Explore the complexities of speech perception in competitive environments through this 58-minute lecture by Barbara Shinn-Cunningham from Boston University. Delve into the mechanisms that allow humans to understand speech amidst masking sounds and competing signals. Examine the role of selective attention, auditory object formation, and top-down knowledge in overcoming perceptual challenges. Discover the implications for individuals with hearing impairments or age-related difficulties. Learn about cutting-edge research in auditory attention, sound source separation, spatial hearing, and perceptual plasticity. Gain insights into topics such as object formation, automatic streaming, selective attention, phonemic restoration, and cross-modal attention. Understand how these processes evolve over time and contribute to our remarkable ability to communicate in complex auditory environments.