Yuval Yaacov Calev
New York
Yuval Yaacov Calev, 17, of Setauket, attempted to characterize the relationship
between speech perception, speech production, memory and age for his Intel
Science Talent Search project in behavioral & social sciences. Two groups of
adults were tested - 33 retirees over the age of 69 and 41 local university
students. Each individual completed three tasks to measure explicit (working)
memory, advanced speech planning and perceptual learning
(a change in perception after exposure to certain stimuli). Yuval's comparative
results suggest that perceptual learning does not rely on working memory, which
degenerates
with age, but rather is grounded in a cognitive process that remains robust
throughout a person's life. His data also indicated relationships between speech
planning and perceptual learning, and speech planning with the participant's
age. Yuval is a student at Ward Melville High School in East Setauket, where he
has played varsity tennis for the past four years. He is also active in the
school chamber orchestra and has been a violinist since the age of six. The son
of Avraham and Gila Calev, he hopes to study psychology at Cornell or the
University of Pennsylvania.
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