Ph.D., University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT (1998)
Phone: (203) 392-5111
Cognitive psychology, psychology of language, speech perception and spoken word recognition, reading skill, attention, working memory
PSY 259: Statistics in Psychology
PSY 303: Perception
PSY 313: Cognition
Current/Recent Research Projects:
In my research, I study how people use both hearing and vision to identify spoken words – that is, how visible mouth movements contribute to speech comprehension.
Some ongoing projects:
- Explorations of a perceptual illusion called the "McGurk effect." This occurs when an auditory speech signal of a person saying one syllable (such as "ba") is presented at the same time as a video clip of a person saying a different syllable (such as "da"). Very often, the mismatched visual signal actually causes listeners to mis-hear the auditory syllable.
- Examining the time-course of speech perception using cursor movements with a computer mouse ("mousetracking")
- Audiovisual speech perception and eye-gaze patterns during speech perception in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) [with Dr. Julia Irwin]
- Individual differences in audiovisual speech perception and their relationship with individual differences in lipreading, reading skill, attention, working memory, and academic performance [with Dr. Dina Moore]
- Training individuals to distinguish non-native speech sounds [with Emily Myers and Jim Magnuson at UConn, Navin Viswanathan at SUNY-New Paltz, and Julia Irwin and Jonathan Preston at SCSU]
Much of my research is conducted in collaboration with researchers at Haskins Laboratories,
a non-profit research laboratory in downtown New Haven that is dedicated to the study
of speech and reading and reading disabilities. My research is partially supported
by a grant from the National Institutes of Health to Haskins Laboratories, and has
also been supported by CSU research grants.
- Brancazio, L. Mouse trajectories reveal the time-course of coarticulation and audiovisual effects in speech perception. Under revision, Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics.
- Irwin, J.R. & Brancazio, L., (2104). Seeing to hear? Patterns of gaze to speaking faces in children with autism spectrum disorders. Frontiers in Psychology. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00397
- Katz, L., Brancazio, L., Irwin, J., Katz, S., Magnuson, J., & Whalen, D. (2012). What lexical decision and naming tell us about reading. Reading and Writing, 25, 1259-1282.
- Irwin, J.R., Tornatore, L., Brancazio, L. & Whalen, D.H. (2011). Can children with autism spectrum disorders “hear” a speaking face? Child Development, 82, 1397–1403.
- Brancazio, L., Best, C. T., and Fowler, C. A. (2006). Visual influences on perception of speech and nonspeech vocal-tract events. Language and Speech, 49, 21-53.
- Brancazio, L., & Miller, J. L. (2005). Use of visual information in speech perception: Evidence for a visual rate effect in McGurk and non-McGurk responses. Perception& Psychophysics, 67, 759-769.
- Brancazio, L. (2004). Lexical influences in audiovisual speech perception. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 30, 445-463.
- Brancazio, L., Miller, J. L., & Paré, M. A. (2003). Visual influences on the internal structure of phonetic categories. Perception & Psychophysics, 65, 591-601.
Recent Conference Presentations:
- Irwin, J.R., & Brancazio, L. (2013). Audiovisual speech perception in children with autism spectrum disorders and typical controls. Conference on Audiovisual Speech Processing (AVSP2013), Annecy, France, August 30, 2013.
- Sorcinelli, A., Irwin, J.R., Brancazio, L., Gumkowski, N., Preston, J. & Landi, N. (2013). Diminished audiovisual speech perception integration for children with autism spectrum disorders. American Psychological Society annual convention, Washington, DC, May 24, 2013.
- Irwin, J.R., Brancazio, L., Tornatore, L. & Ross, J. (2011). Patterns of gaze to speaking faces in children with autism spectrum disorders and typical development. Poster presented at the International Association for Child Language (IASCL) annual meeting, Montreal, July 22, 2011.
- Irwin, J.R., Landi, N., Brancazio, L., Kennedy, A. & Grohman, E. (2011). An ERP investigation of auditory and audiovisual speech in children with autism spectrum disorders. Poster presented at the International Association for Child Language (IASCL) annual meeting, Montreal, July 23, 2011.
- Brancazio, L. (2009). Mouse-tracking analysis of context effects in speech perception. Poster presented at the 50th meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Boston, MA, November 21, 2009.
- Katz, L., Brancazio, L., Irwin, J., Katz, S., Magnuson, J., Scarborough, H., & Whalen, D. (2009). The phonological basis of reading disability. Poster presented at the 50th meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Boston, MA, Nov. 21, 2009.
- Irwin, J.R. & Brancazio, L. (2008). Correlations among three audiovisual speech tasks. Poster presented at the 156th meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Paris, July 4, 2008.
Every semester, students can register for Psy 197 (Research Internship) for up to three credits. Psych 197 is a great opportunity to gain first-hand experience in how cognitive psychology research is conducted. Students enrolled in Psych 197 are responsible for running participants in experiments, and get involved in various aspects of the research process, such as organizing data and files, scheduling and cataloging participants, and helping with data analysis.
If you are interested in enrolling in Psych 197, please email me during the registration period or during the add/drop period.
Independent Study/ Undergraduate Honors Thesis / Master's Thesis:
If you have an idea for an experiment that you would like to conduct that involves language (or related topics in cognitive psychology), please come see me so we can discuss how to set up an independent study project.
Off-Campus Research Internships and Other Research Opportunities:
Haskins Laboratories has many ongoing projects involving several aspects of speech perception, speech production, and reading, including skilled reading, reading acquisition, and reading disability. Some projects involve research using brain-imaging techniques such as fMRI. There are sometimes opportunities for psychology majors to do an internship working with research teams at Haskins, by registering for Psych 463 (Field Practicum in Psychological Research).