Daniel Ashmead
Professor Emeritus
- : daniel.h.ashmead@vanderbilt.edu
- : (615) 936-5114
- :
MCE South Tower
1215 21st Avenue South
Nashville, Tennessee - 37232 - : Lab Website
Education:
- B.S., 1976, Psychology, Brown University
- Ph.D., 1983, Child Psychology, University of Minnesota
- Postdoc, 1983-84, University of Massachusetts
Biography:
Dan Ashmead’s research is on auditory space perception and on perceptual-motor development. This work has included studies of development during infancy and early childhood, as well as the effects of vision and hearing impairments. A major focus of current work is on an NIH-funded multi-site project, “Blind Pedestrians’ Access to Complex Intersections.” The scope of research in this project ranges from applied studies of how pedestrians with different visual abilities navigate busy traffic intersections, to basic research on the characteristics of auditory motion perception. Much of the motion perception work utilizes a complete circular array of loudspeakers in an anechoic chamber for producing realistic motion stimuli. The pedestrian project has also led to studies of how vision is used to make judgments of the arrival times of approaching objects such as vehicles. Another line of current work is on auditory space perception in persons with cochlear implants, with emphasis on distance perception and on interaural cues for direction. This is an industry-sponsored multi-investigator project which also includes studies of speech understanding. Ashmead’s work has been published in journals in the fields of developmental psychology, communication disorders, hearing science, transportation research, and human factors. He is a member of professional organizations including the Society for Research in Child Development, American Psychological Association (Fellow), Acoustical Society of America, and Sigma Xi. In addition to work activities, Ashmead is an amateur woodworker and an avid runner who does one or two marathons a year.