Thea
LightNews LightNews
banner
theaknowles.bsky.social
Thea
@theaknowles.bsky.social
240 followers 180 following 100 posts
👩‍🏫Asst. Prof in CSD at Michigan State U (the green one 💚🤍).
👩‍🔬She/her.
🎓MClSc/PhD at Western Ontario.
🗣️ Speech research: Parkinson’s disease, motor speech, speech acoustics, speech tools.
🇨🇦🇺🇸
Posts Replies Media Videos
theaknowles.bsky.social
This year, for the first time, someone in my undergrad anatomy class FINALLY chose to "do a make-up tutorial demonstrating the muscles of facial expression" for their assigned creative project and I am STOKED.

(the pic is a youtube tutorial I show for inspo, not a student!)
June 30, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Reposted by Thea
soniclabmsu.bsky.social
It's almost time for MSU's annual Science Festival! The SONiC Lab will be located in Room 2201 of the STEM Teaching and Learning Facility on April 5th and 6th from 11:00 AM-4:00 PM. Come "see your speech" and learn how acoustics can be used in healthcare applications! We hope to see you there!
March 28, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Reposted by Thea
soniclabmsu.bsky.social
It was great to connect with our community @msuscifest.bsky.social ! At the “see your speech” station participants saw their speech and learned how speech acoustics help diagnose neurological conditions that affect speech! Baby Enzo joined in, enjoying his first of many Science Fests to come!
Sara Cook, Chloe Glabach, Dr. Thea Knowles, Baby Enzo, Maura Philippone participants at the "see your speech" station participants at the "see your speech " station
April 8, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Reposted by Thea
margaretcrane.bsky.social
And the funding announcement for diversity supplements now has been updated to expire today. Supplements are so important to the careers of junior scientists. This is crushing for post docs and early career faculty

grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...
January 24, 2025 at 4:46 PM
theaknowles.bsky.social
I just registered for my third year of the ASH Foundation 5k (Aug 31)! The ASH Foundation is a big supporter of early career research in CSD and I always appreciate having an external motivator to run :) runsignup.com/Race/MD/Rock...
ASHFoundation’s 5th Annual Virtual 5K Walk/Run: Sparking Innovation with Every Stride
The ASHFoundation’s 5th Annual Virtual 5K Walk/Run: Sparking Innovation with Every Stride is on Saturday August 31, 2024.
runsignup.com
June 13, 2024 at 1:14 PM
Reposted by Thea
matthewwinn.bsky.social
When a talker repeats the same vowel sequence 34 times in quick succession, a good phonetician simply can’t let that opportunity pass.
I present to you: the definitive acoustic analysis of Ari Melber's pronunciation of "guilty"
chart showing measurements of fundamental frequency (pitch) and formant values for 34 iterations of the word "guilty" spoken by Ari Melber when reading the verdict
May 31, 2024 at 5:57 AM
Reposted by Thea
redpenblackpen.bsky.social
ToDo list? More like ToNotDo list, amirite? New cartoon.
Cartoon titled: Annotated ToDo List A sheet of paper with 'ToDo List' across the top and a bunch of numbered entries (that are not readable). Different entries are grouped with annotations to the side: - things I need to do today (crossed out, replaced with) that are overdue - something I wrote down that's already done - things that have been on my list for days (crossed out, replaced with) weeks - things that actually require multiple ToDo entries to complete - No idea what this one is - these are mission critical - figure out what the 'mission' is - full disclosure: these will never be completed and I totally know that
May 30, 2024 at 1:24 PM
theaknowles.bsky.social
That feeling when your Sentence Intelligibility Test sentence list sounds more like a melancholic poem.
May 28, 2024 at 2:06 PM
Reposted by Thea
ephemeralidea.bsky.social
Are you an Early Career Researcher and unsure about how to write a peer review? Or simply curious about how other people write theirs?

In our new panel discussion series at @lmu-osc.bsky.social we'll discuss peer reviewing practices - you can join online or in person!

#AcademicSky #metasci #EduSky
MAKING TACIT KNOWLEDGE OPEN – A Panel Discussion Series PART I: PRACTICES AND PRACTICALITIES OF PEER REVIEW (MAY 27, hybrid) Panel Members: Marlene Altenmüller (Social Psychology), Peter Edelsbrunner (Learning Sciences), Nathan Evans (Computational Modeling), Florian Pargent (Psychological Methods), Tobias Staudigl (Cognitive Neuropsychology), Charlotte Wittekind (Clinical Psychology) Most researchers spend a significant amount of time and effort on peer reviewing. However, there is large variability in peer reviewing practices and little guidance for early career researchers on the topic. For this panel discussion, we assemble experts from different fields of psychology When: May 27, 16:00-18:00 Where: Leopoldstr. 13, Room 3322 and via Zoom Zoom details: Meeting ID: 691 6996 4466; Passcode: 706322
May 23, 2024 at 7:42 AM
theaknowles.bsky.social
Men are kiki and women are bouba at Costco, apparently.
#linguistics
Mens and women's restroom signs. Men are in a triangle and women are in a circle.
May 14, 2024 at 6:10 PM
Reposted by Thea
tjmahr.com
notes on citing R and R Packages #rstats www.tjmahr.com/r-package-ci...
Notes on Citing R and R Packages
Who, what, where, when and which
www.tjmahr.com
May 3, 2024 at 7:19 PM
theaknowles.bsky.social
So many of my #praat scripts that I continue to build/tweak have become this kind of frankensteined mash-up of old and new syntactic norms, habits I've revised or broken, and stylistic preferences that very clearly age-grade my coding journey 😆
April 30, 2024 at 7:55 PM
Reposted by Thea
soniclabmsu.bsky.social
It was wonderful to connect with our community in a fun and engaging way at MSU’s annual Science Fest this past weekend! We had crafts, resources, and lots of education related to speech and #parkinsonsdisease. #womeninstem #scicomm
Dr.Knowles helping a little boy at the “SEE YOUR SPEECH” station. Maura at a table with lots of local Parkinson’s Disease resources. Aishwarya giving a presentation about the effects of Parkinson’s Disease on speech. Brooke at the craft table ready to help the littles make a brain hat or paper larynx.
April 18, 2024 at 1:41 PM
theaknowles.bsky.social
Very proud of our two undergraduate students who will be presenting at our University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum (UURAF) at #MichiganState!

#SciComm #womeninSTEM #SLP2B
soniclabmsu.bsky.social SONiC Lab MSU @soniclabmsu.bsky.social · Apr 11
This Friday, April 12th is MSU’s annual UURAF convention! The forum is open to the public and will take place at the Breslin center on MSUs campus. Two of our undergraduate research assistants, Sarah Cooke and Brooke Emerick, will be presenting.
April 11, 2024 at 7:27 PM
Reposted by Thea
soniclabmsu.bsky.social
Hello World, and what better way to kick off our lab's social media than acknowledging World Parkinson's Day (April 11).

The Speech Outcomes in Neurogenic Communication (SONiC) Lab focuses on speech communication in neurodegenerative diseases like #Parkinsonsdisease.
This picture is our lab at the finish line of the Michigan Parkinson Foundation Hero Walk last September!
April 11, 2024 at 4:24 PM
theaknowles.bsky.social
Our lab is presenting at the #MSUSciFest this Sunday and we couldn't be more excited! We had SO much fun last year and are looking forward to connecting with the community again this weekend.

🗓️ April 14th, 1 - 4pm
📍STEM Teaching & Learning Facility, Room 2201
sciencefestival.msu.edu/Event/View/67
Promo for the Science Fest: What can speech signals tell us about neurological disease? How do we produce speech? Speech occurs as a result of several highly coordinated movements between our lips, tongue, and vocal folds, all of which are directed by our brain. Some kinds of neurological diseases can affect movements in subtle or not-so-subtle ways, and these changes can affect how speech sounds as a result. Sometimes, speech changes can be the first indicator of a neurological condition such as Parkinson’s disease. How do we measure these changes? One way is to measure how other people hear and perceive speech differences, but another way is to directly measure the acoustic properties of speech itself! Session will include: 1. Hands-on demonstration showcasing how we can visualize and analyze our own acoustic speech signal 2. Special considerations in speech changes that are common in Parkinson’s disease.
April 11, 2024 at 4:09 PM
theaknowles.bsky.social
I sort of succeeded but also I mostly hacked it because SquareSpace is weird (but more more user friendly for student RAs than blogdown, hence the shift to squarespace).
April 3, 2024 at 11:57 PM
theaknowles.bsky.social
I've finally got the chance to use #Autoscore in #rstats (by @healthandstats.bsky.social) to calculate speech intelligibility and it's so easy I could cry. 😍
April 2, 2024 at 7:47 PM
theaknowles.bsky.social
Very proud of Kelly Gates (MA student @ #UBuffalo) for leading our two recent companion publications. These report on speech-language pathologists’ perspectives of the use of speech amplification devices for managing hypophonia in #Parkinsonsdisease in #ASHAjournals #AJSLP!

🧪 👩‍🔬 🧠📈 #SLPeeps #SciComm
Clip of the journal article Research Article Speech Amplification Device Usage for the Management of Hypophonia: A Survey of Speech-Language Pathologists Kelly Gates, Thea Knowles, Helen Mach, Jeff Higginbotham (& author affiliations) Clip of the journal article Research Article Clinical Insights Into the Use of Speech Amplification Devices for Managing Hypophonia: Interviews With Speech-Language Pathologists Kelly Gates, Thea Knowles, Helen Mach, Jeff Higginbotham, Thea Holder (& author affiliations)
April 2, 2024 at 6:21 PM
theaknowles.bsky.social
Our trivia team did poorly on a question this week in which we were asked to name all elements with double L's. I made us a cheat sheet based on this gem for next time.
XKCD periodic table comic, annotated to include all elements with double L's in their name, and additionally "heLLLLLLLium" which we entered on our trivia card but did not get credit for....
March 29, 2024 at 9:02 PM
Reposted by Thea
mzloteanu.bsky.social
#statstab #45 Visualizing Hierarchical Models

Thoughts: One of the coolest visualisation websites for mixed effects models I had saved.

#stats #mixedeffects #hierarchicalmodels #rstats #MLM

mfviz.com/hierarchical...
A Visual Introduction to Hierarchical Models
A visual explanation of multi-level modeling
mfviz.com
March 8, 2024 at 6:15 PM
theaknowles.bsky.social
Does anyone have any excellent resources for teaching spreadsheet/Excel basics to students? I like this paper, but am hoping to find a tutorial or two to share as well.

🧪👩‍🔬 #academicsky #SciComm #stats #phdsky #OpenScience
Title page of the following article: Karl W. Broman & Kara H. Woo (2018) Data Organization in Spreadsheets, The American Statistician, 72:1, 2-10
March 6, 2024 at 11:00 PM
theaknowles.bsky.social
My ineffable mother plunged into a frozen lake this morning in queen's attire to raise funds for accessible outdoor recreation with her team, the Ashfield Ice Queens (all women over 60 who swim together daily, even through the winter).

Team page: alloutadventures.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/a...
5 queens walk a runway on an iced over lake that leads to a small pool into which they will momentarily plunge.
March 3, 2024 at 4:27 PM
theaknowles.bsky.social
🗣️💬 I think we can all agree the answer is #praat
pfrazee.com Paul Frazee @pfrazee.com · Mar 2
I think we have a lot of software engineers on the network but not a ton of programming talk so I'm gonna kick this into gear a bit, here we go:

What technology or programming language do you think is the most underrated? #software
March 2, 2024 at 4:13 AM
theaknowles.bsky.social
#️⃣👀
pfrazee.com Paul Frazee @pfrazee.com · Feb 29
lmao the hashtag emoji works as a hashtag, because the initial letter in the #️⃣ emoji is a #

#️⃣emoji
on-plc.malpercio.dev Malpercio @on-plc.malpercio.dev · Feb 29
Is this a hashtag? #️⃣🦋
March 2, 2024 at 4:01 AM