Tom Campbell
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Architectural acoustics
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Auditory distraction
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Cognitive hearing science
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Health & Wellbeing
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Internationalization
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Productivity
Tom Campbell has thirty years of experience investigating auditory distraction, with ten in cognitive hearing science, the new science of speech intelligibility. These are hot topics in this new era of open plan offices and open classrooms.
His doctoral thesis brought us new insights into the nature of the auditory distraction. He has since conducted, supported, supervised, and coordinated research in four countries, working both in universities and companies.
Science popularisation activities include a research update “The cognitive neuroscience of auditory distraction” in the high-impact Trends in Cognitive Sciences. He also organised the Brain Awareness Week symposium that he chaired at Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. According to the target audience, contributions to public engagement are not only informative but also entertaining, e.g., “The cognitive hearing science of telling a joke in a bar” from the 10th ScienceSlam at Kulttuuriareena Gloria.
His passion is for raising awareness of how speech intelligibility depends on what we hear, see, and know. Invited speaker engagements include large international conferences, such as his keynote at the 11th International Symposium EURO-CIU. His co-edited volume “Cognitive hearing science: investigating the relationship between selective attention and brain activity” chronicles seven years of progress made by 48 scientists, including Kimmo Alho and Mona Moisala.
Auditory distraction is a hot topic in this modern era of open-plan offices and open classrooms. Going beyond the architectural acoustics, Tom Campbell is excited to bring you a cautious understanding of the data concerning the adverse effects of background sound. This new understanding can inform your sound management at work. The aim of such sound management policies is often to improve your productivity and wellbeing. In planning an effective keynote, he investigates nuances of the needs for speech communication and problems with auditory distraction at your workplace. Such environments range from schools, to businesses, to safety-critical settings.
Tom Campbell’s sought-after topics
Topics:
- The cognitive hearing science of telling a joke in a bar.
- Auditory distraction and architectural acoustics.
- Sound management, productivity, and well-being at work.
- Internationalisation and learning Finnish as a second language.
Public references:
“Thank you, Tom, for a very interesting presentation and giving us perspectives about these brainstem responses and how these could be used in the perspective of music and about the top-down attention thing and everything you said. […] I think still if you are working in cochlear implants in companies this is a excellent researcher who knows about so so many things – brainstem responses, about binaural cues, and about cognitive responses, so he’s a treasure I think and I’m very happy to introduce him here from a Finnish perspective […] I think we should really go to looking more at the interaction of these two ears and how they are combined together with two implants. This is a very important thing for music perception.” – Ritva Torppa, Logopedian yliopistonlehtori, Helsingin yliopisto
“Dr Campbell is an established expert on cognitive hearing science with considerable international experience. He is also an expert on auditory distraction adept at advising organisations on noise management. I invited him to speak to the hundreds of delegates of the 4th International Conference on Cognitive Hearing Science for Communication at Linköping Konsert & Kongress in 2017.
Tom’s 15-minute talk shared his new early filter model’s assumptions. He made each assumption very clear. He referred the audience to his article on the supporting data and predictions of this model. He walked as he spoke in a lively tone that maintained the audience’s focus, managing time well to permit an engaging question and answer session.
His inspiring talk created an interaction inasmuch that he and I then had a constructive theoretical discussion as to how our models differ. One assumption of his model has sparked the new idea to investigate how acetylcholinesterase inhibitors can improve speech intelligibility when speech is degraded. The prediction of his model’s assumption then proved correct (Hardy et al., 2017).
With caution (Campbell & Marsh, 2018), the application of such a development has great potential. That is, there has been an impact of communicating this assumption clearly. A more recent impact upon the field has been that Dr Campbell and I went on to co-edit a volume “Cognitive hearing science: investigating the relationship between selective attention and brain activity”.
While his commitment to cognitive hearing science is indeed a serious undertaking, Dr Campbell keeps his sense of humour. His humour is an asset with which he will continue to raise public awareness in a diversity of communities as to how speech intelligibility depends upon what we hear, see, and know.” – Jerker Rönnberg, Emeritus Professor of Psychology
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