Human Auditory Development Laboratory Information

Participate

Our studies are actively seeking participants to participate in research studies. Please fill out the form below if you would like to sign up. If you have any questions about participation, please email HADL@boystown.org or call (531) 355-6625 and we will get back to you.

Upon Your Arrival

Once you arrive at Boys Town National Research Hospital, one of our lab employees will greet you in the lobby and escort you to the laboratory. We will walk you through the details of participating in the study and will request that you (and your child if over the age of 7) formally give your consent to participate in the study.

During the Visit

The length of the visit varies depending on the child but is always less than 3 hours. The visit can be split into separate sessions if desired or needed. We ensure that children have frequent breaks. Measures that are conducted in our lab include:

Hearing evaluation or hearing screening
Hearing aid measurement for children who are hard of hearing
Assessment of speech and language skills such as vocabulary
Assessment of executive function and working memory
Sound perception testing. Your child will listen to sounds presented from a speaker or headphones. The sounds are played in quiet or with noise in the background. Your child will tell us what they hear by touching a picture on a computer, by raising their hand, or by repeating back words or sentences that they hear.

After the Visit

At the end of the visit, your child will pick out a small prize as our thank you for participating in the study. In addition, you will be compensated for your time on an hourly basis.

Important Reminders

We want to make this an enjoyable experience for you and your child, so if at any time your child needs a break or needs to end the visit, simply let us know. If you have any questions before, during, or following any of your visits to our lab, please ask!

Directions and Parking

Our lab address is: 555 N. 30th StreetOmaha, NE 68131

Driving directions: Park in the patient parking lot just off 30th and California streets, directly outside of the main hospital lobby. Please check-in for your research appointment at any of the reception desks in the main lobby. The front desk will notify the lab that you are here. If for any reason you need to reach us directly, please call (531) 355-6625.

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Collaborators

Internal Collaborators:

Audibility, Perception and Cognition Laboratory
AV Technical Core Facility

External Collaborators:

The Speech and Auditory Research Laboratory at Case Western Reserve University

Professional Organizations:

Publications

Leibold, L. J., & Buss, E. (2020). Yes/no and two-interval forced-choice tasks with listener-based vs observer-based responses. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 147(3), 1588-1596.

Leibold, L. J., Browning, J. M., & Buss, E. (2020). Masking Release for Speech-in-Speech Recognition Due to a Target/Masker Sex Mismatch in Children with Hearing Loss. Ear and Hearing, 41(2), 259-267.

Buss, E., & Leibold, L. (2019). Development of speech recognition in noise or two-talker speech: Context effects related to response alternatives and sentence meaning. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 145(3), 1790-1790.

Buss, E., Lorenzi, C., Cabrera, L., Leibold, L. J., & Grose, J. H. (2019). Amplitude modulation detection and modulation masking in school-age children and adults. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 145(4), 2565-2575.

Calandruccio, L., Wasiuk, P. A., Buss, E., Leibold, L. J., Kong, J., Holmes, A, & Oleson, J. (2019). The effect of target/masker fundamental frequency contour similarity on masked-speech recognition. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 146(2), 1065-1076.

Leibold, L. J. & Buss, E. (2019). Masked Speech Recognition in School-Age Children. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 1981.

Flaherty, M. M., Buss, E., & Leibold, L. J. (2019). Developmental Effects in Children’s Ability to Benefit from F0 Differences Between Target and Masker Speech. Ear and Hearing, 40(4), 927-937.

Leibold, L., McCreery, R., & Buss, E. (2019). Factors affecting speech-in-noise and speech-in-speech recognition for school-age children with hearing loss. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 145(3), 1904-1905.

McCreery, R. W., Leibold, L. J., Buss, E., & Walker, E. (2019). Executive functions predict improvements in pure-tone thresholds for children with normal hearing and children with hearing loss. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 145(3), 1879-1879.

Miller, M. K., Calandruccio, L., Buss, E., McCreery, R. W., Oleson, J., Rodriguez, B., & Leibold, L. J. (2019). Masked English Speech Recognition Performance in Younger and Older Spanish–English Bilingual and English Monolingual Children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 62(12), 4578-4591.

Porter, H. L., Buss, E., Browning, J., & Leibold, L. J. (2019). A Two-Interval, Force-Choice, Observer-Based Procedure for Evaluating Hearing Sensitivity in Children with Motor and Developmental Impairments. American Journal of Audiology, 28(3), 714-723.

Vicente, M., Calandruccio, L., Miller, M. K., Browning, J. M., Oleson, J., & Leibold, L. J. (2019). Language Proficiency and Dominance Considerations When Working With Spanish—English Bilingual Adults. American Journal of Audiology, 28(3), 724-729.

Buss, E., Grose, J., & Leibold, L. (2018). Amplitude modulation detection and modulation masking in school-age children and adults. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 143(3), 1916-1916.

Buss, E., Leibold, L. J., & Lorenzi, C. (2018). Speech recognition for school-age children and adults tested in multi-tone vs multi-noise-band maskers. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 143(3), 1458-1466.

Flaherty, M. M., Leibold, L., & Buss, E. (2018). Children’s ability to benefit from fundamental frequency and vocal tract length differences during speech-in-speech recognition. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 14(3), 1924-1924.

García, P. B., Leibold, L., Buss, E., Calandruccio, L., & Rodriguez, B. (2018). Code-Switching in Highly Proficient Spanish/English Bilingual Adults: Impact on Masked Word Recognition. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 61(9), 2353-2363.

Leibold, L. J., Buss, E., & Calandruccio, L. (2018). Developmental effects in masking release for speech-in-speech perception due to a target/masker sex mismatch. Ear Hearing, 39(5), 935-945.

Porter, H., Leibold, L., & Buss, E. (2018). Effects of self-generated noise on quiet threshold by transducer type in school-age children and adults. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 143(3), 1940-1940.

Porter, H. L., Spitzer, E. R., Buss, E., Leibold, L. J., & Grose, J. H. (2018). Forward and Backward Masking of Consonants in School-Age Children and Adults. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 61(7), 1807-1814.

Rose, J., Flaherty, M., Browning, J., Leibold, L. J., & Buss, E. (2018). Pure Tone Frequency Discrimination in Preschoolers, Young School-Age Children, and Adults. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 61(9), 2440-2445.

Bonino, A. Y., & Leibold, L. J. (2017). Behavioral Assessment of Hearing in 2 to 4 Year-old Children: A Two-interval, Observer-based Procedure Using Conditioned Play-based Responses. Journal of Visualized Experiments: JoVE, (119).

Buss, E., Flaherty, M. M., & Leibold, L. J. (2017). Development of frequency discrimination at 250 Hz is similar for tone and/ba/stimuli. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 142(1), EL150-EL154.

Buss, E., Leibold, L. J., Porter, H. L., & Grose, J. H. (2017). Speech recognition in one-and two-talker maskers in school-age children and adults: Development of perceptual masking and glimpsing. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 141(4), 2650-2660.

Corbin, N. E., Buss, E., & Leibold, L. J. (2017). Spatial release from masking in children: Effects of simulated unilateral hearing loss. Ear and Hearing, 38(2), 223-235.

Leibold, L. J. (2017). Speech perception in complex acoustic environments: Developmental effects. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 60(10), 3001-3008.

Buss, E., Leibold, L. J., & Hall III, J. W. (2016). Effect of response context and masker type on word recognition in school-age children and adults. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 140(2), 968-977.

Buss, E., Porter, H., Leibold, L.J., Grose, J.H., & Hall, J.W. (2016). Effects of self-generated noise on estimates of detection threshold in quiet for school-age children and adults.Ear and Hearing. 37(6), 650-659.

Calandruccio, L., Leibold, L. J., & Buss, E. (2016). Linguistic masking release in school-age children and adults. American Journal of Audiology, 25(1), 34-40.

Corbin, N. E., Bonino, A. Y., Buss, E., & Leibold, L. J. (2016). Development of open-set word recognition in children: Speech-shaped noise and two-talker speech maskers. Ear and Hearing, 37(1), 55-63.

Flaherty, M. M., Buss, E., & Leibold, L. J. (2016). Effect of temporal asynchrony on children's detection performance in a random-frequency, multi-tonal masking task. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 140(4), 3265-3265.

Leibold, L. J., Bonino, A. Y., & Buss, E. (2016). Masked speech perception thresholds in infants, children, and adults. Ear and Hearing, 37(3), 345-353.

Bonino, A. Y., & Leibold, L. J. (2015). Adults, but not children, benefit from a pretrial signal cue in a random-frequency, two-tone masker. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 138(1), EL8-EL13.

Hillock-Dunn, A., Taylor, C., Buss, E., & Leibold, L. J. (2015). Assessing speech perception in children with hearing loss: What conventional clinical tools may miss. Ear and Hearing, 36(2), e57.

Baker, M., Buss, E., Jacks, A., Taylor, C., & Leibold, L. J. (2014). Children's perception of speech produced in a two-talker background. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 57(1), 327-337.

Bonino, A. Y., Leibold, L. J., & Buss, E. (2011). Effect of signal‐temporal uncertainty during childhood: Detection of a tonal signal in a random‐frequency, two‐tone masker. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 129(4), 2591-2591.

Browning, J., Buss, E., & Leibold, L. J. (2014). Preliminary evaluation of a two-interval, two-alternative infant behavioral testing procedure. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 136(3), EL236-EL241.

Buss, E., Taylor, C. N., & Leibold, L. J. (2014). Factors affecting sensitivity to frequency change in school-age children and adults. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 57(5), 1972-1982.

Calandruccio, L., Gomez, B., Buss, E., & Leibold, L. J. (2014). Development and preliminary evaluation of a pediatric Spanish–English speech perception task. American Journal of Audiology, 23(2), 158-172.

Hillock-Dunn, A., Buss, E., Duncan, N., Roush, P. A., & Leibold, L. (2014). Effects of nonlinear frequency compression on speech identification in children with hearing loss. Ear and Hearing, 35(3), 353.

Leibold, L. J., Hodson, H., McCreery, R. W., Calandruccio, L., & Buss, E. (2014). Effects of low-pass filtering on the perception of word-final plurality markers in children and adults with normal hearing. American Journal of Audiology, 23(3), 351-358.

Bonino, A. Y., Leibold, L. J., & Buss, E. (2013). Release from perceptual masking for children and adults: Benefit of a carrier phrase. Ear and Hearing, 34(1), 3.

Leibold, L. J., Hillock-Dunn, A., Duncan, N., Roush, P. A., & Buss, E. (2013). Influence of hearing loss on children's identification of spondee words in a speech-shaped noise or a two-talker masker. Ear and Hearing, 34(5), 575.