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Karen Helfer
Professor of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences
Associate Dean for Graduate, Postdoctoral, and Faculty Development, College of Natural Sciences
Associate Dean for Graduate, Postdoctoral, and Faculty Development, College of Natural Sciences
Speech Perception, Aging, Audiology
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About
My research program focuses on factors that influence the ability to understand speech in adverse listening situations, such as in the presence of noise, reverberation, and other people talking. Although some of my research is conducted with young, normally-hearing listeners, my passion is in determining how aging affects speech understanding in these realistic listening conditions. My most recent research interests revolve around studying changes in speech understanding and listening effort that occur early in the aging process (i.e., in middle-aged adults). I also am interested in the degree to which affordable hearing technology can help middle-aged and older adults cope in difficult listening situations.