St. Olaf Speech and Cognition Lab

Past Projects

 Long-Term Perceptual Learning

In this project, we are testing a proposed training program for new adult cochlear implant users. This exciting project is the culmination of the last 7 years of my research. As of December 2014 we have been training our very first cochlear implant user on an early beta version of the program!

  • Bash, R., Cash, B., & Loebach, J.L. (2014). The effect of experience on environmental sound identification. Poster presented at the 168th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Indianapolis, IN.
  • Loebach, J. (May, 2014). Long-term perceptual learning of spectrally degraded speech. Poster presented at the 26th APS Annual Convention, San Francisco, CA.
  • Xiong, X. & Loebach, J.L. (May, 2014). Perceptual learning of cochlear implant simulations of speech and environmental sounds. Poster presented at the 86th Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL.
  • Crittenden, E., Erickson, K., Palmer, R., Streit, C. & Loebach, J.L. (April, 2014). Experiential effects on difficulty of auditory stimuli in cochlear implant simulations. Poster presented at the Minnesota Undergraduate Psychology Conference, St. Paul, MN.
  • Xiong, X. & Loebach, J.L. (April, 2014). Training and Rehabilitation Program for New Adult Cochlear Implant Users. Poster presented at the 2014 Minnesota Private College Scholars at the Capitol Symposium, St. Paul, MN.
  • Loebach, J.L. (May, 2013). Long-term perceptual learning under a cochlear implant simulation. Paper presented at the 85th Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL.
  • Burton, J., Phillips, S.K. & Stork, C. [Loebach, J.L. faculty sponsor] (May, 2013). Perceptual identification of environmental sounds under a cochlear implant simulation. Poster presented at the 85th Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL. PDF
    • This presentation was awarded the 2013 MPA-CUR Faculty Student Research Award from the Council on Undergraduate Research! Congratulations to Jane, Sarah and Carly!
  • Klein, K. & Erickson, H. [Loebach, J.L. faculty sponsor] (May, 2013). Phoneme identification under a cochlear implant simulation. Poster presented at the 85th Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL. PDF

Lip-reading and visual attention

In this project, we investigated the lip-reading abilities in the normal hearing population. We found that most people are really really bad at lip-reading, but that lip-reading abilities are related to low-level visual attention.

  • Loebach, J.L., Burton, J., Phillips, S.K., Sennott, B., & Stork, C. (May, 2012). Lip-reading ability is influenced by visual attention. Poster presented at the 84th Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL. PDF
  • Loebach, J.L. & Mork, D.S. (May, 2012). The effect of context on lip reading. Poster presented at the 84th annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL. PDF
  •  Loebach, J.L., Altieri, N.A., & Pisoni, D.B. (February, 2012). Lip reading ability is related to visual attention in normal hearing subjects. Poster presented at the 35th Midwinter Meeting of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, San Diego, CA. PDF
  • Sennott, B., Straehley, I., Mork, D., Coppalle, R., & Loebach, J.L. (April, 2011). Lip reading ability in normal hearing listeners. Poster presented at the 4th annual MidBrains Undergraduate Neuroscience Conference, Northfield, MN.

Music

I have an abiding interest in understanding music and musical processing by the brain. To that extent, I am always dabbling in projects, usually driven by student interests, that move in that direction. Below are some of the projects that we have done over the years.

  • Straehley, I. & Loebach, J.L. (June, 2013). Conveying emotion via musical scales: Perceived emotional connotations of the modes of the diatonic scale in musicians and non-musicians. Poster presented at the 3rd International Conference on Music & Emotion, Jyväskylä, Finland.

Pitch Training for Cochlear Implant Users

Description coming soon…

  • Berg, K.* & Loebach, J.L. (July, 2015). Pitch discrimination training improves speech intelligibility in adult CI users. Poster to be presented at the 2015 Conference on Implantable Auditory Prostheses, Lake Tahoe, NV.
  • Berg, K.* & Loebach, J.L. (May, 2015). Using Aural Skills to Improve Speech Intelligibility in Adult Cochlear Implant Users. Poster presented at the Minnesota Speech and Hearing Association Spring Convention, Minnetonka, MN.

Cochlear Implant Users

In this long running project, we are assessing the perceptual abilities of postlingually deafened adult cochlear implant users. One goal of this project is to better understand the development of auditory and cognitive processing abilities following cochlear implantation. A second goal is to utilize these findings to develop training programs for new cochlear implant users.

  • Loebach, J.L. (October 2015). Long-term high-variability training for new adult cochlear implant users. Poster to be presented at the annual Society for Neuroscience conference, Chicago, IL. PDF
  • Loebach, J.L. (May, 2015). Long-term high-variability training for adult cochlear implant users. Poster presented at the Minnesota Speech and Hearing Association Spring Convention, Minnetonka, MN.
  • Effiom, J.  [Loebach, J.L. faculty sponsor] (May, 2013). A comparison of speech perception between normal hearing listeners and cochlear implant users. Poster presented at the 85th Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL.
  • Effiom, J. & Loebach, J.L. (October, 2012). A comparison of speech perception between normal hearing listeners and cochlear implant users. Poster presented at the 5th annual MidBrains Undergraduate Neuroscience Conference, Northfield, MN. PDF
  • Loebach, J.L., Bent, T., Peterson, N., Hay-McCutcheon, M. & Pisoni, D.B. (February, 2008). The perception of speech and environmental sounds by normal hearing listeners and cochlear implant users. Poster presented at the 31st Annual Midwinter Meeting of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, Phoenix, AZ. PDF

Speech Perception

There are some things that we do that do not necessarily fit into the previous categories. Consider this the speech perception potpourri. Several of these projects are related to the long term training project, but are independent enough to warrant their own category.

  • Loebach, J.L., Scharenbroch, G. & Berg, K. (October, 2014). Talker intelligibility across clear and sinewave vocoded speech. Poster presented at the 168th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Indianapolis, IN.
  • Gildehaus, S. & Loebach, J.L. (May, 2014). Acoustic analysis of talker intelligibility. Poster presented at the 86th Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL.
  • Berg, K. & Loebach, J.L. (April, 2014). The effect of North American English dialects on talker intelligibility. Poster presented at the Minnesota Undergraduate Psychology Conference, St. Paul, MN.
  • Bash, R., Scharenbroch, G., Schmidt, H. & Loebach, J.L. (April, 2014). Global characteristics of intelligibility across normal speech of ten talkers: Normalization phase of creating a cochlear implant training program. Poster presented at the Minnesota Undergraduate Psychology Conference, St. Paul, MN.
  • Bash, R., Scharenbroch, G., Schmidt, H. & Loebach, J.L. (April, 2014). Intelligibility across 10 talkers: Gender, fundamental frequency and speaking rate characteristics. Poster presented at the at the 2nd annual Minnesota Undergraduate Linguistics Conference, Minneapolis, MN.

SoLoArc

Over the past year, students Jake Westerberg, Mari Balhorn and Roman Tyshynsky have been working closely with Physics Technician Devin Lackie and myself to construct a free field localization apparatus called the SoLoArc. This device, consisting of a 180° arc with a 4’ radius, is capable of presenting sound (via speakers placed at 5° intervals), and visual stimuli (via lights placed at 2.5° intervals). The apparatus will be used first for an independent research project investigating human sound localization with anatomical variations of the pinnae, based on Jake, Mari and Roman’s independent research project in Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience. The SoLoArc will also be used as a teaching tool to demonstrate sound localization in the horizontal and vertical planes, and can be used in a variety of Psychology and Neuroscience courses. We are also interested in using the device to investigate audiovisual integration in normal hearing and hearing impaired listeners, and to test sound localization abilities in cochlear implant users.

  • Westerberg, J.*, Balhorn, A.*, Tyshynsky, R.*, Lackie, D., & Loebach, J.L. (May, 2015). SoLoArc: Free Field Localization of Audiovisual Stimuli. Poster presented at the St. Olaf College Natural Sciences and Mathematics Honors Day Poster Session, Northfield, MN.
  • Westerberg, J.A.*, Balhorn, A.R.*, Tyshynsky, R.S.*, & Loebach, J.L.(October, 2015). SoLoArc: A free-field, multisensory localization tool for scientific inquiry in undergraduate education. Poster to be presented at the annual Society for Neuroscience conference, Chicago, IL. PDF
  • Westerberg, J.A.*, Balhorn, A.R.*, Tyshynsky, R.S.*, & Loebach, J.L.(October, 2015). A comparison of free-field and headphone based sound localization using SoLoArc: A modular and portable, audiovisual, free-field localization device with high spatial resolution. Poster to be presented at the annual Society for Neuroscience conference, Chicago, IL. PDF

Eye Tracking

Using Pupil Lab’s eye tracking system Pupil Core, researchers investigated how face masks impact emotion recognition accuracy and gaze dwelling time on facial features. 

  • Ellis, R. & Loebach, J.L. (May 2022). Face Masks, Unmasked: Identifying Changes in Gaze Focus Toward Individuals Wearing Face Masks. Poster to be presented at the annual Association for Psychological Science (APS) conference, Chicago, IL. PDF