Updated: February 24, 2006

Investigator:

Arthur Boothroyd, Ph.D.

Purpose of this study:

The purpose is to give hearing-impaired adults increased opportunity for independent practice in listening and lipreading, and to track the resulting performance changes. The ultimate goal is to help users make full use of the hearing provided by their hearing aids or cochlear implants even though this hearing may be distorted, incomplete or degraded by noise. Previous work has indicated that performance is strongly influenced by time-on-task. Independent practice can increase this time significantly, and it can do so without the unease or embarrassment that often accompany everyday communication.

Project Description:

The programs and recorded speech materials will be based on an existing CASPER system. This system was originally developed at the City University of New York for clinical research into the rehabilitation of cochlear implant users. The guiding principles were:

control and consistency of listening activities and talker characteristics,
a continuum of tasks from phonetic contrast perception, through sound and word recognition, to the perception of sentences and continuous narrative,
audio, visual, and audio-visual presentation under computer control with automatic logging of performance.

Steps in the current project will include the transfer of existing CASPER recordings to DVD, the writing and recording of new materials as needed, the writing of software to make the procedures suitable for independent use, and the evaluation of the resulting software in training studies

Project Progress:

CASPERCON Version 1.0, testing and training at the phonetic contrast level (formerly FCSPAC), and CASPSERSENT Version 2.0, testing and training at the sentence level, have both been successfully transferred to DVD and are available for evaluation and/or distribution. The manuals for both are also available for distribution. Materials for CASPERSENT version 3.0 are being prepared at Gallaudet University with the most significant update being additional speakers viewed from different angles.

Recent Publications or Presentations:

Boothroyd, A. (1987). CASPER: Computer-assisted speech perception, evaluation and training. Proceedings of the 10th annual conference on Rehabilitation Technology. Washington, D.C., Association for the Advancement of Rehabilitation Technology, 734-736.

Mackersie, C.L., Boothroyd, A., and Minnear, D. (2001). Evaluation of the Computer-Assisted Speech Perception Test (CASPA). Journal of the American Academy of Audiology. 12, 390-396.

Boothroyd, A. (2004). Hearing aid accessories for adults: the remote FM microphone. Ear and Hearing, 25, 22-33.

Boothroyd, A. (2005). CASPERSENT: Computer-assisted speech perception training and testing at the sentence level. Presentation to the biennial meeting of the International Collegium of Rehabilitative Audiology (ICRA), Gainsville, Florida, March 2005.

For more information, contact: Arthur Boothroyd, Ph.D. or
http://www.arthurboothroyd.com