bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Stuttering and Word Length
Authors: Wingate M. E.
Published: July 2014

Fourteen young adult male stutterers read two lists of words, one list consisting of one-syllable word pairs, the second list consisting of two-syllable words phonetically equivalent to word pairs in the first list.

Results show a significantly higher frequency of stuttering on two-syllable words. The findings are related to other data which bear on the relationship of stuttering to word length, grammatical category, context, and suprasegmental features of speech.
Descriptive Analysis of Audiometric and Psychometric Scores of Students at a School for the Deaf
Authors: Elliott Lois L.
Published: July 2014

A statistical description of routine audiometric and psychometric scores of the 177 children enrolled in the school divisions of Central Institute for the Deaf during the academic year 1964–1965 showed some characteristics of the groups not easily obtained from clinical impressions of individuals. Comparisons of earliest audiograms with the most recent ones showed remarkable stability over time; hearing levels of the several groups did not change. When ordinary audiometers were supplemented by separate oscillators and amplifiers with consequent higher output powers, only five children failed to respond at 1,000 Hz or lower frequencies and 88% responded at 2,000 Hz. Skewed distributions of audiometric results necessitated use of group medians and percentiles (rather than means) for comparisons among groups. Uneven performance was observed on subtests of both intelligence and achievement batteries. While all groups were described as severely hearing-impaired, children in the Division for Speech Pathology also had learning or language problems.
Effects of Verbal Decision Behavior upon Respiration During Speech Production
Authors: Webb Ralph , Williams Frederick , Minifie Fred D.
Published: July 2014

This study tests the hypothesis that respiratory activity during induced silent pausing decreases when the speaker is faced with increased demands upon decision behavior. Two conditions, reasoned to impose restrictions upon the hypothesis, were manipulated in addition to the variable of decision demand: (1) the grammatical environment in which silent pausing was induced, and (2) the level of breath supply at the moment of pause inducement. Continuous measures of breathing were obtained by use of a respirometer while subjects were performing an oral reading task which involved decision-making during a two-second induced silence. The breathing measures were subsequently divided into eight quarter-second intervals for analysis. Results indicated that the only outcome supportive of the hypothesis was in the last half-second of the “hold” period in the case of within phrase environments. Such results were independent of the breath supply conditions. Further analyses indicated that lower mean values of air moved in the increased decision demand condition were a function of fewer subjects breathing, rather than of subjects breathing less.
Methodology in Digit Memory Testing of College Students
Authors: Lassman Frank M. , Engelbart Elaine S.
Published: July 2014

A total of 565 university freshmen were tested on an augmented forward and backward digit span test. Examiner training, directions, rate of presentation (1/sec), seating positions, subjects' age, and hearing sensitivity were controlled. Results suggest that digit memory performance may differ as the examiner is varied. Higher average scores were obtained than in the WAIS data. Performance was not related to time of day, sex of subject, or testing room.
Air Flow During Vocal Fry Phonation
Authors: McGlone Robert E.
Published: July 2014

Five male and five female speakers, who were free of any voice disorder, were required to sustain vocal fry phonation at three pitch levels; one an arbitrary Standard level, another lower than the standard, and a third higher. Recordings were made and analyzed of air flow and the acoustic signal of these phonations. This study showed that: 1) the fundamentals of vocal fry were lower than those produced in the modal register; 2) air flow rates were less than found for either modal phonation or falsetto; and 3) there was no correlation between changes in fry frequency and changes in air flow.
A Nomogram for the Articulatory Product
Authors: Guttman Newman
Published: July 2014

A nomogram designed to minimize arithmetic calculations of the recently advanced measure of articulatory merit, the Articulatory Product, is described.
The Reliability of Electrodermal Audiometry with Aphasic Adults
Authors: Mencher George T.
Published: July 2014

Forty hospitalized male aphasic subjects were tested to determine if electrodermal audiometry would yield more reliable auditory thresholds than Standard pure-tone tests. Each subject received a Standard pure-tone test to establish thresholds at 1,000 and 2,000 Hz in both ears, an EDR threshold measure of the same frequencies, and two exact replications of both tests, adminstered one to four weeks later. The data suggest that EDR audiometry can be reliably applied to aphasic males.
Stutterers' Projection of Listener Reaction
Authors: Wingate M. E. , Hamre C. E.
Published: July 2014

A group of 20 stutterers and matched controls were shown movie film segments of ten persons reported to be listening to individual speakers. The subjects were asked (a) to indicate if the unseen speaker were a stutterer, a nonstutterer, or “can’t tell,” and (b) to describe each listener’s reaction. Results reveal that the identifications and descriptions from stutterers were comparable in all respects to those of nonstutterers.
Speech and Hearing Characteristics in Familial Dysautonomia
Authors: Halpern Harvey , Hochberg Irving , Rees Norma
Published: July 2014

Eleven individuals previously diagnosed as having familial dysautonomia were tested by means of the Templin-Darley articulation test and pure tone audiometry to determine their speech and hearing performances. The most frequently misarticulated sounds were /l/, /s/, /z/, /∫/, and /r/, with sound distortion being the most frequendy occurring type of misarticulation. The articulatory defects appeared to be due to dysarthric disturbance manifested by difficulty with gross and fine motor control, coupled with general retarded motor development. Audiometric hearing levels (ASA-1951) were within normal limits.
A Longitudinal Examination of Harmonic Distortion in Hearing Aids
Authors: Kasten Roger N. , Lotterman Stephen H.
Published: July 2014

This study examined the harmonic distortion levels of 1170 hearing aids submitted to the Veterans Administration for contract evaluation during the last six fiscal years. Measurements were made, with a 75 dB SPL input, at 500, 700, and 900 Hz and at the frequency at which maximum distortion was found. The gain of each aid was set with a 62.5 dB SPL input to that point at which distortion at all amplified frequencies was less than 10%. Based upon average gain and average saturation sound pressure level, each aid was placed in one of three power categories. The results show that the levels of maximum distortion appear to be inversely proportional to the rated power of the aids. Also, at all frequencies, the levels of harmonic distortion found in aids during the last two years generally equaled or exceeded those found in 1962, the first year for this study.
Slurvian Skill of Stutterers
Authors: Wingate M. E.
Published: July 2014

A group of 25 male stutterers was found to be inferior to a matched control group in achievement on two forms of a phonetic translation test. Discussion considers the nature of the process responsible for success in the tests and suggests areas of possible relevance to stuttering.
Effects of Alterations of Prosodic Features on the Sequencing Performance of Aphasic Children
Authors: Stark Joel , Poppen Roger , May Michael Z.
Published: July 2014

Eight aphasic and eight normal children were studied to determine whether alterations in prosodic features of auditory stimuli would enhance their sequencing ability.

Five of the aphasic children had difficulty with sequences of three. The results indicated that their sequencing difficulty is largely due to forgetting the first item in the sequence. When the initial item was stressed, recall of the entire sequence was enhanced. When other features of the sequence were altered, recall was disrupted. These effects were not observed in the normal group.
Acoustic Gain and Threshold Improvement in Hearing Aid Selection
Authors: Lotterman Stephen H. , Kasten Roger N. , Revoile Sally G.
Published: July 2014

Unaided and aided spondee thresholds were obtained for 25 hearing-impaired subjects in order to examine the relationship between spondee threshold improvement and average acoustic gain developed by the aids in a standard 2 cc coupler. The hearing aids had been adjusted by the subjects to a comfortable listening level and the gain subsequently measured at that setting. The results revealed a moderate relationship between average acoustic gain and threshold improvement, though the magnitude of the improvement provided by the aids was approximately 10 dB less than the measured acoustic gain.
Visually and Auditorily Paced Keytapping Performance During Synchronous, Decreased, and Delayed Auditory and Visual Feedback
Authors: Karlovich Raymond S. , Graham James T.
Published: July 2014

Twenty female subjects tapped on a tapping key to programmed visual pacing stimuli under synchronous auditory feedback, delayed auditory feedback, and decreased sensory feedback conditions and also to programmed auditory pacing stimuli under synchronous visual feedback, delayed visual feedback, and decreased sensory feedback conditions. Cross-modality matching procedures were employed to equate the perceptual magnitudes of the auditory and visual stimuli. Pattern duration and tapping key displacement variables were evaluated and it was noted that the relative perceptual magnitudes between pacing and feedback stimuli are important aspects determining the degree of alteration in keytapping motor performance under delayed sensory feedback. The data also indicated that increases in the intensity of tapping observed under delayed sensory feedback conditions were not due to the temporal distortion of the feedback but possibly to an absence of feedback at the moment of tapping.
Averaged Evoked Responses and Loudness: Analysis of Response Estimates
Authors: Henry Gretchen B. , Teas Donald C.
Published: July 2014

Averaged evoked responses to noise burst signals at six sensation levels were obtained in three experimental contexts and compared on the basis of response magnitude. No significant effects were found related to context; systematic differences were found, however, within the ensemble of responses making up the average. These differences suggest that the maximum estimate of response magnitude may be contained in the first few responses to a series of stimuli.
Familiarity and Intelligibility of Monosyllabic Word Lists
Authors: Epstein Aubrey , Giolas Thomas G. , Owens Elmer
Published: July 2014

Intelligibility functions of word lists and a sample of continuous discourse distorted by several levels of low-pass filtering demonstrate the effect of word familiarity when normal-hearing subjects are listening to distorted speech. Lists of varying degrees of familiarity compiled by Owens (1961), PB-50 lists 6 and 9, W-22 list 1-A, and a sample of continuous discourse are compared. Errors increased as distortion increased for the lists falling in the “unfamiliar” category, while intelligibility remained undisturbed in the continuous discourse and in the “familiar” lists as long as frequencies below 1560 Hz were left intact.
Time-Out as a Punishment for Stuttering
Authors: Haroldson Samuel K. , Martin Richard R. , Starr Clark D.
Published: July 2014

The effects of making time-out from positive reinforcement (TO) contingent upon stuttering were studied in four adult stutterers. The theoretical basis of the study revolved around the notion that speaking is self-reinforcing, and that making TO from speaking contingent upon a specific response will decrease the frequency of that response. The general experimental procedure was one in which subjects spoke spontaneously and a red light was illuminated for 10 seconds contingent upon each stuttering. Subjects were not allowed to speak while the light was illuminated.

All four subjects evidenced a marked decrease in stuttering frequency during TO sessions. Some extinction of the suppression effect was observed during those sessions in which TO was removed.
The Type V Bekesy Pattern: The Effects of Loudness Memory
Authors: Hattler Karl W.
Published: July 2014

Ten trained, audiometrically normal young adults heard a 1K-Hz reference tone at 50-dB or 80-dB SPL. They were instructed to maintain the reference loudness throughout a three-minute 1K-Hz fixed-frequency run. Seven test signals, consisting of one sustained and six differentially interrupted pure tones, were employed for loudness-memory tracking. Preliminary training eliminated learning effects. Thirty-second pretracking adaptation periods produced loudness adaptation which was complete to asymptote for each test signal. The tracking levels were inversely related to the signal’s duty cycle and were independent of other temporal parameters such as on-duration and interruption rate. The occurrence of the Type V Bekesy audiogram is attributed to the differential effects of memory upon the loudness of sustained and interrupted pure tones.
Cockpit Noise Intensity: Three Aerial Application (Crop-Dusting) Aircraft
Authors: Tobias Jerry V.
Published: July 2014

Three aerial application aircraft, each fitted with a different kind of cockpit enclosure, were tested for the noise intensity present during normal operations. Even the best protected plane tested (one with a completely enclosed cockpit) presented a damaging level of noise. Except for the wind noise likely to be delivered to a pilot with his head in the air stream, a well-fitted pair of earplugs should protect against most of the physiologically damaging noise intensities encountered in this study.
The Effect of a Conventional Versus a Nonoccluding (CROS-Type) Earmold upon the Frequency Response of a Hearing Aid
Authors: Green David S. , Ross Mark
Published: July 2014

Sound-field Bekesy audiograms were obtained from one experienced hearing-impaired subject wearing an ear-level hearing aid with a conventional earmold and a nonoccluding CROS-type earmold. Comparisons were made to determine the effects of the two different types of earmolds as well as different tubing lengths for nonoccluding CROS-type earmolds. Findings indicate: (1) A nonoccluding CROS-type earmold alters the frequency response characteristics of a hearing aid by markedly reducing the amplification for the low frequencies. (2) The length of tubing has a minor effect compared with that caused by the nonoccluding CROS ear coupler. (3) Sound-field Bekesy audiometry is a reliable and valid tool for assessing changes in the amplifying characteristics of hearing aids.
The Acquisition of English Morphology by Normal and Educable Mentally Retarded Children
Authors: Newfield Melanie U. , Schlanger Bernard B.
Published: July 2014

To study the acquisition of English morphology by 30 educable mentally retarded children and 30 normal children, a list of lexicon words was developed which paralleled phonologically and morphologically the nonsense words used by Berko. Results indicate that significant quantitative differences existed favoring the normal children in all the measures of morphology, measured by lexicon words and nonsense words. Nevertheless, the order of acquisition of morphology by the retarded children, particularly in respect to nonsense words, paralleled that of the normal children.

With the normal and retarded children an undefined time lag existed between the production of correct English morphological inflection forms with familiar words and the generalization of these forms to unfamiliar words, indicating knowledge of a morphological rule. The retarded children demonstrated greater inability than the normal children studied in generalization from familiar to unfamiliar words.
Interrelationships Among Fluency Producing Variables in Stuttered Speech
Authors: Webster Ronald L. , Lubker Bobbie Boyd
Published: July 2014

This report presents a limited theory (Auditory Interference Theory) which integrates data on fluency producing variables in terms of modified temporal aspects of auditory feedback in stuttered speech. The probable basis for stuttering is inferred to involve interference between air-conducted and bone-conducted auditory feedback. Middle ear muscle reflexes are suggested as a possible mechanism for the mediation of interference between components of auditory feedback.
Effects of Physical Training on Stuttering
Authors: Franks B. Don , Franks Elizabeth B.
Published: July 2014

Eight college students enrolled in group therapy for stuttering were divided into two equal groups for 20 weeks. The training group supplemented therapy with endurance running and calisthenics three days per week. The subjects were tested prior to and at the conclusion of the training on a battery of stuttering tests and cardiovascular measures taken at rest, after stuttering, and after submaximal exercise. There were no significant differences (0.05 level) prior to training. At the conclusion of training, the training group was significandy better in cardiovascular response to exercise and stuttering. Although physical training did not significantly aid the reduction of stuttering as measured in this study, training did cause an increased ability to adapt physiologically to physical stress and to the stress of stuttering.
Perception of Auditory Feedback Delay: Subjective Estimate of Delay Magnitude
Authors: Saxman John H. , Hanley Theodore D.
Published: July 2014

Twenty female subjects were required to select, by the method of fractionation, the delay interval judged by them to be one-half the duration of the standard delay interval with which it was paired. The signals judged were the delay intervals between the subjects' own production of the syllable /da/ and its return via delayed auditory feedback. Ten ascending and ten descending one-half judgments were obtained for each subject at each of tie standard delay intervals of 100, 200, 400, and 800 msec. The curves for the ascending, descending, and combined ascending-descending judgments, when plotted against delay intervals in physical time, were all nearly linear with a slight positively accelerated slope. A tentative scale of subjective delay time is described and its implications for evaluating the speech response to DAF as a function of time are noted.
Visual Discrimination of Consonants
Authors: Greenberg Herbert J. , Bode Daniel L.
Published: July 2014

Consonant differentiation by speechreading was determined for full-face and lips-only exposures utilizing two forms of a closed-set response test. Thirty-two female college students viewed a videotaped recording of a male talker under the two exposure conditions. Consonant discrimination was more accurate when subjects viewed the talker’s entire face than when they viewed only his lips. The two test forms were not equivalent in visual intelligibility and initial consonants were more accurately discriminated visually than final consonants. These factors should be considered in research or diagnostic use of CVC monosyllables in the measurement of visual consonant discrimination.
Short-Term Auditory Memory, Oral Perception, and Experimental Sound Learning
Authors: Locke John L.
Published: July 2014

Ten children with high scores on an auditory memory span task were significantly better at imitating three non-English phones than 10 children with low auditory memory span scores. An additional 10 children with high scores on an oral stereognosis task were significantly better at imitating two of the three phones than 10 children with low oral stereognosis scores. Auditory memory span and oral stereognosis appear to be important subskills in the learning of new articulations, perhaps explaining their appearance in the literature as “etiologies” of disordered articulation. Although articulation development and the experimental acquisition of non-English phones have certain obvious differences, they seem to share some common processes, suggesting that the sound learning framework may be an efficacious technique for revealing otherwise inaccessible information.
The Cognitive Functioning of Language Deficient Children
Authors: Weiner Paul S.
Published: July 2014

The cognitive functioning of 25 language deficient children, six through eight years of age, was compared with that of 14 matched controls. Language deficiency was defined by verbal IQ below 90 and at least 15 points below Performance IQ on a short form of the WISC. Thus the experimental subjects were chosen because of their inadequacies in solving conceptual level tasks presented to the auditory modality. The test battery used to measure cognitive adequacy consisted of visually and auditorily presented tasks which explored both perceptual and conceptual level functioning. The results indicated that language deficiency is a relatively stable condition over a period of one year; that all auditory modality functioning of the experimental subjects, regardless of integrative level (perceptual or conceptual), is significantly below that of the controls; and that visual modality performance of the two groups does not differ significantly. Sensory modality thus proved to be the central organizing factor in the cognitive functioning of the language deficient children. This was not true of the control subjects, whose functioning appeared to be more integrated. Not unexpectedly, teacher reports indicated that the experimental subjects have reading difficulties. Further study of etiology, consequences, and remediation of language deficiency is needed.
Imparting Diagnostic Information to Mothers: A Comparison of Methodologies
Authors: Marshall Nancy R. , Goldstein Steven G.
Published: July 2014

This study sought to evaluate maternal understanding of information obtained during a diagnostic consultation by mothers of speech-handicapped children as a result of two replay procedures: Video Tape Replay (VTR) and Audio Tape Relay (ATR).

A 35-item list (Communication Behavior Scale; CBS) of developmental levels in speech and language was constructed and validated. It consisted of items classified under the following variables: verbal comprehension, verbal communication, articulation ability, and intelligibility of speech.

One hundred twenty mothers of speech-handicapped children were divided into three groups of 40 each. All subjects, regardless of group, completed the CBS before and after they were seen by the diagnostician, a speech pathologist. Group I received only the regular diagnostic consultation from the speech pathologist; Group II (VTR) saw the entire diagnostic consultation again by video-tape replay; and Group III (ATR) heard the entire diagnostic consultation again by tape recording.

Statistically significant differences were found for all four variables between control and experimental groups. With one exception, no differences were found between the experimental groups. The implications of mechanical feedback and its utility in the diagnostic or research setting are discussed.
Learning Limits of Deaf Children for Coded Speech
Authors: Ling Daniel , Doehring Donald G.
Published: July 2014

Programmed instruction was used to train profoundly deaf subjects to crude limits of learning in the association of pictures and spoken words. The words differed only in consonant structure. The performance of three groups of six subjects were compared. One group received linearly amplified speech to both ears; another, coded speech to both ears; and the third, linearly amplified speech to the left ear and coded speech to the right. A control group of six children was trained without auditory cues. The three experimental groups showed significant improvement with training, but there was no significant difference between groups with respect to either performance at the limits of learning or number of repetitions required to reach the limits. Transposition of speech through coding did not improve the discrimination of consonants by the deaf children tested.
Masking Effects of Speech Competing Messages
Authors: Dirks Donald D. , Bower Deborah R.
Published: July 2014

Initially two experiments were performed on eight subjects to determine the effect of semantic content or meaning of a competing speech message on the identification of synthetic sentence material. The competing message was reversed and reproduced in a backward mode in an attempt to eliminate its semantic content or meaning. No important differences were found between the performance-intensity functions in the forward or backward mode. The results of 2 additional experiments with 12 subjects demonstrated the presence of a plateau or notch in the slope of the performance-intensity functions obtained in English or foreign language competing messages. This plateau effect occurred primarily when three experimental conditions were present: (1) the same speaker delivered the primary and competing messages, (2) the relative intensity levels of both the primary and competing messages were equal, (3) the temporal pattern of the competition was similar to that of the primary message. The semantic content of the competing message did not contribute to the plateau in the slope of the performance-intensity function, but the plateau was primarily due to the similarity of the temporal patterns of the primary and competing messages which occurred when the intensities of both messages were equal.
Language Deficiency of Disadvantaged Children
Authors: Gerber Sanford E. , Hertel Christina G.
Published: July 2014

This investigation examined the extent to which culturally disadvantaged children are retarded in language development compared to other children. Subjects were 53 children between the ages of 48 months and 67 months, 40 of whom were considered culturally disadvantaged. All children were given the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities, and 50 utterances were elicited from each child. As had been hypothesized, on virtually every test the culturally disadvantaged children scored significantly lower than did the other children.
Auditory Evoked Responses in Normal Hearing Adults and Children Before and During Sedation
Authors: Skinner Paul , Antinoro Frank
Published: July 2014

Averaged evoked responses (AER) to auditory stimuli presented to young children and adults were compared between awake and induced sleep conditions. Eight adults and twenty preschool children with normal hearing were tested before and during sedation at two suprathreshold levels with tone pips centered at 510, 1020, and 2040 Hz. Responses obtained during sedation assumed a distinctly different wave complex than those obtained under the awake condition. The P2 peak that is most prominent in the AERs obtained from awake subjects was diminished considerably under sedation and P3 became the prominent peak. Moreover, the P3 peaks in the AERs obtained under sedation were of considerably greater amplitude than the P2 peaks obtained in the awake condition. In all cases where responses were obtained from awake subjects, greater amplitude responses were obtained during sedation. The use of sedation with the preschool children proved to be most important in obtaining more detectable responses and permitting evoked potential audiometry with otherwise unmanageable children.
Language and Speech Correlates of Anatomically Verified Lesions in Thalamic Surgery for Parkinsonism
Authors: Samra Khairy , Riklan Manuel , Levita Eric , Zimmerman Jane , Waltz Joseph M. , Bergmann Louis , Cooper Irving S.
Published: July 2014

The brains of 27 deceased parkinsonian patients who had undergone stereotaxic thalamic surgery were examined anatomically to define the exact location of the surgical lesion in each case. A correlative study was then carried out between the site of these lesions and any language or speech deficits which might have resulted from the thalamic surgery. The following conclusions were drawn:

A lesion strictly confined to the ventrolateral nucleus (VL) of the thalamus may be followed by language and/or speech deficits.

No definite relationship existed between postoperative language or speech deficits and partial involvement of thalamic nuclei surrounding VL nucleus; H fields of Forel; subthalamic nucleus or red nucleus. Also, mild encroachment on the internal capsule could be tolerated without language or speech deficits, so long as the pyramidal tract remained intact.

The size of the lesion was not related to postoperative language and/or speech deficits.

Postoperative language deficits were mild and improved in time; whereas speech disturbances could be either mild, moderate, or severe.

When language deficits did occur, they followed surgery on the left dominant hemisphere in most instances. In contradistinction, no definite relationship was found between the side of surgery and speech deficits.

Language and speech disturbances are most frequently associated with bilateral rather than with unilateral surgery, regardless of the cerebral hemisphere involved in the second operation.
Comparison of Techniques for Discriminating Among Talkers
Authors: Clarke Frank R. , Becker Richard W.
Published: July 2014

Two studies were conducted to compare performance in distinguishing among talkers by (1) direct listening test, (2) use of ratings on psychophysical scales and semantic differential scales, and (3) use of simple physical properties of the speech wave form. Particular emphasis was placed on evaluating the information conveyed by listeners' ratings. With a common test population and test format, highest discrimination scores were obtained in direct listening tests. Physical measures ranked second in discriminating among talkers, and rating data provided the poorest discrimination. Despite this relatively poor ranking, rating data tended to be reliable and to contain significant information for discriminating among talkers.
Individual Specificity of the Late Components of Averaged Electroencephalic Responses (AERS) Evoked by Repeated Clicks
Authors: Shepherd David C.
Published: July 2014

Averaged electroencephalic responses (AERs) were evoked from each of 8 normal hearing subjects on 8 different days by 150 clicks presented at 60 dB sensation level during Design I. For Design II, AERs were evoked from the subjects by 150 clicks presented at 60, 20, and 5 dB SL presented in three orders on each of two different days. Each subject was classified as either a good, average, or poor responder based upon the relative magnitude of the mean of his eight N
1
-P
2
amplitudes evoked during Design I. Findings suggest: (1) intrasubject variability of the late-peak amplitudes and latencies of the averaged electroencephalic wave form is as extensive as intersubject variability of these components; (2) responder classifications of subjects remain consistent from one design to another; (3) the intrasubject mean amplitude of the N
1
-P
2
peak and the intrasubject mean latency and standard deviation of the N
1
peak exhibit tendencies toward individual specificity; (4) the N
1
-P
2
peak amplitude reduces significantly from the first 100 seconds to the third 100 seconds of an averaging session; (5) it is more efficient to average over 150 clicks than it is to average over 50 clicks at low sensation levels; and (6) poor responders perform as well, or better, than good or average responders at low sensation levels.
Social Class Differences in Children’s Syntactic Performance: A Quantitative Analysis of Field Study Data
Authors: Williams Frederick , Naremore Rita C.
Published: July 2014

Our objective was to determine whether statistically reliable social class differences would be found in the degrees and types of syntactic elaboration in the speech of selected Negro and white, male and female, fifth- and sixth-grade children from whom language samples had been obtained in the Detroit Dialect Study. The corpus of some 24,000 words represented the speech of children selected from relatively low and middle ranges of a socioeconomic scale used in the original study. A quantitative description of syntactic elaboration was obtained by using a modified immediate constituents procedure which provides coding of the structural divisions of English sentences. Results indicated reliable social class differences on a variety of indices, mostly indicating that children from the higher status sample tended to employ more, and more elaborated, syntactic patterns. Such status differences generally prevailed across the sexes, but did vary across the levels of a topical variable and the race variable. Results were considered to be applicable to the Bernstein (1964) thesis of social class differences in modes of speech, and further illustrative of a strategy for studying verbal performance (as contrasted with competence).
A Psycholinguistic Approach to Study of the Language Deficit in Aphasia
Authors: Schuell Hildred , Shaw Robert , Brewer William
Published: July 2014

Three protocols from two aphasic subjects were studied intensively in the framework of generative linguistics. Each protocol contained more than 300 utterances elicited by instructing the subject to read a word and use it in a sentence. This technique allowed some experimental control of language, yet permitted linguistic productivity. These protocols, and protocols from 12 nonaphasic subjects, were compared over a number of syntactic and semantic dimensions. Aphasic subjects showed restricted use of vocabulary and sentence types. Aphasics used fewer optional transformations than controls and never elected a transformation that added words to the sentence. The frequency of double-based transformations used by aphasics was less than a third of that of controls. Syntactically correct sentences produced by aphasics showed reduced semantic specificity. Results are interpreted to show that aphasic subjects have reduced lexical and semantic options, and operate under restrictions of length of unit that can be processed.
Loudness Discomfort Level Modification
Authors: Schmitz Henry D.
Published: July 2014

Three assumptions involved in the rationale for loudness tolerance modification were investigated: (1) that an abnormal loudness discomfort level (LDL) is modifiable by sub-LDL stimulation, (2) that a relationship exists between abnormal LDL and reduced speech discrimination ability, and (3) that an improved LDL will result in better speech discrimination than evidenced before such modification. Twenty subjects with functional evidence of bilateral cochlear hearing loss were divided into four group. Each of three groups received a different type of sound exposure and the other groups served as a control. LDLs were determined before, interjacent to, and after exposure. No significant changes in LDL were found for any of the experimental groups. The parabolic articulation function associated in the literature with monaural cochlear lesions was absent for all cases. Sub-LDL exposure to high intensity speech does not appear to be an effective modifier of an abnormal LDL. The rationale for loudness discomfort level modification therapy, namely to improve speech discrimination, appears to be unwarranted. Abnormal loudness discomfort improvement may involve adjustment problems more responsive to behavioral modification approaches.
Spontaneous Recovery from Aphasia
Authors: Culton Gerald L.
Published: July 2014

The language and intellectual functions of 11 “recent” aphasics were investigated. Spontaneous recovery was evident in both functions. Although the severity of the subjects' aphasia lessened spontaneously, the basic form of the language disturbance remained essentially the same throughout the testing period. The first month post-onset appeared to be the most significant period for spontaneous recovery of language functions.
Anticipation and Stuttering: A Pupillographic Study
Authors: Gray Kenneth C. , Williams Dean E.
Published: July 2014

Changes in pupil size were studied in 24 stuttering and 30 nonstuttering adults during a 4-sec period following the presentation of single-word auditory stimuli and before a signal to respond. Subjects were required first to respond with a single word which was the opposite of the word presented and later to give a one-word free-association response to words of both emotional and neutral connotations. Pupil size was measured also while subjects merely listened to the word stimuli. The process of attending to an auditory stimulus was associated with pupil dilation. Pupil response was significantly greater (in absolute diameter and in dilation) when subjects were required to give an oral response to the stimulus than when they simply listened to the stimulus. Furthermore, the extent of the pupil reaction was related to the nature of the stimulus presented. Such differences in arousal did not occur to any greater degree in stutterers than in nonstutterers. Moreover, among stutterers, measures of pupil size were not predictive of stuttering. Thus, the cues which the stutterer associates with the anticipation of stuttering do not appear to be reflected in the physiological changes associated with pupillary movement.
Probability Learning by Aphasic Subjects
Authors: Brookshire Robert H.
Published: July 2014

Nine aphasic and nine nonaphasic patients participated in a two-choice probability learning experiment in which they attempted to turn on a set of red “reinforcement” lights by pressing push buttons. During the first 50 trials, responses on one push button turned on the lights 70 times as often as responses on the other. During the next 50 trials, the reinforcement ratio was 5/1 in favor of the push button that first delivered maximum reinforcement. During the following five 50-trial blocks the ratio was changed successively to 2/1, 1/1, 1/2, 1/5, 1/70. Most aphasic subjects changed their response patterns to accord with the changing reinforcement ratios. Between-subject variability was greater for aphasic subjects than for nonaphasic subjects, and seven aphasic subjects exhibited “perseverative” response patterns in early reinforcement ratios. The performance of two aphasic subjects did not appear to be influenced by the reinforcement ratios in the first session. However, further observation and experimental treatment of these two subjects resulted in appropriate changes in their performance. The results of this study suggest that behavior-shaping techniques involving changing reinforcement schedules can be used in clinical treatment of aphasic patients.
Articulatory Training of the Deaf using Low-Frequency Surrogate Fricatives
Authors: Guttman Newman , Levitt Harry , Bellefleur Philip A.
Published: July 2014

This preliminary investigation attempted to determine whether training of the deaf using realtime acoustic displays of low-frequency surrogates for /s/ and /∫/ would aid in the improvement of the articulation of these phonemes. Each member of the experimental group received articulatory instruction largely devoted to fricatives while having auditory access both to a teacher’s production of low-frequency surrogate fricatives and to simultaneous feedback of his own productions in the surrogate form. Members of a control group received similar instruction short of exposure to the surrogates. The results indicate that training with acoustic surrogate fricatives mildly facilitated improvement in articulation of /s/ and substantially facilitated articulation of /∫/.
Middle Ear Impedance Measurements
Authors: Burke Kenneth S. , Nilges Thomas C. , Henry Gretchen B.
Published: July 2014

The middle ear impedance of a group of 25 subjects with normal middle ears was studied with the Zwislocki acoustic bridge. The basis for selection of test ears was carefully documented. Average and range of impedance measures were compared to recent data. The effects on impedance readings of operator error in the preliminary measurement of canal volume were also studied.
Warbled Tone Masking in Bone-Conduction Audiometry
Authors: Prather William F. , Shapley James L. , Smith Raymond A.
Published: July 2014

Warbled tones are compared with narrow-band, wide-band, and complex noises with respect to their efficacy as air-conducted maskers. Bone-conducted pulsed tones of 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz were presented to the foreheads of eight normal-hearing subjects. With each masker presented binaurally and held constant at a nominal 40-dB level (re normal threshold for each noise) the results indicated that the effectiveness of the warbled tone was essentially comparable to that of the narrowband noise and was significantly better than the wide-band and complex noises over all frequencies combined. Some variation in efficacy was noted, however, as a function of individual frequencies. These results, plus those of the inter- and intra-subject reliabilities and the relative variabilities of the obtained masked thresholds, indicated that a warbled tone may have potential clinical usefulness as a masker.
Low-Frequency Vowel Formant Discrimination in Hearing-Impaired Listeners
Authors: Pickett J. M. , Mártony J.
Published: July 2014

Measurements of vowel formant discrimination were made on 6 listeners with severe-to-profound sensorineural hearing losses and compared with discrimination in 4 normal listeners. The measure of discrimination was the size of the threshold for a frequency change in the formant of a synthetic vowel. An adaptive procedure was used to locate threshold. Results indicated that, at two low formant locations, 205 and 275 Hz, sensorineural discrimination was equal to normal; at 400 and 875 Hz, however, the sensorineural subjects had less discrimination than normal. Learning to maximum discrimination performance was slow for the sensorineural subjects at the two higher formant locations. Formant frequency discrimination appeared to be insensitive to changes in sensation level. Tactual discrimination tests with the vowel stimuli indicated that the obtained performance levels for very poor discrimination may have reflected tactual discrimination rather than auditory discrimination.
Effects of Simultaneous and Successive Stimulus Presentation on Visual Discriminations by Aphasic Patients
Authors: Engmann Deedra L. , Brookshire Robert H.
Published: July 2014

In order to determine whether aphasic and nonaphasic subjects would perform differentially in simultaneous and successive discrimination tasks, 10 aphasic and 10 nonaphasic hospital patients performed in a successive and a simultaneous discrimination task in which 2 stimuli were presented on each trial, and in a successive discrimination with a single stimulus presented on each trial. Aphasic and nonaphasic subjects learned the successive discrimination task with a single stimulus faster than the other two discriminations. When the discrimination involved two stimuli, simultaneous presentation of stimuli resulted in faster learning by aphasic subjects than did successive presentation. Learning of visual discriminations by aphasic and nonaphasic subjects appeared to occur all at once, rather than as gradual improvement over trials. The hypothesis that aphasic subjects would have difficulty with inhibition of responses to negative discriminative stimuli was not supported.
Writedown Versus Talkback Scoring and Scoring Bias in Speech Discrimination Testing
Authors: Nelson David A. , Chaiklin Joseph B.
Published: July 2014

Writedown and talkback responses to 500 Hz low-pass filtered CID W-22 words were obtained from eight listeners, and their talkback responses were scored by eight experienced and eight inexperienced examiners. Four of the experienced and four of the inexperienced examiners monitored at 70 dB SPL; four experienced and four inexperienced examiners monitored at 60 dB SPL. Comparison of talkback discrimination scores (DSs) with corresponding writedown DSs revealed: (1) Inexperienced examiners awarded significantly higher mean talkback DSs than the mean writedown DS; i.e., they showed a mean correct bias. (2) Experienced examiners produced talkback DSs that were not significantly different from the mean writedown DS. (3) Decreasing the monitoring level from 70 to 60 dB SPL increased inexperienced examiners' mean correct bias but the experienced examiners' mean talkback DSs did not change significantly with monitoring level. (4) Inexperienced examiners made more scoring errors than experienced examiners at both monitoring levels. (5) Most examiners iri both groups made both correct bias and incorrect bias scoring errors to produce a net effect on the talkback DS. (6) Distributions of DS differences show individual differences between talkback and writedown DSs as large as +16% and −20% and frequent differences of ±6%, even when the mean DS difference between scoring methods was negligible.
Measurement of Hearing Handicap
Authors: Speaks Charles , Jerger James , Trammell Jane
Published: July 2014

The relation between Hearing Handicap Scale (HHS) scores and selected measures of both sensitivity loss and speech discrimination loss was studied on 60 hearing-impaired patients (5 conductive, 6 mixed, and 49 sensorineural). Correlations of HHS with sensitivity indices were moderately high (about 0.65), in contrast to the low correlations (about 0.35) with measures of discrimination. Use of a new index that incorporates information about both sensitivity and discrimination yielded a correlation no higher than the sensitivity measures alone.
Variable-Bandwidth Masking for Automatic Audiometry
Authors: Arguimbau L. B.
Published: July 2014

The critical band, by definition, contains only those frequencies effective in masking a given tone. Yet a signal with only these frequency components is rarely used as a masking source, since its narrow band may cause it to be confused with the masked signal. Broad-band white noise (0 to 10 kHz), on the other hand, can be readily distinguished from the pure-tone masked signal, but contains a large amount of ineffective energy which causes needless discomfort to the patient. This makes calibration in effective masking difficult. An automatic filtering method is described which keeps the bandwidth of a masking signal equal to a constant multiple of the critical band. This filtering, in conjunction with automatic level control and heterodyning, concentrates the masking power where it can best be used, and provides a signal Jhat can be calibrated directly in effective masking.
Distribution of Instances of Disfluency in Consecutive Readings of Different Passages by Nonstutterers
Authors: Silverman Franklin H.
Published: July 2014

Fourteen adult male nonstutterers read five passages. The order in which the passages were read was randomly determined for each subject. The mean number of instances of disfluency during each of the five readings was computed. As a group, the subjects did not exhibit the adaptation effect. Their mean frequency of disfluency increased from the first to the third reading, after which it decreased. This suggests that the nature of the material read exerts a similar influence upon the course of nonstutterers' adaptation as it has been shown to exert upon the course of stutterers, adapation. Several implications are discussed.
Perceptual Similarities and Minimal Phonemic Differences
Authors: Singh Sadanand
Published: July 2014

Given a single distinctive-feature disparity from a stimulus to each member of a pair of response consonants, different degrees of closeness between the stimulus and response consonants were tested perceptually under various experimental conditions. The findings indicated some stimulus-response relations not described by current distinctive-feature systems. Although all response-choices included in this experiment were minimally distinct from the stimulus, different degrees of perceptual distance were found.