Kasey+Miller

__The Speech Jammer__ **Proposal:** Using a “speech jammer” app, which creates loud and distracting noises while you speak, I will test to see whether men or women can speak more fluently without being distracted by the noises. I will have about 4-5 people for each gender use the speech jammer app, reading from the same exact paragraph. As they read, I will record measurements on how they speak.

**Hypothesis:** If I test both genders on their hearing and their ability to repeat sentences more fluently, then which gender will have the better abilities?

**Explanation:** Although men and women have many different hearing strengths and weaknesses throughout their auditory system, I believe that men will have a more difficult experience speaking with the speech jammer app than women. I think this will happen because fluency disorders occur more often in boys than girls and men generally lose their hearing before women do.


 * Materials: ** Cell phone, headphones ($15), pre-typed paragraph (free), notebook (.99), people to test, app (free)


 * Budget: ** I do not have a budget because I currently have all of the materials needed.

**Measurement:** How many words out of a paragraph they read before stopping and how fluently they speak. Also, h ow the speech jammer can contribute to the way people may or may not react to loud disruptions and how gender may play a part in the Cocktail Party Effect.

**Independent Variable:** People being tested **Dependent Variable:** Speech app

__** Methods **__ 1. Download the speech jammer app. 2. Search a paragraph suitable for experiment; simple and long enough to get conclusive information. 3. Test people one at a time; as they read write down a specific description of their hearing and speaking abilities. 4. Collect information, compare and contrast both genders. 5. Make a graph to visualize results. 6. Conclusive paragraph regarding the results.


 * Safety Precautions: ** Don't test people with sensitive hearing to make sure no damage to their ears is possible.

The “cocktail party effect”- the phenomenon of being able to block out background noise while holding a conversation. (Wikipedia)
 * Background Information **

“The speech jammer uses our own speaking to silence us. For the average person, speaking requires us to hear ourselves. If that feedback becomes distorted, the person slows down and then stops talking”

“The speech jammer records a person’s voice and plays it back with a slight time delay (a few hundred milliseconds). This feedback of hearing your words again, slightly after you've said them, is so disruptive that it renders you speechless.” __ [] __

“If we suffer problems with auditory feedback, such as a very short delay between the production of speech and hearing it, we will begin to stutter and eventually come to a stop.” __ [] __

“For speech disorders the ratio is 1.5 : 2.4, male : female, and for language disorders the ratio is varied on a scale from .98 : 1 to 2.30 : 1, males : females” (National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders, 2004). __ [] __

“A number of sex differences have been documented in the human auditory system. Females as a group have greater hearing sensitivity, greater susceptibility to noise exposure at high frequencies, shorter latencies in their auditory brain stem responses, more spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SOAEs), and stronger click‐evoked otoacoustic emissions than males as a group. Males are better at sound localization, detecting binaural beats, and detecting signals in complex masking tasks than are females”. __ [|http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/87565649809540712#.UlLFBtKsiSo] __

==== Although the speech jammer was created to deliberately silence people in situations such as protests or public outbursts, I believe that in the future it could potentially contribute to the improvement of hearing abilities. The speech jammer could farther scientific research into a device that could prevent noise-induced hearing loss. I also believe that there is a possible way to largely improve speech and accuracy of processing sounds and voices to increase overall quality of auditory perception. ====

I have two things to say. Number one- nicely done. Number two- can you really get 10-15 people of each gender to let you have a phone screech something in their ear?-Your favorite Noah Hahn

"About Spatial Hearing and Spatial Processing." About Spatial Hearing and Spatial Processing. Eriksholm Research Centre, n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2013
 * __Citations__ **
 * Doss, H. M. "Silencing with the Speech Jammer." Silencing with the Speech Jammer. American Physical Society, 2013. Web. 07 Oct. 2013
 * Scicurious. "The SpeechJammer." IgNobel Prize Winner in Acoustics: The SpeechJammer. The Shut up Machine for the Passive Aggressive. Scientific American Blog Network, 21 Sept. 2012. Web. 07 Oct. 2013.
 * McFadden, Dennis. "Sex Differences in the Auditory System." Taylor and Francis. Web of Science, 04 Nov. 2009. Web. 07 Oct. 2013.
 * "Cocktail Party Effect." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Oct. 2013. Web. 16 Oct. 2013.