Rachel M. Theodore

My research program focuses on the cognitive and perceptual mechanisms that support spoken language processing, with a particular focus on how listeners perceive and learn from variable speech input. I examine how acoustic-phonetic, lexical, and other aspects of linguistic structure interact to shape the structure of phonetic categories, speech perception, and perceptual learning. 

A central goal of my research is to understand how listeners build and adapt representations of spoken language based on their experience with the statistical structure of speech, as well as how and why these processes vary across individuals. I am particularly interested in how differences in language ability and experience influence speech processing, including in individuals with communication disorders and other clinical populations. By identifying the mechanisms that support individual differences in adaptation to variable speech, my work has implications for understanding communication difficulties and for informing approaches to assessment and intervention.

Speech Production and Perception

• Program Director, U.S. National Science Foundation (2023 – 2025)
• Vice President of Admissions, Board of Directors, Council of Academic Programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders (2020 – 2025)
• Associate Editor, Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics (2022 – 2024)
• Associate Editor, Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, “Promoting reproducibility in the speech, language, and hearing sciences” Forum (2022 – 2023)
• Associate Editor, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America – Express Letters (2020 – 2023)
• Associate Editor, Language & Speech (2017 – 2022)