While working as a clinical audiologist, Lauren Calandruccio realized how many unknowns remain in the science of hearing. And she wanted to help find those answers. Inspired by the time she spent with her patients and the many unanswered questions, Calandruccio decided to go back to school and pursue her PhD.
“When the case is very challenging, we often do not have a good explanation for what has happened or how to intervene,” Calandruccio said. “This motivated me to go back to school and later conduct research in hearing science.”
At CWRU, Calandruccio started the Speech and Auditory Research Lab (SpAR Lab), where she has continued her research in human hearing for more than a decade. And now, the SpAR Lab is on a mission to explain how multilingual individuals recognize speech in noisy backgrounds, a listening scenario that reflects many challenging real-world hearing conditions.
Notably, since most available hearing testing materials in the United States are in English, it’s challenging to get a full diagnostic picture (which includes speech recognition testing) for bilingual or multilingual patients. These are populations that often communicate in multiple languages or only speak a non-English language.
To help address this gap, Calandruccio aims to produce speech recognition test materials in Spanish with the support of collaborators, Cassandra Lopéz, and the undergraduate research assistants at SpAR Lab.
A challenge the team faced in their research and project development was the dynamic nature and heterogeneity of multilingual populations. For instance, Spanish-English bilinguals in America might be more fluent in Spanish or in English, depending on their communication background. Further, these linguistic abilities can change over time. Thus, developing assessment materials that are appropriate for people with different language proficiencies and those that are culturally and linguistically relevant is imperative.
To address the traditional inefficiency of test material development, Calandruccio is now implementing the support of artificial intelligence to improve the efficiency in developing, creating, and testing new speech recognition materials.
Unlike a basic science lab space, a hearing science lab like the SpAR Lab looks more akin to a recording studio or hearing clinic. The lab space includes a ‘sound suite,’ comprising a sound-isolated exam room and an examiner’s room. Inside the sound suite are hearing screening and diagnostic devices like an audiometer, tympanometer, microphone, and headphones.
From this space, Calandruccio has contributed not only to the knowledge of the audiology field through research done at the SpAR Lab, but also to developing tools aiding students’ learning experience. For instance, Calandruccio developed Audiolab at CWRU, an audiology training simulation tool, with Dani Weidman (CSE ‘21), a SpAR Lab member alumnus. Audiolab simulates an audiometer—a device used in hearing screenings and diagnostic testing, which allows students in Calandruccio’s courses to practice administering a hearing test.
The idea of developing Audiolab emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, when students could no longer visit the SpAR Lab, as previously done, for hands-on experience with the audiometer. This simulation tool was later acquired by Simucase, the largest company for simulated learning in the field of communication sciences, aiding in the platform’s mission to create an interactive learning experience for students and clinicians. Now there are over 6500 students and nearly 500 faculty members using Audiolab across the country.
Having first gained research experience as an undergraduate student herself, Calandruccio has been making an effort to involve students in her lab. Perhaps, the SpAR Lab has become an experimental space for many undergraduate and graduate students interested in Communication Sciences.
“What I hope students in the SpAR Lab gain is an initial understanding of what research is,” Calandruccio shared. “Additionally, through the experience working in the lab, I hope to nurture their sense of belonging to the speech and hearing profession, to enhance their professional knowledge and network, and to make them stronger contributors to society.”