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Arnold School of Public Health

Language Processing Laboratory

The Language Processing Laboratory seeks to examine the mechanisms involved in the human response to the communication signal (auditory or visual).

Overview

In particular, our research focuses on the assessment of those factors that affect the speed and accuracy of language processing. Studies in spoken word recognition have utilized the lexical decision (word/non-word) task to investigate Luce and Pisoni’s neighborhood activation model. Investigations in lip reading explore the effect of verbal prompting and the extent to which lexical characteristics of single words influence the visual intelligibility of sentences. Finally, studies with adult cochlear implant users have investigated the effects of CI implantation on the processing of the acoustic signal.

Group Members

Dirk B. den Ouden

Dirk B. den Ouden

Dirk B. den Ouden is an associate professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and Director of the Neurolinguistics Laboratory.  He received a master’s degree in English language and literature, a second master’s degree in general linguistics, and a doctorate in neurolinguistics all from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.  After completing a post-doctoral fellowship at Northwestern University he joined the faculty at USC.  Dr. den Ouden’s research interests are in the areas of stroke and aphasia, phonology and apraxia of speech, and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS).

Allen Montgomery

Allen A. Montgomery

Allen A. Montgomery is a research professor in the Department of Communication Science and Disorders and Coordinator of the Ph.D. program, where he does the majority of his teaching. He received his bachelor's degree in mathematics and master's degree in Speech Pathology (with Van Riper) at Western Michigan University. His PhD is in Speech Science from Purdue University. Al's research interests include lexical access, word recognition, speech reading, and fluency.

 

Presentations

  • McDade, H., Montgomery, A., Holstein, C., & Hancock, A.  (2014).  Do the Number of Morphemes in Words Affect Listeners' Performance on a Lexical Decision Task?  American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Orlando.McDade, H., Montgomery, A., Hancock, A., & Parten, A.  (2014).  The Effect of Lexical Characteristics of Words on Speech Production.  American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Orlando.McDade, H., Crass, K, den Ouden, D., Montgomery, A., & Hancock, A. (2013).  Effect of sonority sequencing on syllable onsets.  American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Chicago.Fogerty, D., Montgomery, A., and Crass, K. (2012, November). Effect of the consonant-vowel intensity ratio on lexical decision speed. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Atlanta

  • McDade, H., Crass, K,, Montgomery, A., and den Ouden, D. (2012 , November). Do Consonant clusters act as a unit during word retrieval? American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Atlanta.

  • Contini, C., Montgomery, A., McDade, H., and Adams, C. (2010, November). Lexical and sublexical factors in disfluent speech of adult stutterers. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Philadelphia.

  • Jordan, M., Montgomery, A., and McDade, H. (2008, November). Lexical and sub-lexical factors influencing retrieval of proper names. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Chicago.

  • Robinson, C., Montgomery, A., and McDade, H. (2008, November). Relative contributions of lexical and sublexical factors in word recognition. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Chicago.

  • Carr, N, Montgomery, A., and McDade, H. (2007, November). Effect of vowel length on lexical decision tasks. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Boston.

  • Robinson, C., Conyers, T., McDade, H. and Montgomery, A. (2006, November). Neighborhood density and spoken word recognition: Effects of phoneme position. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Miami Beach.

  • James, V. and McDade, H. (2001, November). Response time measurements of preschool children during lexical access tasks. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, New Orleans.

  • Steppling, M.L., and Montgomery, A.A. Perception and production of rise-fall intonation in American English. Presented at American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, New Orleans, LA, November 2001.

  • James, V. and McDade, H. (2000, November). Lexical access in preschool children. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Washington, DC.

  • Crass, K.A., Montgomery, A. and Adams, C. (2012). . Influence of Lexical and Contextual Characteristics of Words on Lipreading of Sentences, ARA Institute September, Providence, Rhode Island

  • Crass, K.A., Montgomery, A .and Adams, C. (2012). . Influence of Lexical and Contextual Characteristics of Words on Lipreading of Sentences, ARA Institute September, Providence, Rhode Island

  • Crass, K.A., Montgomery, A. and Adams, C. (2011). A comparison of good and poor speechreaders' performance on the CID sentences. Paper presented at the Sixth International Adult Aural Rehabilitation Conference, May, St. Petersburg Beach, FL

  • Crass, K., Montgomery, A and Adams, C. (2010) Influence of early vs. late cuing on the speechreading of sentences. Presented at Association of Rehabilitative Audiologists Institute, September, San Francisco

  • Crass, K.A. and Montgomery A. (2010, September). The effects of early vs late cueing on the speechreadbility of sentences. Poster presented at the Academy of Rehabilitative Audiology 2010 ARA Institute, San Francisco, CA.

  • Armitage, A., Sherwood, K., Crass, K.A., and Montgomery, A. (2010, February). Speaker identification in adult cochlear implant users. Paper presented at the annual convention of the South Carolina Speech and Hearing Association, Columbia, SC

  • Crass, K.A., Montgomery, A. and Hoole, W. (2010,). Contralateral pure tone threshold improvement following unilateral cochlear implantation. Poster presented at the Academy of Audiology-North Carolina Fall Conference, September, Greensboro, NC

  • Crass, K., Montgomery, A.A. and Hoole, W. Influence of unilateral cochlear implantation on contralateral hearing. Presented at American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, Philadelphia, 2010

  • Healy, E.W., Rogers, C.F., and Montgomery, A.A. Sensitivity to combined frequency and amplitude speech cues by cochlea implant users. Presented at 149th meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Vancouver, BC, May 2005.

  • Healy, E.W., Rogers, C.F., and Montgomery, A.A. Sensitivity to acoustic speech cues in acoustic and electric hearing. Presented at the mid-winter meeting of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, New Orleans, LA, February 2005.

  • Orr, S. B., Montgomery, A. A., Healy, E. W. and Dubno, J. R. (2010). Effects of consonant-vowel intensity ratio on loudness of monosyllabic words. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,128, 3105-3113

  • Baker, K. F., Montgomery, A.A. and Abramson, R. (2010, online 4August, 2009). Perception and Lateralization of Spoken Emotion by Children and Adolescents with High-Functioning Forms of Autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders,Jan;40(1):123-9

  • Healy, E.W. and Montgomery, A.A.(2007). The consistency of sentence intelligibility across three types of signal distortion. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 50, 270-282

  • Rogers, C.F., Healy, E.W., and Montgomery, A.A. (2006). Sensitivity to isolated and concurrent intensity andb fundamental frequency increments by cochlear implant users under natural listening conditions. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 119, 2276‑2287

  • Healy, E.W. and Montgomery, A.A. (2006) Consistency of CID sentence intelligibility across difficult listening conditions. Journal of Speech, Languge, and Hearing Research,49, 823‑834

 

 

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