Research » Laboratory for the study of Cognition, Action, & Perception of Speech » College of Public Health and Health Professions

CAPS, part of the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions, is a multidisciplinary laboratory engaged in teaching and research on the production and perception of speech by humans. We are formally affiliated with the UF Hearing Research Center. The lab draws together promising students from across the UF campus to combine principles and tools from engineering and computer science with cognitive, linguistic, and psychological science to understand speech mechanisms and processes.

Current work in the lab is organized into two interdependent axes, one focusing on the control, timing and sequencing of speech movements; the other focusing on complex interactions between phonological sensitivity, speech production and perception, and the roles of auditory and somatosensory feedback.

We investigate these topics by drawing on a wide range of methodologies, including acoustic analysis of speech, auditory and visual psychophysics (eye-tracking), kinematic analyses of articulatory movements (EMA), and functional brain imaging (EEG/ERPs, fMRI). The results of such investigations have important implications for theories of speech and language processing, as well as for developmental disabilities involving speech, such as stuttering, autism, congenital hearing loss, and dyslexia.

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Current Research Projects in CAPS:

Development and testing of MIPA (Motor Involvement in Phonological Acquisition) Model (with faculty member Susan Nittrouer [SLHS])
Developmental scaffolding of speech motor control, speech perception, and phonological sensitivity (with faculty members Susan Nittrouer [SLHS] and Joseph Antonelli [Statistics])
Speech motor control in congenitally deaf individuals who received cochlear implants (with undergrad Julia Ginter, and faculty members Susan Nittrour [SLHS] and Yonghee Oh [SLHS])
Gestural organization of phonotactically legal and illegal consonant clusters (with undergrad Jessica Smith, PhD student Hung-Shao Cheng [NYU], and faculty members Christina Hagedorn [CUNY] and Adam Buchwald [NYU])
Generalization in speech motor sequence learning (with undergrad Emily Zezas, and faculty member Frank H. Guenther [BU/MIT])
Bimodal (audio-visual) speech processing and motor production in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (with faculty members Zheng Wang [Kinesiology] and Julia Irwin [Haskins/SCSU])