Jessica Andrew, Psychology, Lancaster University (2022 Cohort)

Entering this new term, I had the opportunity to embark on my first academic adventure overseas. Myself and colleagues visited Potsdam in Germany and were fortunate enough to attend both workshop and lab environments. 

During our stay, the Speech in Noise Workshop (SpIN) was underway, and we had a chance to speak with likeminded students and researchers about their experiments and findings. Prior to this workshop, I believed that this area of research was very niche and specific. However, there were so many people from such diverse disciplines and backgrounds that came together to share and present their research, that is was an eye-opening experience for me!  I discovered that a wide array of topics were being covered, ranging from speech-related topics in adverse conditions, speech production, as well as linguistic and cognitive aspects of speech communication and effects of hearing impairment on speech processing. The discussions extended to encompass various demographic groups including children, older adults, individuals with hearing impairments and cochlear implant users, each investigated through distinct measures and experimental paradigms. This gave my team and I the chance to engage one on one with fellow workshop attendees and also network and engage with academics and other students within this domain, hearing more about their academic experiences as well as their research pursuits. This gave me the opportunity to talk about my research and facilitate stimulating discussions, leading to creative ideas that I could also apply in my area of interest.

After the workshop ended, we visited the Neurocognition of Language Lab at the University of Potsdam. During this visit, I was able to broaden my understanding on how other labs and researchers organised themselves as well as having first-hand experience with the equipment and experimental set ups that were used. It was very fascinating to see what further research is being conducted to enhance the speech perception literature. Fellow PhD students that are part of the Neurocognition of Language Lab gave us a guided tour around their facilities whilst sharing their experiences working with the measures and techniques. Some of the PhD students within the lab had the chance to travel and complete sections of their PhD at other institutes overseas, like in Australia! I thoroughly enjoyed listening to their experiences and hearing how the different institutes collaborate.   

Whilst in Potsdam, we had also the opportunity to explore the local area, admire the beautiful buildings and enjoy the snow!! We travelled into Berlin and got to sample incredible local food as well as learning about all the extremely interesting history of east and west Berlin.  

A very big thank you to the NWSSDTP for covering the expense of the Speech in Noise Workshop registration fee with their Research Training Support Grant. This trip was an amazing experience and will help advance my research in many ways. 

My PhD research is looking at the effect of sports-related head impacts on brain function, and I am very interested on how athletes hearing abilities may be affected by the accumulation of these head impacts, which again takes another perspective on this niche topic. Hearing others thoughts on this was very insightful and makes me excited to take on my PhD adventure!