Study Details

Title:

Voice Amplifier to Enhance Occupational Safety and Critical Care among Masked Providers

Researcher:

Benjamin Eisenreich   

Contact:

"Benjamin Eisenreich" <beisenre@umn.edu>

Term:

Spring 2026

Description:

You are invited to be in a research study about quality and intelligibility of speech produced through a personal voice amplifier. Data from this study will be used to examine the performance of a new personal voice amplifier designed for use with respiratory protective equipment (RPE) in healthcare settings. As part of this study you will listen to audio recordings of speech produced through a personal voice amplifier and mask in a sound attenuated audio booth. The audio recordings will consist of a standardized set of English sentences, for example one sentence might be “The ground was wet after the rain.” After listening to a sentence, you will report back what you heard, as well as a rating for the quality of the produced speech on a 1-5 scale. For rating speech quality, a 1 corresponds to a rating of ‘unintelligible’ or ‘could not understand’ and a 5 corresponds to ‘perfectly clear’. The loudness of the audio recordings will vary between two levels, 65 dbSPL, which corresponds to the volume of normal conversational speech, and 75 dbSPL, roughly equivalent to the volume of a conversation in a noisy environment. dbSPL is “decibels sound pressure level.” You will listen to a total of 80 sentences, with a short break halfway through the task. This task is self-paced and should take approximately 2 hours to complete. This study is open to all Adults (18-75) with normal hearing.

Delivery Format:

Live (in-person or remote)

Maximum number of sessions:

1

Maximum Time Commitment:

120 minutes

Maximum REP Point Award:

5

Requirements:

• 18 and over
• Normal hearing