Human Interaction Lab

Lab Mission

Research in the Human Interaction Lab focuses on improving communication for people with neurological speech disorders, particularly those with dysarthria. Communication is essential to so many aspects of our lives--it allows us to build and maintain relationships, perform our jobs, raise children, access services, engage in our communities, and much more. By investigating ways for people with dysarthria to have more successful interactions, we aim to help them fully participate in these vital parts of their lives. 

In our lab, we investigate communication as a dynamic shared experience, in which individuals are tightly linked as part of an interdependent system. This means we consider not only the behaviors of the person with dysarthria but also their communication partners (often termed "listeners"). Our research aims to make communication more accessible and successful for everyone involved. 

One of the lab's primary research lines has investigated how listeners understand and perceptually adapt to the speech of people with dysarthria. This work now supports communication partner training as an original and theoretically grounded treatment approach to improve the intelligibility of dysarthric speech. Another central research line focuses on understanding how conversation partners coordinate and collaborate their behaviors with one another to make the interaction feel meaningful and successful. 

Research in the Human Interaction Lab is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIDCD).