Dominic Massaro's research, carried out in collaboration with students and colleagues, is concerned with the psychological operations involved in language, perception, memory, cognition, and decision making. Theories are developed and quantified to give precise models of performance, which are tested and contrasted in experiments. Some of this research has been carried out on understanding both written and spoken language, demonstrating that perceivers evaluate and integrate several sources of information to perceive and understand language. In face-to-face communication, for example, both the facial movements of the speaker and the sounds of the message contribute to speech perception. In reading written text, readers use their knowledge of spelling patterns as well as the visual information in word recognition. The models Massaro and his collaborators have developed and tested include a "fuzzy logical" model of perception, connectionist or parallel distributed models, and interactive activation models. Based on the results of these theoretical and experimental studies, they have developed applications relevant to our everyday life. We have developed a computer animated talking head, Baldi, who can serve as a language tutor, reading tutor, or personal agent in human machine interaction, interpersonal communication over the internet, or in multi-person game environments. Four areas of application have been 1) use of Baldi as a language tutor for children with language challenges, 2) teaching language to new language learners, 3) training autistic children to read emotion and speech during face-to-face communication, and 4) use of Baldi for reading assessment and learning to read.

Understanding language, speech perception and reading, language learning and speech technology, pattern recognition, psychology of interactive media, psychology of art and new media, human-machine interface.

M.A., Ph.D., University of Massachusetts
B.A., University of California, Los Angeles

SymbioticValue of an Embodied Agent in Language Learning. In Sprague, R.H., Jr. (Ed.), IEEE Proceedings of 37th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (CD-ROM), Computer Society Press, 10 pages, 2004. Best paper in Emerging Technologies.

Massaro, DW. and Light, J. Using visible speech for training perception and production of speech for hard of hearing individuals. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 2004, 47(2), 304-320.

From Multisensory Integration to Talking Heads and Language Learning. In G. Calvert, C. Spence and B.E. Stein (Eds.), Handbook of Multisensory Processes, 2004, (pp.153-176). Massachusetts: MIT Press.

de la Vaux, S.K. and Massaro, DW. Audiovisual Speech Gating: Examining Information and Information Processing. Cognitive Processing (Special Issue devoted to Multisensory Processing), 2004, (2), 106-112.

Massaro, DW., Cohen, M.M., Campbell, C.S. and Rodriguez, T. Bayes Factor of Model Selection Validates FLMP. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 2001, 8, 1-17.

Perceiving Talking Faces: From Speech Perception to a Behavioral Principle. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998.

Massaro, D.W., and Stork, D.G. Speech recognition and sensory integration, American Scientist, 1998, 86, 236-244.