National Center for Rehabilitative Auditory Research (NCRAR)
Michelle Molis, Ph.D.
Email: michelle.molis@va.gov
Telephone: 503-220-8262 x55574
Fax: 503-721-1402
Current Appointments
- Research Investigator, NCRAR
- Assistant Professor, Dept. Otolaryngology, Oregon Health & Science University
Dr. Molis received her Ph.D. in 2002 in experimental psychology from the University of Texas at Austin. After three years as a postdoctoral research associate at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, she joined the NCRAR in 2005, where she continues her work with Dr. Marjorie Leek. Her research focuses on speech perception by people with hearing loss as well as normal-hearing individuals, and on modeling vowel perception. She is particularly interested in understanding the distortions in vowel sounds that result from processing by an impaired auditory system, and that are likely to increase listening effort for hearing-impaired listeners.
Research Project(s)
- Spectral Dynamics and Speech Understanding by Hearing Impaired People, VA RR&D, 7/1/13 - 6/30/16
- Perception of Dynamic Acoustic Signals by Hearing Impaired Listeners, NIH NIDCD, 3/1/13 - 2/28/18
Selected Recent Publications
Molis, M.R., Diedesch, A., Gallun, F., and Leek, M.R. (2013). Vowel identification by amplitude and phase contrast. Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology. 14(1), 125-137. (DOI) 10.1007/s10162-012-0352-1.
Bennett, K.O., Billings, C.J., Molis, M.R., Leek, M.R. (2012). Neural encoding of speech signals in informational masking, Ear & Hearing, 33, 231-238.
Molis, M.R., Leek, M.R. (2011). Vowel identification by hearing-impaired listeners in response to variation in formant frequencies. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 54(4), 1211-1223.
Billings, C.J., Bennett, K.O., Molis, M.R., Leek, M.R. (2011). Cortical encoding of signals in noise: Effects of stimulus type and recording paradigm. Ear & Hearing, 32(1), 53-60.
Leek, M.R., Molis, M.R. (2009). Beyond audibility: Hearing loss and the perception of speech. Invited manuscript. The ASHA Leader. November 3, 2009.
Lauer, A.M., Molis, M., Leek, M.R. (2009). Discrimination of time-reversed harmonic complexes by normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners, Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, 10(4), 609-619.
Leek, M.R., Molis, M.R., Kubli L.R., Tufts, J.B. (2008). Enjoyment of music by elderly hearing-impaired listeners, Journal of the American Academy of Audiology 19(6), 519-526.
Tufts, J.B., Molis, M.R. (2007). Perception of roughness by listeners with sensorineural hearing loss, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 121(4), EL161-167.
Molis, M.R. (2005). Evaluating models of vowel perception, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 118(2), 1062-1071.
Tufts, J.B., Molis, M.R., Leek, M.R. (2005). Perception of dissonance by people with normal hearing and sensorineural hearing loss, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 118(2), 955-967.
Selected Recent Presentations
Molis, M., Dann, S., Gallun, F., Kampel, S., and Konrad-Martin, D. (2014). Effects of Aging and Hearing on a Time-Compressed Speech Test. Poster presented at the American Auditory Society Scientific & Technical Meeting, Scottsdale AZ, March 2014.
Kampel, S., Gallun, F., Molis, M., Dann, S., Srinivasan, N.K., Gordon, S., Jakien, K., and Konrad-Martin, D. (2014). Impacts of Aging on the Central Auditory System. Poster presented at the American Auditory Society Scientific & Technical Meeting, Scottsdale AZ, March 2014.
Dann, S.M., Gallun, F.J., McMillan, G.P., Kampel, S.D., Molis, M.R. and Konrad-Martin, D. (2013). Comparison of unmasked and forward-masked CAP amplitudes provides evidence consistent with an age effect on low-spontaneous rate fibers in humans. Poster presented at Aging and Speech Communication Conference, Bloomington, IN, October, 2013.
Kampel, S.D., Molis, M.R., Gallun, F.J., Dann, S.M., MacMillan, G.P., and Konrad-Martin, D. (2013). Effects of Hearing and Aging on Sentence-Level Time-Gated Word Recognition. Poster presented at Aging and Speech Communication Conference, Bloomington, IN, October 2013.
Shearer, D.E., Leek, M.R., Molis, M., Bennett, K.O. Belding, H.(2012). Auditory stream segregation of iterated rippled noises. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the American Auditory Society, Scottsdale, AZ, March, 2012.
Kampel, S.D., McMillan, G.P., Molis, M.R., Gallun, E.J., Dann, S.M., Ellingson, R.M., Vachhani, J.J., Konrad-Martin, D. (2012). Developing a Time-Gated Word Test using Speech-Perception-in-Noise (SPIN-R) Sentences. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the American Auditory Society, Scottsdale, AZ, March, 2012.
Gallun, F.J., Konrad-Martin, D.L., Molis, M.R., Dann, S.M., Kampel, S.D., Vachhani, J.J. (2012). Relationships among aging and temporal sensitivity at multiple time scales. Poster presented at the 35th Midwinter Meeting of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, San Diego, CA, February, 2012.
Still, K., Molis, M.R., Kampel, S. (2011). Identification of vowels in silent-center syllables by hearing-impaired listeners. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the American Auditory Society, Scottsdale, AZ, March, 2011.
Billings, C.J., Bennett, K.O., Molis, M.R., Leek, M.R. (2011). Event-related potentials and perception of speech in several types of noise background. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 129, 2589.
Molis M.R., Bennett, K.O., and Leek, M.R. (2010). Temporal processing and time-compressed speech tests as predictors of speech understanding in noise. Poster presented at the 2010 International Hearing Aid Research Conference (IHCON), Lake Tahoe, CA, August, 2010.
Summers, V., Bernstein, J.G.W., Makashay, M.J., Mehraei, G., Melamed, S., Leek, M.R., Gallun, F.J., Molis, M. (2010). Suprathreshold auditory processing and speech perception in noise for hearing-impaired listeners. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 127, 1903.
O’Connell Bennett K., Billings, C.J., Molis, M.R., and Leek, M.R. (2010). Informational masking of cortical evoked potentials and of speech discrimination. Poster presented at annual meeting of American Auditory Society, Scottsdale, AZ, March, 2010.
Molis, M.R., Teahen, M., and Leek, M.R. (2009). The combined effects of distortions on vowel identification. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 125, 2533.
