Your Part in the Study

1. First, submit an interest form. In this interest form, we ask for basic information, such as age, hearing abilities, and contact information. These questions help determine if you are eligible to participate in our study. We will be accepting interest forms from early December 2025 through mid-February 2026.
2. If you are eligible for participation, we will contact you via your preferred contact method to schedule a Zoom meeting. This Zoom meeting will last approximately one hour, and the purpose is to further confirm your eligibility for the study. In this Zoom meeting, we will tell you more about the study, answer any questions you have, then you will take a hearing test and a series of questionnaires. We will tell you immediately whether you are eligible to participate, and you can choose to enroll in the study or not (or you can take some time to think about it).

Every step of this process is voluntary, and if you choose not to enroll or if you opt out of the study partway through, there will be no impact on your standing in the Ebell community or with the USC research team.

1. If you choose to enroll in the study, we will schedule you for an experimental session at the USC campus. Sessions will take place from early January through mid-February, and you can choose a date and time within that window that works best for you. The session will last approximately two hours. During this experimental session, you will perform tasks that assess music and speech perception and take a series of surveys.
2. Parking is available and it is free of charge. If you choose not to drive or are not able to, we will provide a Lyft free of charge as well.
3. At the end of this experimental session, you will be assigned to either an audiobook listening or choir program. We are unable to honor program preferences, as this would affect the quality of the experiment.

1. Your respective program will start February 25th. Participants will take part in their class for 12 weeks, and both programs will be held at Ebell. Each intervention occurs weekly for 1.5 hours.
2. In the audiobook club, participants collectively decide from a selection which audiobook to listen to for the duration of the course. Prior to each class, participants listen to an hour of the audiobook. They then discuss as a group during class, with guidance from an instructor.
3. In the group singing class, with the help of instructors and a piano accompanist, participants will learn songs and sing them together in a supportive and casual environment. Each week, participants complete an hour of pitch training “homework” on their own time using an application called “Theta Music Trainer”.
4. On the 2nd, 7th, and 11th week of the intervention, further data will be collected at Ebell from participants before and after class. This mid-intervention testing will include heart rate measures and a few short questionnaires assessing mood and social well-being. These will be administered by USC research staff, and care will be taken to minimize disruption for participants.

After the class/intervention has finished, participants will return to USC for a visit that is identical to the pre-intervention testing.

You will be compensated at a rate of $25 an hour for your screening appointment and pre- and post-program visits. Lyfts will be provided for your visits to USC should you not have access to convenient transportation. If you are driving your car, advanced parking reservation will be provided.