MARCS Auditory Laboratories

Walk into the auditory laboratories at Bankstown and chances are you’ll hear the sounds of animated babies giggling and babbling with glee. Why? Because babies are thrilled to be in control of turning sounds on and off just by looking at a screen. Researchers monitor the babies’ responses in the next room using state of the art eye tracking and heart rate equipment. These studies provide a window into the mind of young babies acquiring the building blocks of language.

Parents’ speech is also recorded and analysed – what has often been dismissed as mindless or even counterproductive baby talk, is now known to be a strong predictor of babies’ later language development and literacy.

Around 3000 babies and toddlers are listed on the BabyLab register for research at the University of Western Sydney’s MARCS Auditory Laboratories. Over and above the quantum leaps in knowledge about infants’ speech and language development, much of this groundbreaking research is on the threshold of clinical application in areas such as hearing impairment and infants at risk of dyslexia.

The BabyLab, the Australian leader in infant speech research, is one of five research laboratory complexes at MARCS on the University’s Bankstown campus. Established 10 years ago, MARCS is among the world’s leaders in research into auditory perception and cognition, particularly in the areas of speech and music.

The complex includes the Behaviour Labs for research into the auditory underpinnings of speech and music; the Human-Machine Interaction Labs which include the study of human-robot interaction; Movement Labs that focus on music, dance and speech production; and the Brain and Psychophysiology Labs where researchers study the cortical activity associated with perceptual and cognitive processes.

MARCS has a strong interdisciplinary approach, with researchers combining their expertise in psychology, neuroscience, music, engineering, linguistics, computational analysis and other related disciplines. Most MARCS students are enrolled in doctoral programs.

The international reputation of MARCS and its network of national and international partnerships have led to a global exchange of knowledge and students, many of whom come to Australia specifically to study there.