bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Underlying Grammatical Rule Structure in the Deaf
Authors: Sarachan-Deily Ann Beth , Love Russell J.
Published: August 2014

The purposes of this study were (1) to use further the measure developed and reported by Sarachan (1971) for assessing underlying language structure in the deaf, and (2) to investigate the rule-bound organization of the syntactic subcomponent of deep structure of congenitally deaf adults with no known formal oral language stimulation prior to entering school. The evidence obtained from this study suggests that deep structural differences in syntactic rules exist between congenitally deaf and hearing individuals. The evidence may be interpreted as suggesting that these differences exist regardless of the method used in school to teach the deaf language, when the benefits derived from formal preschool language exposure are denied them.
Overt and Covert Aspects of Adult Speech Perception
Authors: Morse Philip A. , Leavitt Lewis A. , Miller Cynthia L. , Romero Rhonda C.
Published: August 2014

The relationship between verbal report and cardiac orienting response measures of speech discrimination in adult listeners was examined in two experiments using stimuli and paradigms previously employed in studies of infant speech perception. The results of Experiment I revealed that all listeners, those who reported discrimination of a synthetic [ba-ga] change (Group D) as well as those who did not (Group ND), demonstrated cardiac discrimination of the stimulus shift. However, this pattern of cardiac activity, both at stimulus onset and the shift, was found to be different in these two groups of listeners. Experiment II replicated the Group D results using a slightly different cardiac paradigm and quasinatural speech syllables. The implications of these findings for developmental research on speech perception with older infants, children, and populations with language disorders are discussed.
Effects of Noise and Increased Vocal Intensity on Stuttering
Authors: Garber Sharon F. , Martin Richard R.
Published: August 2014

The present study was designed to assess the effects of increased vocal level on stuttering in the presence and absence of noise, and to assess the effects of noise on stuttering with and without a concomitant increase in vocal level. Accordingly, eight adult stutterers spoke in quiet with normal vocal level, in quiet with increased vocal level, in noise with normal level, and in noise with increased level. All subjects reduced stuttering in noise compared with quiet conditions. However, there was no difference in stuttering when subjects spoke with normal compared with increased vocal level. In the present study, reductions in stuttering under noise could not be explained by increases in vocal level. It appears, instead, that reductions in stuttering were related to a decrease in auditory feedback. The condition which resulted in the largest decrease in auditory feedback, speaking in noise with a normal level, also resulted in the largest decrease in stuttering.
Effects of Stimulus Duration and Stimulus Off Time on the Auditory and Acoustic Reflex Thresholds
Authors: Feldman Alan S. , Katz Debra
Published: August 2014

The effects of stimulus duration and stimulus off time on the thresholds of hearing and the acoustic reflex were investigated in 10 normal-hearing subjects and 10 subjects with sensorineural hearing loss. A 1000-Hz stimulus with on-off times of 500-500 msec and 30-30 msec was used to obtain hearing sensitivity and acoustic reflex thresholds via a tracking method. Auditory threshold was poorer for the 30-30 msec tone than the 500-500 msec stimulus in both groups. Using the different stimuli, no significant difference in acoustic reflex threshold was observed in either group. These results suggest that the addition of a short off time modifies the previously observed effects of both duration and off time on the acoustic reflex and auditory threshold.
Analytic Study of the Tadoma Method: Discrimination Ability of Untrained Observers
Authors: Reed Charlotte M. , Rubin Steven I. , Braida Louis D. , Durlach Nathaniel I.
Published: August 2014

This study reports the ability of two observers with normal-hearing and sight to discriminate pairs of speech elements through the Tadoma method of speechread-ing. The observers were blindfolded and exposed to masking noise to eliminate visual and auditory cues. They placed their right hand over the speaker’s face and neck so that the thumb rested lightly on the lips and the fingers fanned out over the cheek and neck. The discrimination tests were conducted using an ABX procedure. Average discrimination scores for the five types of test materials used in the ABX tests were 87% on W-22 words, 83% on Modified Rhyme Test words, 70% on vowels, 77% on CV and VC nonsense syllables, and 71% on consonant clusters. In all of the ABX tests, the inexperienced observers performed at least as well as the experienced Tadoma user studied by Norton, et al (1977). This finding indicates that the basic tactile sensitivity of inexperienced observers is comparable to that of an experienced deaf-blind Tadoma user.
Relational Meaning Encoded in the Two-Word Utterances of Stage 1 Down’s Syndrome Children
Authors: Coggins Truman E.
Published: August 2014

This study explored the early two-word utterances from four Down’s syndrome children to determine if they encode the same relational meanings as children developing language normally. Nine semantic categories were established to classify the subject’s two-word constructions. Absolute and proportional frequencies of relational types were then used to analyze the relational meanings. The results reveal that this classification system accounts for a combined 79% of the two-word utterances expressed by these Down’s subjects. It is suggested that Down’s children demonstrate as much diversity in their use of relational meanings as normals at the same linguistic stage. These findings are discussed with respect to what Down’s children know about the world as they begin to produce two-word combinations.
Changes in the Probability of Stuttering Following a Stutter: A Test of Some Recent Models
Authors: Still A. W. , Griggs S.
Published: August 2014

To test the models of stuttering proposed by Still and Sherrard (1976), six stutterers (two adults and four children between 12 and 14 years old) read 33 or more passages of prose of approximately 200 words, in sessions of 16 or 17 passages. Predictions tested concerned changes in stuttering probability as words elapse following the last stutter. Such changes may be confounded with sequential dependencies among word classes, together with correlations between word classes and stuttering. To allow for this, a multiple regression was carried out on six independent variables—initial phoneme, grammatical class, length of word, position in sentence, session, and familiarity of passage. From this analysis, predicted changes in stuttering probability were generated, and compared with observed probabilities. There was a significant decrease in the difference between observed and expected probabilities over the first 30 words following a stutter. Also, two subjects (the adults) showed an initial increase in rate of stuttering. These results support a combination of the anxiety and feedback models of Still and Sherrard.
Frequency-Discrimination Ability of Hearing-Impaired Listeners
Authors: Zurek P. M. , Formby C.
Published: August 2014

Thresholds for frequency modulation were measured by an adaptive, two-alternative, forced-choice method with ten listeners: eight who showed varying degrees of sensorineural hearing impairment, and two with normal-hearing sensitivity. Results for test frequencies spaced at octave intervals between 125 and 4000 Hz showed that, relative to normal-hearing listeners, the ability of the hearing-impaired listeners to detect a sinusoidal frequency modulation: (1) is diminished above a certain level of hearing loss; and (2) is more disrupted for low-frequency tones than for high-frequency tones, given the same degree of hearing loss at the test frequency. The first finding is consistent with that of previous studies which show a general deterioration of frequency-discrimination ability associated with moderate, or worse, hearing loss. It is proposed that the second finding may be explained: 1) by differential impairment of the temporal and place mechanisms presumed to, encode pitch at the lower and higher frequencies, respectively; and/or, 2) for certain configurations of hearing loss, by the asymmetrical pattern of cochlear excitation that may lead to the underestimation, from measurements of threshold sensitivity, of hearing impairment for low-frequency tones and consequently to relatively large changes in frequency discrimination for small shifts in hearing threshold.
Evaluation of Hearing-Impaired Listeners Using a Nonsense-Syllable Test I. Test Reliability
Authors: Dubno Judy R. , Dirks Donald D.
Published: August 2014

The reliability of a closed-set Nonsense-Syllable Test was determined on a group of 38 listeners with mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss. Eight randomizations of the 91-item test (four trials on each of two days) were presented monaurally, under earphones, at 90 dB SPL with a cafeteria background noise set at a +20-dB S/N ratio. Performance under these conditions ranged from 21.4 to 91.2%, reflecting the wide range of syllable-recognition ability of these subjects. Reliability of the eight measurements was determined by analysis of variance and analysis of covariance structure (parallel-test modelling) for the entire test and each of 11 subtests. Overall and individual subject results failed to show any systematic differences in scores over eight trials. Likewise, no significant differences were found in performance on individual syllables, nor were changes in the relative occurrence of specific syllable confusions noted. This test is highly reliable when evaluating hearing-impaired subjects, and thus is appropriate for use in investigations where identical items are administered under multiple experimental conditions.
Developmental Use of Vowel Duration as a Cue to Postvocalic Stop Consonant Voicing
Authors: Krause Sue Ellen
Published: August 2014

This developmental study investigated vowel duration as a cue to postvocalic consonant voicing. Ten trials of six test words, spoken by 10 3-year-olds, 10 6-year-olds, and 10 adults, all with normal language and articulation and hearing, were analyzed. A significant interaction between the speaker's age and the voicing feature of the postvocalic consonant was found on measures of total vowel duration. The duration of vowels preceding voiceless stops was similar across ages, but vowel duration preceding voiced stops decreased sharply with age. In addition, decreased variability of vowel duration was observed with increasing age. Consideration is given to processes of exaggerated vowel lengthening and vowel shortening to describe children's acquisition of this voicing cue. The same subjects and stimulus words used in the production experiment were used in a previous perception experiment. Qualitative comparisons between the production and perception data revealed parallel refinement in the use of vowel duration as a function of age.
Formant Frequency Fluctuation as an Index of Motor Steadiness in the Vocal Tract
Authors: Gerratt Bruce R.
Published: August 2014

Involuntary movement of the articulatory structures can interfere with the accurate placement of the articulators during consonant production and may also result in distortion of vowel quality. An acoustic method was used to assess motor steadiness in the vocal tract musculature superior to the glottis during vowel production by five subjects with abnormal involuntary orofacial movements associated with tardive dyskinesia and 10 normal subjects. A linear predictive coding technique of spectral analysis yielded formant frequencies from the sustained productions of//. Based on the premise that changes in vocal tract configuration can be measured as changes in formant frequency, the sequential segment-to-segment fluctuations of the second formant frequency of these vowel samples were computed and used as an index of motor steadiness. Results showed that formant frequency fluctuation measures for four of the five tardive dyskinetic patients were substantially larger than those of the normal subjects, indicating a reduction of motor steadiness in these four subjects. Factors influencing the validity of this procedure and implications for its use are discussed.
Acoustic-Reflex Adaptation
Authors: Wilson Richard H. , McCullough June K. , Lilly David J.
Published: August 2014

Acoustic-reflex adaptation was studied in 35 subjects with normal hearing using nine pure-tone activators (250-6000 Hz) and a broadband-noise activator. The individual subject data generated by the 31-s activators presented 10 dB above the reflex threshold were digitized, corrected for baseline drift and ear Canal volume, and analyzed in terms of the acoustic-admittance change in acoustic mmhos and in terms of the percentage of maximum-reflex magnitude. Reflex adaptation increased as a function of frequency. The adaptation functions for the lower frequencies (⩽1500 Hz) were essentially linear over the 31-s activator period, whereas the functions for the higher frequencies (⩾2000 Hz) were curvilinear over the activator period. The experimental half-tile data are compared with a theoretical half-life function that was generated to estimate normal acoustic-reflex adaptation as a function of activator frequency. Finally, the means and standard deviations are reported and discussed for (a) the onset time of adaptation; (b) the half-life time, and (c) the percentage of maximum reflex magnitude at 5-s intervals from 5 to 30 s.
Child Meets Word
Authors: Dollaghan Chris
Published: August 2014

"Fast mapping" (Carey & Bartlett, 1978) is a hypothesized process enabling children to rapidly create lexical representations for the unfamiliar words they encounter. In this study, 35 normal preschool children, ages 2:1–5:11 (years:months), were exposed to a monosyllabic nonsense word and its novel object referent. On first exposure, 91% of the subjects inferred the connection between the novel word and referent. After this single encounter, 81% correctly identified the referent on hearing its label a second time. After hearing the new word twice, 45% were able to produce at least two of its three phonemes in labeling the novel referent. Of those children who did not attempt to label the novel referent, a significant percentage recognized the correct label. In addition, a significant percentage of subjects recalled some nonlinguistic information associated with the referent. Normal preschoolers appear to create fast mappings containing a great deal of linguistic and nonlinguistic information on the basis of even brief, casual encounters with new words.
A Comparison of Temporal Measures of Speech Using Spectrograms and Digital Oscillograms
Authors: Smith Bruce L. , Hillenbrand James , Ingrisano Dennis
Published: August 2014

To determine whether any systematic differences occur as a result of using spectrograms versus digital oscillograms to make durational measurements, a number of temporal features (e.g., voice onset time, vowel duration, and consonant closure duration) for 3 speakers were independently measured by 2 different investigators. Both experimenters measured the same intervals with conventional spectrograms and with digital oscillograms, separated by at least a 2-week interval. Oscillograms tended to reveal slightly longer vowel durations and more voicing during consonant closure, while spectrograms evidenced slightly longer consonant closure durations. In general, variations between the two types of instrumentation were no more than 8 to 10 ms and are, therefore, of primary consequence only for studies in which quite small temporal differences are critical.
Acquisition of Semantic Role by Language-Disordered Children
Authors: Connell Phil J.
Published: August 2014

Six 3-year-old language-disordered children were taught the relationship between semantic role and word order through either production or comprehension training. All 6 subjects successfully learned the relationship through production training as indicated by their responses to a production probe and by their use of word order to express semantic role distinctions in their conversational speech. These subjects never used word order cues to decode semantically reversible sentences on comprehension tests even after they were using word order appropriately in their conversational speech. Also, none of the subjects were able to learn word order through comprehension training. The results were interpreted to mean the subjects could learn a word-order rule by teaching them to say sentences that contrast word order and meaning but that they could not learn by being taught to respond to sentences. The problem with this latter procedure may be that it requires a mental operation that is beyond the level of cognitive development of children under the age of 4.
Consistency of the Effects of Rate of Speech on Brain-Damaged Adults' Comprehension of Narrative Discourse
Authors: Nicholas Linda E. , Brookshire Robert H.
Published: August 2014

An experiment was carried out to assess the effects of slow and fast speech rate on comprehension of narrative discourse by aphasic, right-hemisphere-damaged, and non-brain-damaged adults. Aphasic subjects were divided into a high-comprehension group and a low-comprehension group based on their performance on the auditory comprehension subtests from the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination. Subjects listened to l0 narrative stories. Half the stories were presented at slow speech rate (110–130 wpm) and half were presented at fast speech rate (190–210 wpm). After each story, subjects' comprehension and retention of stated and implied main ideas and details were tested. Brain-damaged subjects were tested twice, with at least 2 weeks intervening between sessions. Results demonstrated that salience had strong effects on comprehension for all groups of subjects—main ideas consistently were comprehended better than details. Directness affected subjects' comprehension of details, but not their comprehension of main ideas—stated details consistently were comprehended better than implied details. Non-brain-damaged subjects' comprehension was unaffected by differences in speech rate. Brain-damaged subjects comprehended details better in slow rate than in fast rate condition in the first test session, but the effects of rate on brain-damaged subjects' comprehension essentially disappeared by the second test. Furthermore, there were many instances in which individual subjects' failed to demonstrate rate effects exhibited by their group.
Physiological Bases of Acoustic LRT in Nonstutterers, Mild Stutterers, and Severe Stutterers
Authors: Watson Ben C. , Alfonso Peter J.
Published: August 2014

The simple reaction time paradigm, incorporating a variable foreperiod, was used to investigate relative contributions of the respiratory and laryngeal systems to mild and severe stutterers' prolonged acoustic laryngeal reaction time (LRT) values. Prephonatory kinematic data were analyzed in terms of frequency of initiation, timing, and organization of events executed to attain the functional physiological targets of respiratory inflation during foreperiods and phonation onset after foreperiods. Acoustic data replicated a previously observed composite stuttering severity and foreperiod effect on stutterers' acoustic LRT values. Kinematic data revealed that, in general, the mild stutterers demonstrated delayed initiation of respiratory events and appropriate organization of respiratory and laryngeal events while the severe stutterers demonstrated delayed initiation of laryngeal events and inappropriate organization of respiratory and laryngeal events. That is, kinematic data both account for group differences in acoustic LRT values as a function of foreperiod and support the notion that differential respiratory and laryngeal deficits underly mild and severe stutterers' prolonged acoustic LRT values.
Frequency Modulation Detection by Normally Hearing and Profoundly Hearing-Impaired Listeners
Authors: Grant Ken W.
Published: August 2014

The ability of normally hearing and profoundly hearing-impaired subjects to detect frequency modulations was evaluated under conditions where the amplitudes of the test signals were either constant (CA), sinusoidally modulated (SAM), or randomly modulated (RAM). Results for hearing-impaired listeners showed larger frequency difference limens (DLFM) than those for normally hearing listeners for all test frequencies (100 to 1000 Hz) and for all amplitude conditions. For both normal-hearing and hearing-impaired subjects, the DFLM was smallest for the constant amplitude condition and largest for the randomly modulated condition. Differences in performance between the RAM and CA conditions were generally much larger for impaired listeners than for normally hearing listeners. With random amplitude modulation, DLFMs for the hearing-impaired subjects were approximately 36 times larger than those for normally hearing subjects.
Proverb Comprehension in Context
Authors: Nippold Marilyn A. , Martin Stephanie A. , Erskine Barbara J.
Published: August 2014

Although previous studies have reported that proverb comprehension remains quite literal before adolescence, the results of the present study indicated that fourth graders performed well on a proverb comprehension task involving contextual information and a written multiple choice format. It was also found that performance on the proverb task steadily improved at least through the eighth grade and was significantly correlated to performance on a perceptual analogical reasoning task. The study contributes to the small but growing body of information concerning language development during the preadolescent and adolescent years and may have some important implications for the assessment of youngsters of this age range who have comprehension deficits that are troublesome, yet difficult to document.
The Effect of Continuous Monaural Noise on Loudness Matches to Tinnitus
Authors: Penner M. J.
Published: August 2014

Data from two psychophysical tasks are presented. In the first, 8 subjects with sensorineural hearing loss and tinnitus adjusted the intensity of a continuous monaural noise to mask the tinnitus. In the second, in the presence of continuous monaural noise, the same subjects adjusted the intensity of a pulsed monaural tone to match the loudness of the tinnitus. The tone was either ipsilateral or contralateral to the noise. Although the noise level required to mask the tinnitus increased substantially, as did the level of the ipsilateral matching tone, the change in the level of the contralateral matching tone was minimal. One possible explanation of these findings is related to the functioning of the peripheral auditory system.
Rule Invention in the Acquisition of Morphology Revisited
Authors: Camarata Stephen M. , Erwin Lisa
Published: August 2014

This paper presents a case study of a language-impaired child who signaled the distinction between English singular and plural using suprasegmental cues rather than the usual segmental form used within the parent language. Acoustic analyses performed within the first study in the paper revealed that the suprasegmental features used to maintain this distinction included various duration, fundamental frequency, and intensity parameters. Acoustic analyses Were also performed on a set of matched two- and four-item plural forms within a second study. The results of these analyses indicated that the same acoustic parameters were used to distinguish two-item plural forms from four-item plural forms. This case of linguistic creativity is offered as further evidence in support of the model of language acquisition that emphasizes the active role children take in the acquisition process. Additionally, the phonological, morphological, and psycholinguistic factors that may contribute to such rule invention are discussed.
Response Contingent Stimuli and Stuttering
Authors: Prins David , Hubbard Carol P.
Published: August 2014

The first papers concerning effects of response contingent stimuli (RCS) on stuttering and speech disfluency were published approximately 30 years ago. Research in this area flourished until about 1980 after which relatively few studies have been reported. Reasons for the decline in interest are not altogether clear because crucial issues remain unresolved. This paper highlights and evaluates these issues and considers their implications for future research.
Effects of Transition Length on the Perception of Stop Consonants by Children and Adults
Authors: Sussman Joan E. , Carney Arlene Earley
Published: August 2014

The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether children with normal linguistic skills demonstrate increasing developmental changes in their perception of place of articulation for stop consonants with short- and long-duration formant transitions. Three experimental paradigms were used with children and adults: discrimination, labeling, and selective adaptation. Two sets of synthetic CV syllables, varying along a seven-step, bilabial-to-alveolar dimension, were used as stimuli. These two synthetic continua differed in the length of the second and third formant transitions. Results showed that children's discrimination abilities gradually approximated those of adults, but did not reach adult levels even at 10 years of age. Differences were not observed in the labeling task. Further, results of the selective adaptation task indicated that only the adult subjects showed a significant boundary shift for any adapting stimuli. The absence of selective adaptation in children was interpreted as a possible reflection of their poorer auditory abilities. Thus, the pattern of speech perception development for children for place of articulation is a complex one with a strong auditory developmental component.
Evaluation of the Siemens Minifonator Vibrotactile Aid
Authors: Weisenberger Janet M.
Published: August 2014

The Siemens Hearing Instruments Minifonator, a single-channel, wrist-worn vibrotactile aid, was evaluated in a laboratory setting with hearing-impaired adults. Eight subjects, with hearing loss greater than 70 dB in the better ear, were administered a test battery including sound-field detection, speech awareness threshold, environmental sound identification, syllable rhythm and stress categorization, and sentence identification subtests. Performance on each subtest was compared for hearing-aided and tactile-aided conditions. Mean performance levels for the two conditions were comparable for all but one subtest. However, closer inspection revealed that the data for the hearing-aided condition were bimodal: some subjects proved to be good hearing aid users and others performed at chance levels with their hearing aids. Performance in the tactile-aided condition did not show such variability and mean levels fell between the hearing-aided levels for "good" and "poor" hearing aid users. The effects of training with the device were assessed for two normal-hearing subjects, who were trained in 1-hour daily sessions over a several week period on the environmental sounds and syllable rhythm and stress subtests. Results indicated substantial improvements in performance over the course of training. The implications of these results for long-term use of the device are discussed.
Predictors of Language Restitution Following Stroke
Authors: Holland Audrey L. , Greenhouse Joel B. , Fromm Davida , Swindell Carol S.
Published: August 2014

A consecutive sample of 50 language-impaired patients was evauated prospectively during the first 3 to 4 months following unilateral left- or right-hemisphere stroke. A multiple logistic linear regression model was used to assess the relative importance of eight predictor variables on the likelihood of language recovery. Those found to be significantly associated with language recovery included age (favoring younger patients) and length of hospital stay (favoring shorter stays). Gender (favoring males), type of stroke (favoring hemorrhages), and side of lesion (favoring right) were only moderate correlates of recovery. Neither race nor history of previous stroke was a significant predictor of language recovery. Multivariate statistical analysis was useful in illuminating the joint relationship between clinical and demographic predictor variables and language recovery.
Language Skills of Children with Different Preschool Experiences
Authors: Roberts Joanne Erwick , Rabinowitch Shoshanna , Bryant Donna M. , Burchinal Margaret R. , Koch Matthew A. , Ramey Craig T.
Published: August 2014

This study examined the language at age 5 of socioeconomically disadvantaged children who had been randomly assigned at birth to a language-enriched day care program with a parent education component, a parent education program without a language-enriched day care, or no treatment. The interventions were administered between the ages of 3 months to 5 years. Language measures, reflecting children's ability to manipulate topics, as well as their structural complexity, semantic diversity, and general talkativeness were examined. The results showed that the disadvantaged children who attended the language-enriched day care program with the parent education component used a significantly greater proportion of high quality topic manipulation skills and less low quality topic manipulation skills during conversation than did children in the other two groups. The day care effect on high quality topic manipulation was present even after adjusting for children's intelligence and for the amount of community day care experience of the children in the parent education alone and control groups. No significant treatment differences were found for structural, semantic, and talkativeness measures. Implications of the result for early language intervention are discussed.
Effects of Click Rate and Electrode Orientation on Threshold of the Auditory Brainstem Response
Authors: Sininger Yvonne S. , Don Manuel
Published: August 2014

This study evaluated the effects of stimulus presentation rate and electrode orientation on ABR threshold. Six normal-hearing adults served as subjects. ABRs were recorded from three orthogonal electrode pairs in response to click stimuli at rates of 48 and 21/s. Psychophysical thresholds were determined for each of these stimuli, and ABRs were recorded with stimuli between 0 and 10 dB SL in 2-dB steps. A ratio of ABR signal strength to noise variance (F
sp
) was the criterion used to define threshold. Specifically, an F
sp
value of 2.25, equivalent to a 95% response confidence using 5 and 250 degrees of freedom, was the criterion used to determine response presence within a maximum of 10,000 sweeps per average. Results revealed that, for normal-hearing adult subjects, click rate up to 48/s does not influence the sensation level at which a detectable response can be found, and a nearly vertical electrode orientation is optimal for recording the response at low levels. The predicted difference between psychophysical and ABR thresholds with a vertical electrode orientation, using 10,000 sweeps per average, up to 48 clicks per second, and an F
sp
criterion of 2.25 is 4.4 dB.
Tracking of a “Moving” Fused Auditory Image Under Conditions that Elicit the Precedence Effect
Authors: Moore Christopher A. , Cranford Jerry L. , Rahn Angela E.
Published: August 2014

Pursuit auditory tracking of a fused auditory image (FAI), based on stimulus conditions known to elicit the precedence effect phenomenon in sound localization, was investigated in 36 normal subjects and in a small group of subjects with known neuropathology. Movement of the FAI was simulated by incrementally varying the delay between two clicks presented, one each, from two loudspeakers placed on opposite sides of the listener. The group of normal listeners tracked the movement of the FAI without difficulty and with great accuracy; the perceived location of the FAI varied linearly with the interspeaker delay. The sensitivity of the task in detecting neural timing or integration deficits was investigated in 5 subjects with neuropathology, including subjects with unilateral temporal lobe lesions, multiple sclerosis, or dyslexia. These disorders, previously shown to disrupt neural timing, yielded characteristic patterns of tracking inaccuracy for this task. These subjects had no difficulty localizing either a moving unitary click source or sounds in daily life. These data support the suggestion that sound localization using stimulus conditions known to elicit the precedence effect places greater demands on neural timing and integration than conventional tests of localization, and may provide a more sensitive index of neural function.
A Study of the Tactual and Visual Reception of Fingerspelling
Authors: Reed Charlotte M. , Delhorne Lorraine A. , Durlach Nathaniel I. , Fischer Susan D.
Published: August 2014

A method of communication in frequent use among members of the deaf-blind community is the tactual reception of fingerspelling. In this method, the hand of the deaf-blind individual is placed on the hand of the sender to monitor the handshapes and movements associated with the letters of the manual alphabet. The purpose of the current study was to examine the ability of experienced deaf-blind subjects to receive fingerspelled materials, including sentences and connected text, through the tactual sense. A parallel study of the reception of fingerspelling through the visual sense was also conducted using sighted deaf subjects. For both visual and tactual reception of fingerspelled sentences, accuracy of reception was examined as a function of rate of presentation. In the tactual study, where rates were limited to those that could be produced naturally by an experienced interpreter, highly accurate reception of conversational sentence materials was observed throughout the range of naturally produced rates (i.e., 2 to 6 letters/s). In the visual study, rates in excess of those that can be produced naturally were achieved through variable-speed playback of videotapes of fingerspelled sentences. The results of this study indicate that performance varies systematically as a function of rate of presentation, with scores of 50% correct on conversational sentences obtained at rates of 12 to 16 letters/s (i.e., rates roughly double to triple normal speed). These results suggest that normal communication rates for the visual reception of fingerspelling are restricted by limitations on the rate of manual production. Although maximal rates of natural manual production of fingerspelling correspond to the presentation of a new handshape on the order of once every 150–200 ms, the data from the sped-up visual study suggest that experienced receivers of visual fingerspelling are able to receive sentences at substantially higher rates of fingerspelling (which are, in fact, comparable to communication rates for spoken English).
Key Word Signing
Authors: Windsor Jennifer , Fristoe Macalyne
Published: August 2014

Key-word-sign (KWS) and speech-only programs differ in the results they achieve with nonspeaking individuals. This difference might be traced to suprasegmental aspects of speech. In an earlier study. Windsor and Fristoe (1989) showed that untrained listeners could distinguish speech produced using KWS from speech only. In the present study, acoustic measures as well as listener judgments of KWS and spoken-only (S-O) narratives were obtained. Compared to S-O narratives, KWS narratives were produced with a slower articulation rate, due to increased pause and speech segment duration and increased pause number. Within-sentence pauses in KWS narratives tended to occur immediately after a signed word.
Speech-Associated Attitudes of Stuttering and Nonstuttering Children
Authors: Nil L. F. De , Brutten G. J.
Published: August 2014

Speech-Associated Attitudes of Stuttering and Nonstuttering Children. De Nil, L. F., & Brutten, G. J.
JSHR
, February 1991, 60–66.

The name of the speech attitude test in the appendix should be “Communication Attitude Test (CAT).”
Speech and Language Production at Age 2
Authors: Nelson Lauren K. , Bauer Harold R.
Published: August 2014

The purpose of this study was to explore how 2-year-old children manage the relationship between phonetic production and production of word combinations in their spontaneous speech. The subjects were 5 normally developing 2-year-olds who were participants in an ongoing longitudinal study of speech and language acquisition. Three measures were used to estimate phonetic production skills in the children’s spontaneous speech samples. These included a measure of the accuracy of consonant production (Percentage of Consonants Correct), and two estimators of phonetic complexity (phonetic products for utterance and word length units). Regression analyses were used to determine the relationship between complexity of word combinations, as measured by length of utterance in morphemes and a propositional complexity analysis, and utilization of phonetic production skills. The results revealed modest tradeoffs between complexity of word combinations and accuracy of consonant production for 2 of the 5 children. The results also showed tradeoffs between complexity of word combinations and phonetic complexity of individual lexical items (phonetic product for words) for 4 of the 5 children. As the complexity of these 4 children’s multiword combinations increased, the phonetic complexity of individual lexical items decreased. These results are consistent with synergistic theories of language acquisition and language processing that emphasize dynamic tradeoffs in interactions among language processing levels in a limited capacity production system.
Responses to Requests for Conversational Repair by Adults With Mental Retardation
Authors: Brinton Bonnie , Fujiki Martin
Published: August 2014

This study focused on adjustments made in conversation in response to listener feedback. Subjects consisted of 22 community-based and 22 institutionalized adults with mental retardation individually matched for full-scale IQ. For each subject, data were collected in a dyadic conversation with an investigator. During the course of the conversation, the investigator introduced stacked sequences of three requests for clarification of the same message (“Huh?” “What?” “What?”). Each subject’s responses to these requests were analyzed. Results indicated that community-based subjects used certain sophisticated repair strategies more often than did their institutionalized peers. However, neither group of subjects was as responsive to the requests for clarification as would have been predicted considering their general levels of intellectual and linguistic functioning.
Effects of Different Frequency Response Strategies Upon Recognition and Preference for Audible Speech Stimuli
Authors: Horwitz Amy R. , Turner Christopher W. , Fabry David A.
Published: August 2014

The purpose of this study was to examine whether the amount of low. versus high-frequency amplification should change as a function of input level, as is done in some recently developed hearing aids. Adults with high-frequency sensorineural hearing loss served as subjects. Both identification performance and preference judgments for audible CV syllables were assessed as a function of input level for three different signal processing conditions both in quiet and in noise. The first signal processing condition was a conventional high-pass frequency response that did not change its transfer function as the input level increased; the second condition was similar to a typical adaptive frequency response (AFR) hearing aid: a high-pass frequency response that became increasingly high-pass as the input level increased; the third condition was similar to the K-Amp hearing aid recommended by Killion (1988): a high-pass frequency response that became more broadband as the input level increased. Results indicated no significant differences among the three different processing conditions for syllable recognition and a strong listener preference for the syllables presented via the conventional amplification scheme.
Low-Frequency Energy Deficit in Electrolaryngeal Speech
Authors: Qi Yingyong , Weinberg Bernd
Published: August 2014

The present exploratory project was undertaken (a) to determine the relative strength of low-frequency energy in the output of one widely used electronic artificial larynx (Servox) and (b) to assess the relative strength of low-frequency energy in vowels produced by users of this type of artificial larynx. We hypothesized that the outputs of electronic artificial larynges and the vowels produced by laryngectomized users of these devices would be characterized by significant deficits in low-frequency energy level. Five users of electronic larynges and 10 normal speakers (5 female and 5 male) provided the speech samples. Results of spectral analyses indicated that there was a significant deficit in low-frequency energy both in the acoustic signals generated by a Servox electronic larynx and in vowels produced by laryngectomized users of this type of electronic larynx. Based on these findings, a second order filter was designed and implemented digitally to compensate for the observed deficit in low-frequency energy. A perceptual experiment was completed to evaluate the effect of low-frequency enhancement on perceived speech quality. Ninety-eight percent (±2%) of the responses of listeners indicated that low-frequency enhanced speech samples had better vocal quality or were more pleasant to listen to than the original speech samples. We conclude that consideration for enhancing low-frequency characteristics is warranted in the design of improved prosthetic devices for alaryngeal speakers.
Articulation Testing Versus Conversational Speech Sampling
Authors: Morrison Judith A. , Shriberg Lawrence D.
Published: August 2014

Detailed speech analyses were performed on data from 61 speech-delayed children assessed by both a standard articulation test and a conversational speech sample. Statistically significant differences between the articulation accuracy profiles obtained from the two sampling modes were observed at all linguistic levels examined, including overall accuracy, phonological processes, individual phonemes, manner features, error-type, word position, and allophones. Established sounds were often produced more accurately in conversational speech, whereas emerging sounds were often produced more accurately in response to articulation test stimuli. Error patterns involving word-to-word transitions were available only in the context of continuous speech. A pass-fail analysis indicated that the average subject would receive similar clinical decisions from articulation testing and conversational speech sampling on an average of 71% of consonant sounds. Analyses of demographic, language, and speech variables did not yield any subject characteristics that were significantly associated with concordance rates in the two sampling modes. Discussion considers sources of variance for differences between sampling modes, including processes associated with both the speaker and the transcriber. In comparison to the validity of conversational speech samples for integrated speech, language, and prosodic analyses, articulation tests appear to yield neither typical nor optimal measures of speech performance.
Causal Coherence in the Oral Narratives of Spanish-Speaking Children
Authors: Gutierrez-Clellen Vera F. , Iglesias Aquiles
Published: August 2014

Forty-six Spanish-speaking children distributed among three age groups (4:0–4:11, 6:0–6:11, and 8:0–8:11 years) were shown a short silent film and asked to tell the investigator what happened in the movie. All narratives were audiotaped and transcribed for analysis. The stories of older children contained more narrative actions and included more mental state/goal causes than those of younger children. With increasing age, children's narratives showed a decrease in the use of two-clause causal sequences, an increase in the use of three-clause causal sequences, and a decrease in the proportion of unrelated statements. The variability in the types of causal links manifested in the stories suggests that absence of certain types of interclausal connections should not be interpreted as reflecting cognitive or comprehension deficits.
Effects of Signal Presentation Level and Word Duration on Gated Word-Recognition Performance
Authors: Craig Chie H. , Kim Byoung W.
Published: August 2014

This study examined the effects of signal presentation level and word duration on time-gated isolated monosyllabic word-recognition performance. Measures of listener confidence, word identification, isolation point (IP), confidence at IP, and acceptance point were obtained from normal-hearing listeners. Subjects were presented with non-time-gated and time-gated speech stimuli at 40 dB SPL (
N
=21). The resulting performance measures were compared with previously reported results obtained using an 80-dB SPL presentation level. The speech stimuli consisted of 60-msec time-gated isolated monosyllabic words developed from a prerecorded 50-item list (Auditec, NU-6). Comparisons were drawn between presentation levels, word durations, and time-gated and non-time-gated presentation conditions. Poorer accuracy and longer isolation points were observed at the lower signal presentation level. The findings further indicated that listener confidence at IP was only indirectly influenced by presentation level. Monosyllabic word duration was a significant factor in on-line recognition performance, regardless of presentation level.
Sources of Variability in Speechreading Sentences
Authors: Demorest Marilyn E. , Bernstein Lynne E.
Published: August 2014

Generalizability theory (Cronbach, Gleser, Nanda, & Rajaratnam, 1972) was used to estimate the percentage of variance explained by three sources of variability in speechreading sentences: the subject, the talker, and the sentence materials. Videodisc recordings of the 100 CID Everyday Sentences (Davis & Silverman, 1970), spoken by a male and a female talker, were presented to 104 subjects with normal hearing. For performance on individual sentences (total number of words correct), the most important systematic sources of variability were the sentence (26.3%), the speechreader (10.5%), the talker (4.9%), and the interaction of talker and sentence (5.1%). Residual error accounted for 51.2% of the variance. Generalizability functions are presented, as a function of test length, for five models of test administration and interpretation. For 10-, 50-, and 100-item lists, generalizability is predicted to be .70, .92, and .96, respectively, for a single talker. Psychometric characteristics of these recordings of the CID sentences are also presented.