By Anoli Mehta
Faculty mentor: Dr. Parrish Waters
The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and the mask mandates that came with it have affected college students by creating physical and mental barriers to communication. The COVID-19 pandemic introduced impediments to communication including compulsory use of respirator face masks by professors and students, social distancing, and virtual classrooms through online platforms like Zoom, all of which can impact student learning. This study explores this possible relationship between masking and comprehension in an academic setting. A university professor (Dr. Parrish Waters) delivered two standardized lectures, one with and one without a mask. All students wore respirator masks during both lectures. To assess the cognitive ability of students in the presence of respirator masks, a standard knowledge quiz following 30-minute lectures on a basic neuroscience topic. We predict that the students in the lecture where the professor was not wearing a mask will perform with higher scores on the standardized quiz compared to the lecture where the professor is wearing a mask, due to reduced communication and facial expressions. This study will help speech language pathologists, teachers, and students as they work to assess the impact of mask mandates on learning comprehension. This topic has currency and relevance due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and the mask mandates it has imposed.
