communication Disorders department presenting on ‘Recent Developments in Speech Perception’.  Dr. Carrell discussed that while there are many theoretical models on how speech is perceived by humans, most of those have been built on listening in controlled environments within a lab.  But there are many other concerns that are not factored into these models, including how acoustics in real buildings may impact the speech signal, and how a listener’s divided attention can influence speech perception as well.  Dr. Carrell played some interesting audio samples demonstrating how robust the speech signal can be, and how humans use a number of cues to be able to perceive the meaning of speech, which can vary depending on the situation.  It was fascinating to learn more about the perceptual side of acoustic communication!  Afterwards, a group of NAG members went to Brazenhead Irish Pub for dinner with Dr. Carrell (and alum Christopher Ainley was in town to join us as well)!