Facemask Research

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Dr. Thibodeau and the Hearing Lab were selected to receive the Ear and Hearing Readers’ Choice Award for their paper Communicating During COVID-19: The Effect of Transparent Masks for Speech Recognition in Noise. The Readers’ Choice Award is given to the article published in 2021 that has been accessed most often on the journal website and/or through the Ovid online portal in 2021. The article was accessed more than 3,000 times in the 2021 calendar year! Congratulations to the lab!

The facemask research is ongoing with a focus now on the benefits of adding a remote microphone. Please click the link below to participate even if you completed the first study.
Participate in the study

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals are required to wear masks. Opaque masks prevent individuals with hearing loss from reading speech cues in listening environments.

Dr. Thibodeau and the hearing health lab have been investigating the impact of transparent window masks. We conducted a study and found a significant benefit of transparent masks when measuring speech recognition for listeners with normal hearing and hearing loss (Thibodeau et al. 2020).

This research was submitted and accepted for publication in Ear and Hearing: The official journal for the American Auditory Society. See the article:
Communicating During COVID-19 – The Effect of Transparent Masks for Speech Recognition in Noise 

View Communication Tips During the COVID-19 Pandemic 

Try our Facemask study videos for yourself! 

Demo of facemask effects when using remote microphone system.