Dr. Gal Nitsan was awarded a Fulbright postdoctoral fellowship to pursue her research project, “From Lab to Life: Individual Differences in Auditory-Cognitive Training Outcomes and VR-Based Speech-in-Noise Assessment in Older Adults.” In this project, Gal will examine why some older adults struggle to understand speech in noisy environments, even when standard hearing tests appear normal, and why some individuals benefit more than others from auditory-cognitive training. The project will also evaluate the clinical potential of a virtual reality–based assessment tool designed to measure speech understanding and listening effort. Her aim is to support communication in aging populations by enabling audiologists to deliver the right intervention for the right patient at the right time.

Gal is a licensed speech-language pathologist and audiologist. She earned her BA in speech and hearing communication disorders from Tel Aviv University and her MA in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Haifa, where she also completed her PhD. During her PhD, under the joint supervision of Professor Karen Banai (University of Haifa) and Professor Boaz Ben-David (Department of Psychology, Reichman University), she used eye tracking and pupillometry to explore how individual differences in cognitive capacity influence spoken word recognition, listening effort, and adaptation to challenging listening conditions in younger and older adults.

Recent publication: 

Nitsan, G., Banai, K., & Ben-David, B. M. (2022). One Size Does Not Fit All: Examining the Effects of Working Memory Capacity on Spoken Word Recognition in Older Adults Using Eye Tracking. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 841466.