Dr. Valter Ciocca

Biography

Valter Ciocca completed his undergraduate studies in Experimental Psychology at the University of Padua in Italy. He received his Ph.D. in the Department of Psychology at McGill University, where he was guided by Albert Bregman. His thesis focused on applying auditory scene analysis principles to speech perception. In 1990, Ciocca took a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Sussex, investigating the effects of auditory grouping on pitch perception under the guidance of Chris Darwin. In 1992, he joined the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences at Hong Kong University, where he applied his knowledge of auditory perception and speech science to the study of Cantonese speech and lexical tones. His research extended to studying populations of listeners and speakers with communication disorders, including individuals with cerebral palsy, hearing impairments, cochlear implant users, and typically developing children. In 2007, he became the Director of the School of Audiology and Speech Sciences at UBC and continued in this role until 2017. Current research projects include the perception of illusory continuation in interrupted sounds, speech perception of listeners with hearing loss, and the perceptual evaluation of voice quality and intelligibility, all related to individuals with neurogenic communication disorders.

Research Interests