Title: Effects of blindness on auditory temporal processing of speech in older adults

THIS STUDY IS CURRENTLY RECRUITING PARTICIPANTS.

Purpose: The study will examine the effects of blindness on the speech understanding abilities of older, normal-hearing blind adults, as compared to their age-matched, sighted counterparts in challenging listening conditions.

Eligibility: We are looking for normal-hearing adults who are native speakers of English and meet one of the following criteria:
Sighted individuals between the ages of 18-30
Sighted individuals between the ages of 60-80
Blind individuals (with dark/light sensitivity at best) between the ages of 60-80, who have been blind for at least 20 years

Participants will receive a free hearing test. If you qualify to participate (based on the results of the hearing test and interview), you will also be asked to complete some forms and experimental tasks. The experiments will consist of listening to and repeating back sentences heard over an earphone, and presented in quiet and noise, while seated in a quiet room.

For more information, please contact:

Sarah Friedman (Student Researcher)
sfriedman@hesp.umd.edu
Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences
University of Maryland , College Park
College Park , MD 20742
240-277-1793

Sandra Gordon-Salant, Ph.D. (Principal Investigator, Faculty Advisor)
sgordon@hesp.umd.edu