This cross-sectional study aims to examine the impact of visual cues on listeners' perception of speaker age. Eligible speaking participants include adult males and females between the ages of 18–90 years old without voice or hearing disorders. Eligibility will be determined by research coordinators via patient demographic forms and validated voice and hearing assessments. Speaking participants will have two audio recordings taken: (1) sustained vowel sound and (2) reading of the Consensus Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Voice (CAPE-V), a standardized tool employed to evaluate the perceptual characteristics of voice quality across a wide age range. To develop the materials for the listening participants, CAPE-V audio recordings obtained from the speaking participants will be systematically paired with race and age-matched photographs obtained from a publicly available database. The finalized materials will encompass three experimental conditions: (1) audio only, (2) audio presented with a standardized photograph of an individual matched to the speaker's gender and age, and (3) audio presented with a standardized photograph of an individual matched for gender but differing in age. Naïve listening participants, blinded to the experimental conditions, will then be presented with these materials in a randomized order and asked to estimate the perceived ages of the speakers. Additionally, basic acoustic analyses of each sustained vowel sound recording (e.g., jitter, shimmer) will be conducted by a trained professional using the speech analysis software PRAAT.

This study investigates the factors contributing to cognitive load among emergency medicine physicians at the Medical University of South Carolina's Main Emergency Department during clinical shifts and identifies those with the greatest impact.

Cognitive load will be measured before and after shifts using a validated survey tool, while corresponding heart rate metrics will be recorded and voluntarily shared throughout and immediately following each shift via personal smartwatches. These physiological and survey data will then be analyzed in the context of clinical events occurring during the shift to assess how specific experiences influence overall cognitive load.

The events under consideration were selected based on findings from a prior study in which MUSC emergency medicine physicians ranked the perceived contributors to their cognitive load. The occurrence of these predetermined events will be documented through direct observation of physicians during shifts and, if applicable, obtained via shift-level operational reports.