Research

My research program is centered on understanding the perceptual organization of auditory experiences. Organizing complex perceptual input in real time is crucial for our ability to interact with the world around us, and information received in the auditory modality in particular is central to many fundamental aspects of human behavior (e.g., spoken language, music, sound localization). Classic views of perception hold that we absorb environmental information from our senses and translate these inputs into signals that the brain organizes, identifies, and interprets in a bottom-up fashion. However, there is a long-standing debate in cognitive science as to the degree to which top-down effects from higher-level processes such as emotions, actions, motivation, intentions, and linguistic representations directly influence perceptual processing (e.g., Firestone & Scholl, 2016, and subsequent commentaries in Behavioral & Brain Sciences).

My research supports this more flexible definition of perception, focusing on the importance of interactions, including the interaction of bottom-up and top-down processing and interactions within and across modalities. To this end, I take an interdisciplinary approach to understanding auditory perception, and throughout my training, I have pursued collaborations in several areas of psychology, as well as music and linguistics. Successful collaborations have allowed me to increase the scope of my research in terms of both the domains investigated and the methods used to address my research questions. My research program now encompasses music, speech, and cross-modal perception using a combination of behavioral, cognitive neuroscience, and computational modeling approaches. This work speaks to a broad set of issues within psychological science: To what extent are cognitive processes encapsulated from one another? How is perception influenced by individual and cross-cultural differences, previous knowledge, expertise, and task demands?

Ongoing Project Topics:

Top-down effects in speech
Bilingual speech perception
Music and memory
Audiovisual correspondence perception
Audiovisual interactions in speech

LAMP Lab website:

Language and Music Perception Lab

Publications

Tran, J. & Getz, L. (2023). Attention required for advertisement pitch, tempo, and timbre to influence the perception of product features. Music Perception.

Getz, L. (2023). Competition between audiovisual correspondences aids understanding of relationship between auditory and visual perception. Frontiers in Cognition.

Misko, S., Hays, O. & Getz, L. (2022). Examining the Efficacy of Using a Change Blindness Framework as a Novel Social Media Intervention. Psi Chi Journal.

Apostol, M. & Getz, L. (2022). Kill One to Save Five? How Time Pressure, Religiosity, and Framing Effects Impact Utilitarian Judgments. Psi Chi Journal.

Morett, L. M., Feiler, J. B., & Getz, L. (2022). Elucidating the influences of embodiment and conceptual metaphor on lexical and non-speech tone learning. Cognition.

Getz, L., Barton, S., & Perry, L. (2021). Context-specific knowledge is the key to salsa music. Auditory Perception & Cognition.

Getz, L. & Toscano, J. (2021). Re-evaluating the McGurk effect as a robust perceptual illusion. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics.

Getz, L. & Toscano, J. (2020; invited review). The time-course of speech perception revealed by real-time neural measures. WIREs Cognitive Science.

Getz, L. & Toscano, J. (2019). Electrophysiological evidence for top-down lexical influences on early speech perception. Psychological Science.

Getz, L., & Kubovy, M. (2018). Questioning the automaticity of audiovisual correspondences. Cognition.

Getz, L., Nordeen, E., Vrabic, S., & Toscano, J. (2017). Modeling the development of audiovisual cue integration in speech perception. Brain Sciences.

Barton, S., Getz, L., & Kubovy, M. (2017). Systematic variation in rhythm production as tempo changes. Music Perception.

Roy, M., Radzevick, J. & Getz, L. (2016). Individual differences common to musicians could lead to health problems. Muziki.

Getz, L., Wohltjen, S. & Kubovy, M. (2016). Competition between rhythmic and language organization: The importance of task demands. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.

Yu, M., Getz, L., & Kubovy, M. (2015). Temporal parsing of cyclical auditory rhythm patterns: Quantitative laws. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics.

Getz, L., Salona, P., Yu, M. & Kubovy, M. (2015). Competition between rhythmic and language organization in a sentence-rhythm Stroop task. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.

Roy, M., Devroop, K. & Getz, L. (2015). Change in South African students’ outlook after participating in a concert band. Music Education Research.

Getz, L., Barton, S. & Kubovy, M. (2014). The specificity of expertise: For whom is the clave pattern the “key” to Latin salsa music? Acta Psychologica.

Getz, L., Marks, S. & Roy, M. (2014). Level of stress, optimism, and music training predict whether people use music for cognitive stimulation or emotional regulation. Psychology of Music.

Getz, L., & Roy, M. (2013). Student leadership perceptions from South Africa and the United States. International Journal of Psychological Studies.

Getz, L., Chamorro-Premuzic, T., Roy, M. & Devroop, K. (2012). The relationship between affect, uses of music, and music preferences in a sample of South African adolescents. Psychology of Music.

Presentations

Conference Talks

Getz, L. (2024, November). The robustness of audiovisual correspondences depends on context. 65th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomics Society, New York, NY.

Getz, L. (2023, November). Effects of task language on English and Spanish bilinguals’ speech perception. 22nd Annual Auditory Perception, Cognition, and Action Meeting, San Francisco, CA.

Getz, L. & Tran, J. (2021, November). The influence of advertisement pitch, tempo, and timbre on the perception of product features. 20th Annual Auditory Perception, Cognition, and Action Meeting, Virtual.

Getz, L. (2020, October). Competition between audiovisual correspondences showcases the strength of the pitch-height metaphor. 100th Annual Convention of the Western Psychological Association, Virtual Meeting.

Getz, L. & Toscano, J. (2019, May). Semantic context influences early speech perception: Evidence from electrophysiology. 177th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Louisville, KY.

Getz, L. & Toscano, J. (2019, March). When classroom demonstrations fail, the real learning begins: Why McGurk doesn’t work. Annual Meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, New York City, NY.

Getz, L. & Toscano, J. (2018, November). Top-down lexical knowledge directly influences early speech perception. 17th Annual Auditory Perception, Cognition, and Action Meeting, New Orleans, LA.

Getz, L. & Toscano, J. (2018, March). Top-down semantic information influences early speech sound encoding. Annual Meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Philadelphia, PA.

Getz, L. (2017, June). The specificity of expertise and the “language” of salsa music. Lake Como School of Advanced Studies: “Music, Language, and Cognition”, Como, Italy.

Getz, L. & Kubovy, M. (2016, December). Can a pitch be “sharp”, “bright”, “large”, “narrow”, and “high”? Questioning the automaticity of audiovisual correspondences. 5th Joint Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and the Acoustical Society of Japan, Honolulu, HI.

Getz, L. & Kubovy, M. (2015, March). Are All Musicians Always Better than Non-Musicians on Music-Related Tasks? William & Mary College Graduate Research Symposium, Williamsburg, VA.

Getz, L., Salona, P., Yu, M. & Kubovy, M. (2012, November). “Clave Rap”: The Segmentation of Linguistic Auditory Necklaces. 11th Annual Auditory Perception, Cognition, and Action Meeting (APCAM), Minneapolis, MN.

Invited Colloquium Talks

Getz, L. (2025, March). Musical Pathways: Understanding Music's Relationship with Perception, Attention, and Memory. Center for Music, Brain and Society seminar series. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA.

Getz, L. (2025, February). Audiovisual Integration and Top-Down Influences on Speech Perception. Center for Research in Language Seminar Series at UCSD, San Diego, CA.

Getz, L. (2025, February). Audiovisual Integration and Top-Down Influences on Speech Perception. Electronic Auditory Research Seminars (EARS) series at UPenn [virtual].

Getz, L. (2024, December). Context influences music perception, attention, and memory. “Musical Pathways” Cognitive Science Panel presentation, University of San Diego.

Getz, L. (2024, March). Context influences music perception, attention, and memory. San Diego State University Arts Alive Discovery Series Panel presentation, El Cajon, CA.

Getz, L. (2022, October). Using Technology to Solve Decades-Long Speech Perception Debate. University of San Diego “Technology and the Human Experience” Cluster Theme Symposium, San Diego, CA.

Getz, L. (2021, March). WRAP --> LAMP: Understanding Interactions Between Auditory and Visual Perception. Cognitive Science Brown Bag Series at Villanova University, Villanova, PA [virtual].

Getz, L. (2020, January). Audiovisual Integration and Top-Down Influences In Speech Perception. Center for Research in Language Seminar Series at UCSD, San Diego, CA

Getz, L. (2018, October). Interactions are Essential: Audiovisual Integration and Top-Down Influences in Perception. mindCORE Integrative Language Sciences and Technology Seminar Series at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.

Getz, L. (2016, February). Assessing replication strength and top-down influences on audiovisual cross-modal correspondences. Cognitive Seminar Series at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD.

Getz, L. (2014, October). Who’s Got the Groove? The Specificity of Rhythm Expertise. “Music and the Mind” seminar series at Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA.

Getz, L. (2014, February). Auditory Stroop Effect: Perceptual Organization vs. Language. Psychological Sciences Roundtable at James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA.

Selected Poster Presentations

Getz, L. (2024, July). Did you say Beer, Deer, or Gear? Exploring the McGurk effect using word stimuli. 46th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Getz, L. & Ramirez, I.* (2024, June). Melodies do not improve short-term memory recall of unrelated word lists. Neuroscience and Music Conference VIII. Helsinki, Finland.

Getz, L. & Eason, S.* (2023, November). Using EEG to compare multiple top-down factors on speech perception. 64th Psychonomics Society Meeting, San Francisco, CA.

Getz, L. (2022, November). Competition between audiovisual correspondences aids understanding of interactions between auditory and visual perception. 63rd Psychonomics Society Meeting, Boston, MA.

Zelenskyy, T. *, Warman, C. *, & Getz, L. (2022, November). Are melodies a useful mnemonic cue for word list recall? 21st Annual Auditory Perception, Cognition, and Action Meeting, Boston, MA.

Dejbakhsh, S.*, & Getz, L. (2021, November). Facial emotion detection modulated by accompanying auditory screams and cries. 62nd Psychonomics Society Meeting [virtual].

Getz, L., & Toscano, J. (2019, December). McGurk doesn’t work: Individual differences and task demands explain the McGurk illusion. 178th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, San Diego, CA.

Getz, L., Barton, S., & Perry, L. (2019, November). Context-specific knowledge is the key to salsa music. 60th Psychonomics Society Meeting, Montreal, Canada.

Getz, L., & Toscano, J. (2018, November). McGurk doesn’t work: Evidence against the McGurk effect as a perceptual illusion. 59th Psychonomics Society Meeting, New Orleans, LA.

Getz, L., & Toscano, J. (2017, November). Marching Bands and Butter Bombs: Semantic Association Modulates the Auditory N100 Response to Speech Sounds. 58th Psychonomics Society Meeting, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Getz, L., Barton, S., Perry, L., & Kubovy, M. (2017, July). The Specificity of Expertise and the “Language” of Salsa Music. Biennial Meeting of the Society for Music Perception & Cognition, San Diego, CA.

Getz, L., Kondrad, R. +, Kubovy, M., & Keen, R. (2012, May). Age, Exposure, and Music Training as Indicators of Rhythm Discrimination Abilities. 24th Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, Chicago, IL.

Getz, L., Hopkins, E. B.+, & Proffitt, D. (2012, February). A Dynamic Analysis of Physiological Changes During Music Listening. North Carolina Cognition Conference, Durham, NC.

Getz, L. & Lemley, C. (2009, May). Music Training Does Not Increase Shadowing Accuracy in a Dichotic-Listening Task. 21st Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco, CA.

Student Presentations

Phan, K.*, Noteboom, E.*, Geffan, S., Robinson, C., & Getz, L. (2024, November) Congruency Advantage in Multisensory Processing is Task-Specific. Poster presented at the 23rd Annual Auditory Perception, Cognition, and Action Meeting, New York, NY.

Ramirez, I.*, O’Donnell, L.* & Getz, L. (2024, November). Melodies Are Not a Useful Mnemonic Cue for Immediate Word Recall Regardless of Familiarity. Poster presented at the 23rd Annual Auditory Perception, Cognition, and Action Meeting, New York, NY.

Thomas, G.*, Torre, C. *, Picazo, D. *, & Getz, L. (2024, November). English-Spanish Bilinguals’ Perception of Ambiguous Speech Sounds Changes Based on Task Language. Poster presented at the 23rd Annual Auditory Perception, Cognition, and Action Meeting, New York, NY.

Noteboom, E.*, Torre, C.*, O’Donnell, L.*, Phan, K.*, Geffan, S., Robinson, C., & Getz, L. (2024, April). Congruency Advantage in Multisensory Processing Depends on Both Speed and Accuracy. Poster presented at the 104th Annual Convention of the Western Psychological Association, San Francisco, CA.

Picazo, D.*, & Getz, L. (2024, April). A Qualitative Analysis of Bilinguals’ Personal, Social, and Cognitive Experiences. Poster presented at the 104th Annual Convention of the Western Psychological Association, San Francisco, CA.

Ramirez, I.*, & Getz, L. (2024, April). Melodies Are Not a Useful Mnemonic Cue for Immediate Word Recall. Poster presented at the 104th Annual Convention of the Western Psychological Association, San Francisco, CA.

Torre, C. *, Noteboom, E. *, Picazo, D. *, & Getz, L. (2024, April). Task Language Changes English-Spanish Bilinguals’ Perception of Ambiguous Speech Sounds. Poster presented at the 104th Annual Convention of the Western Psychological Association, San Francisco, CA.

Eason, S. *, Skeeland, H. *, Masino, G. *, & Getz, L. (2023, April). Using EEG to understand the impacts of top-down processing on speech perception. Poster presented at the 103rd Annual Convention of the Western Psychological Association, Riverside, CA.

Griffin, A. *, Mann, S. *, Ramirez, I. *, & Getz, L. (2023, April). Using EEG to investigate the time course of the McGurk effect. Poster presented at the 103rd Annual Convention of the Western Psychological Association, Riverside, CA.

Nguyen, M.* & Getz, L. (2022, April). Speech convergence in casual and difficult group conversations. Poster presented at the 102nd Annual Convention of the Western Psychological Association, Portland, OR.

Novelli, R.* & Getz, L. (2022, April). Interpretation of Masked and Unmasked Faces with Emotional Audio. Poster presented at the 102nd Annual Convention of the Western Psychological Association, Portland, OR.

Zelenskyy, T.* & Getz, L. (2022, April). Recall of emotional speech in teletherapy settings. Poster presented at the 102nd Annual Convention of the Western Psychological Association, Portland, OR.

Nguyen, M. * & Getz, L. (2021, November). The impact of speech convergence on group communication. Virtual poster presented at the 20th Annual Auditory Perception, Cognition, and Action Meeting (APCAM).

Zelenskyy, T. * & Getz, L. (2021, November). Memory recall performance is similar across teletherapy modalities. Virtual poster presented at the 20th Annual Auditory Perception, Cognition, and Action Meeting (APCAM).

Misko, S. *, Hays, O. * & Getz, L. (2021, April). Examining the Efficacy of Using a Change Blindness Framework as a Novel Social Media Intervention. Virtual poster presented at the 101st Annual Convention of the Western Psychological Association. [Winner of a 2021 Psi Chi WPA Regional Research award.]

Apostol, M. * & Getz, L. (2021, April). Kill One to Save Five? How Time Pressure, Religiosity, and Framing Effects Impact Utilitarian Judgments. Virtual poster presented at the 101st Annual Convention of the Western Psychological Association.

Dejbakhsh, S.*, McIntosh, H.*, Patel, K.*, Tran, J.* & Getz, L. (2021, April). LAMP Lab Data Blitz. Talk presented to the Psychology and Neuroscience Research Club. University of San Diego.

McIntosh, H.* & Getz, L. (2020, November). Did you say Beer, Deer, or Gear? The role of audiovisual interactions in speech perception. Virtual poster presented at the 19th Annual Auditory Perception, Cognition, and Action Meeting (APCAM).

Patel, K.* & Getz, L. (2020, November). Musical variance in an OCEAN of uncertainty: Personality influences on the use of music as a coping mechanism. Virtual poster presented at the 19th Annual Auditory Perception, Cognition, and Action Meeting (APCAM).

Rodrigues, T.* & Getz, L. (2020, November). Top-down influences on speech perception: A comparative analysis of multiple lexical factors. Virtual poster presented at the 19th Annual Auditory Perception, Cognition, and Action Meeting (APCAM).

Tran, J.* & Getz, L. (2020, November). Does this music make my feet look fast? The influence of music on the perception of products features. Virtual poster presented at the 19th Annual Auditory Perception, Cognition, and Action Meeting (APCAM).

Gai, A.*, Getz, L., & Kubovy, M. (2015, April). Anxiety can change the simultaneous rhythm and language processing. Poster presented at the Undergraduate Research Network Symposium, Charlottesville, VA.

Wohltjen, S.*, Getz, L., & Kubovy, M. (2014, April). ambiguity and complexity affect simultaneous rhythm and language processing. Poster presented at the L. Starling Reid Undergraduate Psychology Conference, Charlottesville, VA.

Korte, B.*, Getz, L., & Kubovy, M. (2013, April). Rhythm perception versus music theory: The case of syncopation. Poster presented at the L. Starling Reid Undergraduate Psychology Conference, Charlottesville, VA.

Salona, P.*, Getz, L., Yu, M., & Kubovy, M. (2012, April). Simultaneous processing of linguistic and musical cues. Poster presented at the L. Starling Reid Undergraduate Psychology Conference, Charlottesville, VA.

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