bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Age and Laryngeal Airway Resistance during Vowel Production
Authors: Melcon Matthew C. , Hoit Jeannette D. , Hixon Thomas J.
Published: July 2014

An investigation was conducted to determine if laryngeal valving economy, as reflected in measures of laryngeal airway resistance during vowel production, varies across adulthood. Sixty healthy men were studied, 10 from each of six age groups–25, 35, 45, 55, 65, and 75 years (± 2 years). Results indicated that there are age-related differences in laryngeal airway resistance during vowel production and that these differences are characterized by a lower mean resistance in 75-year-old men than in younger men of the ages studied. This finding provides insight into the impact of age on laryngeal function and has important implications for the evaluation and management of men with voice disorders.
Turn Exchange Characteristics of SLI Children's Simultaneous and Nonsimultaneous Speech
Authors: Craig Holly K. , Evans Julia L.
Published: July 2014

The specifically language impaired (SLI) child's turn exchange behaviors were examined in adult-child interaction and compared to those of children of similar chronological ages or language structural levels. Videotaped language samples were analyzed for verbal and nonverbal behaviors associated with the children's production of simultaneous and nonsimultaneous speech. The results indicated qualitative differences from those of the normal language children in terms of turn errors, interruptions, interactive attention, responsiveness, and turn switch times, as well as variability related to SLI subtype.
Lexical Learning and Language Abilities in Preschoolers with Perinatal Brain Damage
Authors: Keefe Kristen A. , Feldman Heidi M. , Holland Audrey L.
Published: July 2014

Studies of children with early-acquired brain damage have noted limitations on language development following such damage and have raised questions regarding the process by which these children acquire language skills. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of perinatally acquired brain damage on early language abilities and on lexical development through the use of standard assessments, language samples, and a miniature linguistic system approach to teach a novel lexicon. Four children, ages 26–41 months, with localized, perinatal brain lesions documented on ultrasound or CT scan were selected for this study and were compared to 4 matched controls. The results show no differences in the pattern of scores and learning in children with right and left brain damage. With the exception of phonological development, subjects scored below controls on all formal language measures; however, the subjects often scored at or above test norms. Brain-injured subjects were similar to controls with respect to the number of novel words that they initially learned on comprehension and production tasks and the number that they consistently comprehended. Brain-injured subjects generally acquired fewer words when the criterion was consistent accurate production. Interestingly, subjects required more exposures to novel lexical items than did controls before reaching a given level of proficiency. Production seemed to be more difficult for all children, but more so for the brain-injured subjects. It appears that the effects of early damage have an impact on many aspects of language development and that these apparent deficits may reflect the child's need for greater exposure to language skills and structures before acquiring them.
Outcome of Intensive Language Treatment in Aphasia
Authors: Poeck Klaus , Huber Walter , Willmes Klaus
Published: July 2014

Sixty-eight aphasic inpatients received intensive language treatment (9 hr per week over a period of 6–8 weeks). Outcome was assessed by means of the Aachen Aphasia Test (AAT), a standardized test battery for the German language. For patients with duration of aphasia up to 12 months, amount of improvement was corrected by the expected rate of spontaneous recovery as determined by a previous multicenter follow-up study. About two thirds of the patients showed significant improvement in AAT performance according to psychometric single case analysis procedures. A similar rate of improvement was found for individuals with chronic aphasia beyond the stage of spontaneous recovery.
Using Self-Monitoring to Reduce Disfluencies in Speakers with Mild Aphasia
Authors: Whitney Janet L. , Goldstein Howard
Published: July 2014

This study assessed the effects of treatment designed to teach mildly aphasic individuals to monitor disfluencies—revisions, repetitions, audible pauses—in their connected speech. Treatment effects were evaluated using a multiple baseline design across 3 subjects. All subjects showed immediate and dramatic reductions in the frequency of target behaviors in a picture description task when self-monitoring was introduced. Two subjects simultaneously reduced untargeted disfluencies, and all 3 generalized their improved speech to another discourse task. Treatment effects were unrelated to the accuracy of self-monitoring. Subjects' improved speech was characterized by a slower speaking rate, but more efficient communication as reflected by longer uninterrupted utterances. Although standardized test scores were unchanged, unfamiliar listeners found perceptible improvement between baseline and posttreatment audiotapes of subjects' discourse. Self-monitoring treatment shows promise in reducing distracting and inefficient disfluencies in the speech of mildly aphasic individuals.
Respiratory Function in Parkinson's Subjects Exhibiting a Perceptible Speech Deficit
Authors: Murdoch Bruce E. , Chenery Helen J. , Bowler Simon , Ingram John C. L.
Published: July 2014

The respiratory abilities of a group of 19 speech-disordered subjects with idiopathic Parkinson's disease were assessed using both spirometric and kinematic techniques and compared to those of a group of 19 nonneurologically impaired controls matched for age and sex. Results of the spirometric assessment showed that only a minority of the Parkinson's subjects had lung volumes and capacities outside normal limits. Consequently in the majority of eases, the speech disorder could not be related to any abnormality in lung function determined spirometrically. Chest wall dynamics during both conversation and reading were essentially normal in all cases. Approximately half of the Parkinson's subjects, however, exhibited irregularities in their chest wall movements while performing vowel prolongation and syllable repetition tasks. The same irregularities were not present in the chest wall movements exhibited by the control subjects, suggesting that their presence was in some way related to the Parkinson's disease. Results are discussed in terms of the effects of Parkinson's disease on neuromuscular function.
Analogical Learning and Transfer in Language-Impaired Children
Authors: Kamhi Alan G. , Gentry Betholyn , Mauer Daria , Gholson Barry
Published: July 2014

In this study, the trial-by-trial acquisition procedures developed by Gholson, Eymard, Morgan, and Kamhi (1987) were used to examine analogical reasoning processes in school-age language-impaired (LI) children and normal age peers. Subjects were 16 LI and 16 normally developing children between the ages 6:4 and 8:9 years. Half of the subjects heard only verbal presentations of the problems, whereas the other half heard the verbal presentations while simultaneously viewing physical demonstrations of the problems. The LI children who heard only verbal presentations of the problems took significantly longer to acquire the problem solutions than the other LI children and the normal children in both conditions. There were no differences in children's performance on the transfer task. Theoretical and clinical implications of the findings are discussed.
Speech and Language Development after Infant Tracheostomy
Authors: Hill Betsy P. , Singer Lynn T.
Published: July 2014

This study describes the speech/language development of 31 children who had been fitted with an endotracheal tube. Intubation in all cases occurred prior to 13 months of age and remained in situ for more than 3 months. These children were chosen from a pool of 130 potential subjects. Individuals diagnosed as having a primary neurological disorder, developmental delays, or mental retardation were excluded from the study. Demographic, birth, and medical factors that might also affect language outcome were documented. Standardized outcome measures were used to assess speech, language, and cognitive development of the children seen for testing. For the entire group of children, the overall measures of language functioning at follow-up were within normal limits and commensurate with cognitive ability. However, when a breakdown of results based on the children's ages was done, a clear pattern of language disability was noted in the expressive language of the oldest group of children tested. These findings raise questions about this group of children who were previously thought to develop speech and language skills normally.
The Incidence of Communication Disorders in Dysphagic Patients
Authors: Martin Bonnie J. W. , Corlew Marilyn M.
Published: July 2014

A retrospective study investigated the incidence and types of communication problems in 115 patients referred for swallowing difficulties. Each patient had a bedside swallowing evaluation completed as well as a screening of communication abilities. A formal speech-language evaluation was done when warranted and possible. Of the 115 patients, 93 had suspected swallowing problems based on the bedside evaluation done by the speech-language pathologist. Videofluoroscopy was performed on 85 of these patients. A significant positive correlation was found between communication impairments and both suspected and videofluoroscopically confirmed dysphagia. Cognitive problems were the most frequent communication impairment with dysarthria being second. Neurological diseases were the most common medical diagnoses in patients with swallowing difficulties. The case is presented for the speech-language pathologist to be the primary diagnostician and manager of both communication and oral-pharyngeal swallowing disorders whether they co-occur or not.
Consistency of Fundamental Frequency and Perturbation in Repeated Phonations of Sustained Vowels, Reading, and Connected Speech
Authors: Fitch James L.
Published: July 2014

The purpose of this study was to determine consistency of the acoustic measurement of fundamental frequency (f
0
) and f
0
perturbation using the Visi-Pitch. Samples of speech including a reading passage, vowels, and spontaneous speech were recorded for 12 normal young adults (6 men and 6 women). The results indicated that test-retest reliability was highest for the reading passage. The measurements of fundamental frequency for reading and spontaneous speech were very similar, but vowel production was, on average, higher in frequency than the other contexts. Test-retest measures of perturbation using the Visi-Pitch did not have a high correlation coefficient. Perturbation measures must be interpreted cautiously because of the influence of frequency.
Direct Early Intervention with Stuttering
Authors: Onslow Mark , Costa Leanne , Rue Stephen
Published: July 2014

Many clinicians recognize a need for direct intervention with cases of early stuttering. However, this recognition is not supported by adequate empirical information about how such cases should be managed. One possibility is that early stuttering might be controllable by parent-administered, operant, verbal stimulation procedures. The purpose of this paper is to present preliminary data that depict the results of such an intervention procedure with four cases of early stuttering. Speech measures were gathered in a variety of speaking situations, within and beyond the clinic, over a 2-month pretreatment period and a 9-month posttreatment period. Results showed that the 4 subjects achieved reductions in stuttering comparable to those reported for adult treatment programs. However, the present results were obtained in far fewer clinical hours than normally needed in the treatment for older subjects. The treatment times in the present study also compare favorably to those published in other reports of operant intervention procedures with children. These findings suggest that cases of early stuttering might be managed effectively by parents, with limited expenditure of clinical time. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the development of early intervention programs that are more efficient and effective than existing intervention procedures for older clients.
Effects of Repair Strategies on Visual Identification of Sentences
Authors: Tye-Murray Nancy , Purdy Suzanne C. , Woodworth George G. , Tyler Richard S.
Published: July 2014

This investigation determined whether information elicited by repair strategies enhances an individual's ability to lipread a misperceived sentence. Five groups of subjects were each assigned one of five repair strategies: (a) asking the talker to repeat a sentence, (b) simplify it, (c) rephrase it, (d) say an important keyword, and (e) speak two sentences. Subjects viewed sentences spoken by six different talkers. When a subject did not recite a sentence verbatim, the talker performed the assigned repair strategy and then repeated the original sentence. A control group of subjects saw only the original sentence repeated twice. All five test groups demonstrated a significantly greater improvement for the second presentation score (referenced to the first presentation score) than the control group. The benefits provided by the repair strategies were independent of the talker, and benefits did not differ significantly among the groups.
Generalization to Conversational Speech
Authors: Elbert Mary , Dinnsen Daniel A. , Swartzlander Paula , Chin Steven B.
Published: July 2014

Although changes in children's phonological systems due to treatment have been documented in single-word testing, changes in conversational speech are less well known. Single-word and conversation samples were analyzed for 10 phonologically disordered children, before and after treatment and 3 months later. Results suggest that for most of the children, there were system-changes in both single words and in conversational speech. It appears that many phonologically disordered children are able to extend their correct production to conversation without direct treatment on spontaneous speech.
Patient Compliance with Cleft Palate Team Regimens
Authors: Paynter Earlene T. , Jordan William J. , Finch Diana L.
Published: July 2014

A cleft palate team's prescribed regimen requires prompt and continued compliance in order to meet the management objectives and to justify the large investment of professional time. The purposes of this clinical investigation were to determine the rate of compliance with the recommendations made by a cleft palate team for its patients and to identify variables associated with compliance. A subject was defined as the person(s) who could best respond to questions concerning the management of the team's patient. Each subject was interviewed using a questionnaire. The mean patient compliance rate was 64.4%, and noncompliance with specific recommendations ranged from 12.5% to 100%. Using Jones and Caldwell's (1981) classification, 17.1% of the patients were classified as compliers, 78% as partial compliers, and 4.9% as noncompliers. The best predictor of compliance was a set of nine variables.
Speech Monitoring and Verbal Learning
Authors: Davis George R. , Sheehan Joseph G.
Published: July 2014

The effects of interference with auditory feedback on two verbal learning tasks were studied. Twenty-seven adults without speech or hearing handicaps practiced two verbal tasks (reading comprehension and paired associate) under three auditory monitoring conditions. A synchronous auditory feedback condition provided amplified but almost simultaneous auditory feedback. To provide an irrelevant feedback condition, S’s heard their own previously recorded voices reading other material. Delayed auditory feedback provided a second experimental condition. Results confirmed that delayed auditory feedback interfered significantly with efficient verbal learning. A clear and direct relationship between the amount and relevance of verbal feedback and the efficiency of speech-based learning was demonstrated.
Adaptation Performances of Individual Stutterers: Implications for Research
Authors: Newman Parley W.
Published: July 2014

The individual adaptation performances of 20 stutterers under a self-formulated speaking condition and an oral reading condition are reviewed and discussed. The observations that some stutterers do not adapt under certain conditions leads to the formulation of an hypothesis concerning a research application of the adaptation effect.
Further Studies of Nonverbal Learning and Aphasia
Authors: Tikofsky Ronald S. , Reynolds Gale L.
Published: July 2014

This research study follows a previous paper on the performance of adult aphasics tested with a modified form of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task. It investigates the effects of varying the order of presentation of the three sorting concepts or problems on the overall task-learning rate, the percentage of error responses and the percentage of perseverative error. It is found that varying the order of the concepts does not effect the task difficulty, as measured by these indices.

Statistical and interpretative analyses of the data also investigate the nature of performance improvement patterns. It is found that any significant improvement is due to the elimination of nonperseverative errors, while the proportion of perseverative responses remains fairly constant. The aphasics' inability to generalize problem solution methods and possible techniques for reducing perseveration, in addition to an evaluation of this task as an aphasia research instrument, are discussed.
A Factor Analysis of Oral Communication Skills in Older Children
Authors: Marge Michael
Published: July 2014

The investigation reported here was concerned with the application of the factor analytic method to identify the factors which define oral communication abilities in older children. A study population of 143 preadolescent subjects was evaluated on 40 speech and language measures by classroom teachers and by speech specialists. An intercorrelation matrix of the 40 measures was computed and submitted to a factor analysis by means of the principal axes method. Seven factors were extracted which represent the human abilities underlying the dimensions of speech and language behavior studied. The factors were identified as follows: Factor 1—General Speaking Ability as Assessed by Speech Specialists; Factor 2—Motor Skill in Speaking; Factor 3—Speech Dominance; Factor 4—Non-distracting Speech Behavior; Factor 5—Voice Quality; Factor 6— Language Maturity; and Factor 7—General Speaking Ability as Assessed by Teachers.
Ability of Deaf Children to Use Different Word Classes
Authors: MacGinitie Walter H.
Published: July 2014

A completion test based on 90 sentences sampled from second-grade readers was devised. One word was omitted from each sentence, the omitted word being chosen so that four lexical classes and six function word groups were each sampled nine times. Restorations of these omissions by 30 deaf children and 30 hearing children with similar reading ability were compared. Although the hearing children were generally more successful in restoring the omitted words, the patterns of difficulty of the different form classes were remarkably similar for the two groups.
Evaluation of Methods of Estimating Sub-Glottal Air Pressure
Authors: Kunze Luvern H.
Published: July 2014

The following measures were simultaneously recorded as each of 10 adult male subjects phonated vowels at a variety of frequency and intensity levels: (a) intraesophageal pressure sensed by a small balloon inserted into the esophagus, (b) intratracheal pressure sensed by a hypodermic needle inserted into the trachea, and (c) lung volume recorded by a respirometer.

The study tested the validity of obtaining subglottal air pressure: (a) through the direct use of intra-esophageal pressure values, (b) through the use of the drop in intra-esophageal pressure which results when phonation is interrupted with the vocal folds abducted, and lung volume held constant, and (c) through the use of intra-tracheal pressure values. Results suggest that method (b) provides a valid estimate of subglottal pressure under conditions of sustained phonation, while method (c) provides a valid and reliable measure during sustained phonation and during connected speech where changes being recorded occurred at syllabic rates. Under no experimental conditions did method (a) provide a valid estimate of subglottal pressure.
Air Flow During the Production of Selected Consonants
Authors: Isshiki Nobuhiko , Ringel Robert
Published: July 2014

The rate of air flow during the production of selected consonant sounds in both CV and VC syllables was studied. It was found that in the case of both CV and VC utterances the absence of voicing for a given consonant was associated with a greater rate of air flow than during the production of its voiced cognate and that the flow rates for stops, fricatives, and vowel-like sound groupings decrease in that order. It was also learned that the production of terminal consonants was more variable with regard to flow rate than were initial consonants.
Some Implications of Binaural Signal Selection for Hearing Aid Evaluation
Authors: Heffler Allan J. , Schultz Martin C.
Published: July 2014

Clinical techniques for evaluating binaural hearing aids have been inconclusive. This paper offers some explanations of shortcomings in present approaches, concentrating upon several characteristics to be included in an adequate clinical procedure. These are the presence of competing sound; S/N ratios permitting measurable increases in discrimination from advantageous listening conditions; elimination of localization and sidedness effects; and the requirement of long duration signals with credit for partial responses.

The study was an approach on normal-hearing individuals under several S/N ratios, with occlusion of one ear as an experimental variable. Listening was accomplished under homophasic and antiphasic conditions for each combination of the other conditions.

Results demonstrated significant differences among the listening conditions and the results have been rationalized in schema for testing binaural hearing aids under various hearing-loss circumstances. Applications to auditory training are discussed.
Identification of Stutterers from Recorded Samples of Their “Fluent” Speech
Authors: Young Martin A.
Published: July 2014

Replication and an alternative mode of analysis does not support a previous finding by Wendahl and Cole (1961) that the “fluent” speech of stutterers is “easily differentiated” from the speech of non-stutterers.
Stuttering and Auditory Central Nervous System Disorder
Authors: Gregory Hugo H.
Published: July 2014

The observation that delayed side-tone affects speech fluency has renewed interest in the possibility of a neurophysiological factor in stuttering. This investigation was designed to explore the possibility that stutterers have an auditory central nervous system disorder.

Thirty stutterers and 10 non-stutterers were equated on the basis of age, auditory acuity, and intelligence. Tests of personality and motor coordination, and tests for pure-tone-loudness balances, the median plane localization of pure tones, and the discrimination of monaurally- and binaurally-presented distorted speech were administered.

Findings did not support the hypothesis that stutterers have an auditory central nervous system disorder.
Race Difference in Auditory Sensitivity
Authors: Shepherd David C. , Goldstein Robert , Rosenblüt Benjamin
Published: July 2014

Two separate studies investigated race and sex differences in normal auditory sensitivity. Study I measured thresholds at 500, 1000, and 2000 cps of 23 white men, 26 white women, 21 negro men, and 24 negro women using the method of limits. In Study II thresholds of 10 white men, 10 white women, 10 negro men, and 10 negro women were measured at 1000 cps using four different stimulus conditions and the method of adjustment by means of Bekesy audiometry. Results indicated that the white men and women in Study I heard significantly better than their negro counterparts at 1000 and 2000 cps. There were no significant differences between the average thresholds measured at 1000 cps of the white and negro men in Study II. White women produced better auditory thresholds with three stimulus conditions and significantly more sensitive thresholds with the slow pulsed stimulus than did the negro women in Study II.
Method for Measurement of Speech Identification
Authors: Speaks Charles , Jerger James
Published: July 2014

A new method for measuring speech identification behavior is described. Twenty-four closed-message sets representing three levels of approximation to a “real” sentence have been constructed. Each set contains 10 synthetic sentences. Sentence length and informational content are controlled. Message identification under conditions of low-pass filtering and periodic interruption was studied in 30 subjects with normal hearing. Performance varied systematically with relative informational content.
An Audio-Visual Test for Evaluating the Ability to Recognize Phonetic Errors
Authors: Irwin Ruth Beckey , Krafchick Ivan Paul
Published: July 2014

An audio-visual test was developed for ascertaining ability inrecognizing misarticulations. Two films, each with a different set of 23 words representing 23 initial and 20 final sounds, were produced. Each test included 138 consonant sounds in phrases, 276 in isolated words, and 144 in trios of words. An empirical “correct” answer sheet was prepared by two experienced clinicians after repeated viewings of the films. Six children with misarticulations presented stimuli in the films.

One-hundred-fifty subjects included speech clinicians with five or more years of experience, graduating senior majors in speech pathology, and experienced teachers. Each subject took three tests: Film A (audio-visual), Film B (audio-visual), and the sound-track of Film A presented without motion pictures (audio only). Correctly identified misarticulations, falsely identified misarticulations, and total correct responses were tabulated. Both forms of the audio-visual test were considered valid since the clinicians and students were significantly better than the teachers in identifying misarticulations. Satisfactory reliability was also established, since Films A and B were not significantly different in the accurate identification of sounds in words.

Performance was significantly better for audio-visual representation than for audio only; and identification of misarticulation was best with isolated words and worst with phrases. Experienced teachers did not identify 12 of the sounds as accurately as experienced clinicians.
Effects of Very Low Frequency Tones on Auditory Thresholds
Authors: Jerger J. , Alford B. , Coats A. , French B.
Published: July 2014

Nineteen human subjects were exposed to repeated three-minute tones in the sound pressure level range from 119 to 144 dB and the frequency range from 2–22 cps. The tones were produced in an acoustic test booth by a piston-cylinder arrangement, driven by a variable speed direct current motor. Eight subjects showed no adverse effects. Temporary threshold shifts (TTS) of 10 to 22 dB in the frequency range from 3 000 to 8 000 cps were observed in the remaining 11 subjects. In addition, the 7 and 12 cps signals produced considerable masking over the frequency range from 100 to 4 000 cps.
The Elements of an Acoustic Phonetic Theory
Authors: Peterson Gordon E. , Shoup June E.
Published: July 2014

This article describes the essential properties of an acoustic theory of phonetics and demonstrates the dependence of such a theory on physiological phonetics. The article defines the acoustical characteristics of speech and summarizes the relationships of these characteristics to physiological speech parameters and to descriptive phonetics. The acoustical characteristics of speech are defined as the speech wave types and the acoustical speech parameters. The basic speech wave types specified are quiescent, burst, quasi-random, quasi-periodic, double-periodic, and irregular-periodic. The acoustical speech parameters are separated into acoustic phonetic parameters and acoustic prosodic parameters. The basic acoustic phonetic parameters are specified as gap, voice bar, broad-band continuous spectrum, the frequencies of the vowel and consonant formants, the amplitudes of the vowel and consonant formants, and the frequencies of the consonant antiresonances. The acoustic prosodic parameters are defined as acoustic phonetic duration, average fundamental voice frequency, and average speech power. The relationships among the speech wave types and the acoustical speech parameters are shown by means of a table. The essential relationships among the speech wave types, the acoustical speech parameters, and the physiological speech parameters are also shown in a set of tables. The manner in which the speech wave types and the acoustic phonetic parameter values may be employed to identify the phone types of descriptive phonetics is briefly discussed and illustrated.
Client-Clinician Relationships and Concomitant Factors in Stuttering Therapy
Authors: Cooper Eugene B.
Published: July 2014

Interrelationships among client progress in stuttering therapy, the nature of the affect interchange between client and clinician, and certain personality characteristics of both client and clinician were studied. Sixteen young adult male stutterers and their 11 graduate student clinicians served as subjects. Results support observations that the clinicians' and clients' personalities are significant variables in the stuttering therapy situation, support observations that important similarities exist between stuttering therapy and psychotherapy, and suggest that it is more accurate to note stages in the therapeutic relationship, rather than to characterize the relationship as if it were the same throughout therapy.
Phonatory and Related Changes with Advanced Age
Authors: Ptacek Paul H. , Sander Eric K. , Maloney Walter H. , Jackson C. C. Roe
Published: July 2014

The performances of younger adult (under age 40) and geriatric (over age 65) subjects were assessed on the following tasks: (a) maximum pitch range, (b) diado-chokinesis, (c) maximum vowel intensity, (d) maximum vowel duration, (e) maximum intraoral breath pressure, and (f) vital capacity. On all of these tasks the geriatric subjects showed reduced scores when compared with younger adults.
Speech Sound Discrimination of Aphasics when Intersound Interval is Varied
Authors: Ebbin Judith B. , Edwards Allan E.
Published: July 2014

Twenty-four aphasics and 24 age-and-sex matched brain-damaged, but nonaphasic, comparison subjects were assessed in terms of their abilities to discriminate (“same” versus “different”) between 25 syllable pairs separated by two different time intervals. Aphasics made significantly more errors than the comparison subjects when the silent period between syllables was short rather than long. In addition, this performance was demonstrated to be related to their general auditory comprehension ability, but not to auditory recognition or auditory retention.
The Variability of Occluded and Unoccluded Bone-Conduction Thresholds
Authors: Dirks Donald , Swindeman John G.
Published: July 2014

A series of three experiments of similar basic design was performed on individuals with normal hearing to compare the variability associated with occluded and unoccluded bone-conduction thresholds.

Estimates of threshold were obtained at each test frequency for air conduction, unoccluded bone conduction, and occluded bone conduction stimuli. Eleven young adults participated in Experiment I. Their ears were occluded by TDH-39 earphones encased in MX41/AR cushions. In Experiment II 11 young adults were tested with a Grason-Stadler 001 circumaural cushion replacing the MX41/AR cushion. Two types of occluders were compared in Experiment III, using nine subjects with previous experience in Bekesy tracing.

The variability of the occluded bone-conduction thresholds was either similar or less than that observed during the unoccluded measurements. The variability of the occlusion effect itself was comparable or less than the variability of the unoccluded or occluded bone-conduction thresholds. The source of the variability stemmed largely from differences between individuals rather than from test-retest variability. Although the variability of the occluded thresholds was reduced slightly when the circumaural cushion was used as compared to the supra-aural cushion, the results of the final experiment did not completely support the earlier finding.
A Task for Evaluation of Articulation Change: 1. Development of Methodology
Authors: Elbert Mary , Shelton Ralph L. , Arndt William B.
Published: July 2014

Seven subjects with consistent misarticulations of the same three phonemes were provided speech instruction for the phoneme [s]. A 60-item sound production task was administered to each subject prior to the first teaching session and at every second session throughout the course of instruction. Subjects made articulation improvement on the sound taught, [s], and its cognant, [z], but not on the phonetically dissimilar sound, [r].
Hearing Aid Design and Evaluation for a Patient with a Severe Discrimination Loss for Speech
Authors: Miller James D. , Niemoeller Arthur F.
Published: July 2014

Results of intelligibility tests on a single patient with a severe discrimination loss for speech are reported. The patient was tested with four different hearing aids and with no aid, and the effects of opportunity for lipreading, background noise, and reverberation were evaluated. The tests appear to allow an accurate estimate of the amount of help to be expected in various situations and show that an aid with good fidelity is clearly superior to the others tested. The destructive effects of background noise and reverberation are demonstrated separately and in combination.
Electroencephalic Audiometry by Cortical Conditioning
Authors: Pollock Kenneth C.
Published: July 2014

Twenty-four normal-hearing adults were conditioned to associate a flash of light (unconditioned stimulus) with a pure tone (conditioned stimulus). The contingent response was used to estimate auditory threshold for 500, 1000, and 2000 Hz. Results showed that 23 of the 24 subjects were conditioned to form the tone-light association, the majority within 10 trials. Conditioned EEG responses varied in form, amplitude, and latency within and among individuals, and were without hemispheric predominance. The evoked EEG response habituated rapidly, whereas the conditioned EEG response was maintained throughout the procedure and transferred readily among the test frequencies. Auditory threshold estimated by this method was within 5 dB of voluntary threshold for at least one of the test frequencies for all 23 of the conditioned subjects.
Linguistic Factors in Stuttering
Authors: Soderberg George A.
Published: July 2014

Ten stutterers recorded a 141 word passage in the presence of a single listener. The words in the passage were classified as lexical or function words and pronouns, and high information or low information words. In addition, unitary stutterings were classified as either prolongations or repetitions. The linguistic factors, stutterings, and stuttering types were analyzed with respect to initial, medial, and final positions of words in phonemic clauses and total words in the clauses.

The findings of this study support the contention that stuttering is related to the encoding processes of speaking. It was hypothesized that the phonemic clause operates as an encoding unit in speaking and both grammatical and lexical uncertainty play roles in eliciting the instance of stuttering and type of stuttering instance.
The Measurement of Stuttering Severity
Authors: Lanyon Richard I.
Published: July 2014

This report describes the construction of a paper and pencil inventory to assess severity of stuttering. A rationally constructed inventory of behaviors and attitudes related to stuttering was administered to 50 normal speakers and 50 stutterers attending college-connected speech clinics. Items for assessing defensiveness were also included. Each stutterer had been rated by a clinician for the severity of his speech problem. Of the 120 items specifically pertaining to stuttering, 64 discriminated between stutterers and normals and also among three levels of stuttering severity. An attempt to correct for defensiveness was abandoned since it did not improve discrimination. Preliminary cross-validation data showed that stutterers continued to be widely distributed on the scale and well separated from almost all normals.
Linguistic Word Classes in the Spoken Language of Normal, Hard-of-Hearing, and Deaf Children
Authors: Brannon John B.
Published: July 2014

The spoken language of three groups of subjects—normal, hard-of-hearing, and deaf—was analyzed by means of a new classification system devised by Jones, Goodman, and Wepman. Each spoken word was sorted into one of 14 word classes. Group means for each word class were compared. It was concluded that a significant hearing impairment reduces productivity of both tokens and types of words. A moderate impairment lowers the use of adverbs, pronouns, and auxiliaries; a profound impairment reduces nearly all classes. In proportion to total word output the deaf overused nouns and articles, underused prepositions, quantifiers, and indefinites.
The Development of Auditory Feedback Monitoring: II. Delayed Auditory Feedback Studies on the Speech of Children Between Two and Three Years of Age
Authors: Yeni-Komshian Grace , Chase Richard Allen , Mobley Richard L.
Published: July 2014

Two experiments were conducted to determine whether the auditory feedback monitoring system for speech is operative in children between two and three years of age. The procedure involved a 200 msec delay in the auditory feedback of the subject’s speech. Bilateral signal presentation was used for the synchronous (SAF) and delay (DAF) conditions. Phonation time scores under DAF and SAF conditions were compared. In Experiment I, 10 subjects, ages 2 years, 4 months to 2 years, 11 months, followed a standard object naming task. Speech samples obtained from a younger group of 5 subjects in Experiment II, ages 1 year, 9 months to 2 years, 2 months, consisted of all verbal responses which occurred under both DAF and SAF conditions. The results of Experiment I provide evidence that the auditory feedback monitoring system for speech is operative in this age group. The speech of the younger subjects in Experiment II was not strongly affected by the time delay in auditory feedback. The results of the present experiments, together with findings obtained in an earlier study with four- to nine-year-old subjects, suggest that older children show greater DAF effects than younger children.
Echolalia, IQ, and the Developmental Dichotomy of Speech and Language Systems
Authors: Fay Warren H. , Butler Bruce V.
Published: July 2014

Language and speech performances of 22 echolalic three-year-olds were compared with a nonechoic group of the same age who were individually matched for four-year IQ as well as for race and sex. Results revealed poorer performances by echolalic subjects on all language measures, but no differences in articulation. The mitigated echoers had higher verbal performances than the pure echoers and a significantly higher mean IQ. The results are discussed in terms of the relative independence of the audio-motor system from the syntactic-semantic system.
Adolescent Voice Quality Aberrations: Personality and Social Status
Authors: Muma John R. , Laeder Ronald L. , Webb Clarence E.
Published: July 2014

Seventy-eight subjects, identified as possessing voice quality aberrations for six months, constituted four experimental groups: breathiness, harshness, hoarseness, and nasality. A control group included 38 subjects. The four experimental groups were compared with the control group according to personality characteristics and peer evaluations. The results of these comparisons indicated that there was no relationship between voice quality aberration and either personality characteristics or peer evaluations.
Disfluency Behavior of Elementary School Stutterers and Non-Stutterers: The Adaptation Effect
Authors: Williams Dean E. , Silverman Franklin H. , Kools Joseph A.
Published: July 2014

A group of 184 elementary school children, 92 stutterers and 92 matched nonstutterers, performed a speaking task three times consecutively. Kindergarten and first grade children repeated a series of sentences, and the second through sixth grade children read a passage. Both the stutterers and the nonstutterers exhibited the adaptation effect. Both adapted proportionally to approximately the same degree. There was no tendency in either group for the degree of adaptation to vary as a function of grade level. Whether or not a child exhibited the adaptation effect appeared to be more closely related to how disfluent he was on his first performance of the task than to whether he had been labeled as a stutterer or a nonstutterer. Our results indictate that adaptation is not unique to stutterers, but is to be found also in normal speakers. Several implications are discussed.
The Effect of Punishment of Expectancy to Stutter on the Frequencies of Subsequent Expectancies and Stuttering
Authors: Curlee Richard F. , Perkins William H.
Published: July 2014

Subjects were 12 stutterers who were assigned to experimental, shock-control, and time-control groups in order to investigate the effect of punishment of signaled expectancies to stutter on the frequencies of expectancy and stuttering subsequent to punishment. Electro-shock was contingent on signaled expectancies in the experimental group, but was not contiguous to verbalizations in any group. Frequencies of expectancy and stuttering significantly decreased following punishment of signaled expectancies to stutter.
A Developmental Study of Intonation Recognition
Authors: Corlew Marilyn M.
Published: July 2014

Two experiments investigated the information conveyed by intonation from speaker to listener. A multiple-choice test was devised to test the ability of 48 adults to recognize and label intonation when it was separated from all other meaning. Nine intonation contours whose labels were most agreed upon by adults were each matched with two English sentences (one with appropriate and one with inappropriate intonation and semantic content) to make a matching-test for children. The matching-test was tape-recorded and given to children in the first, third, and fifth grades (32 subjects in each grade). The first-grade children matched the intonations with significantly greater agreement than chance; but they agreed upon significantly fewer sentences than either the third or fifth graders. Some intonation contours were matched with significantly greater frequency than others. The performance of the girls was better than that of the boys on an impatient question and a simple command which indicates that there was a significant interaction between sex and intonation.
Numerical Magnitude Estimation of Loudness Post-Stapedectomy
Authors: Melnick William
Published: July 2014

This is a report on the use of the method of numerical magnitude estimation for the measurement of loudness function under clinical conditions. An attempt was made to derive monaural loudness functions at 250 Hz for 10 stapedectomized patients and 11 normal listeners by using this technique. The functions produced by the two experimental groups were not greatly different. They were curvilinear but somewhat flatter than would be expected from previous studies of loudness. The results may truly reflect neither the perception of loudness nor differences in loudness function following stapedectomy. The use of the method of numerical magnitude estimation under clinical time restrictions is questionable.
The Visibility of Terminal Pitch Contour
Authors: Fisher Cletus G.
Published: July 2014

The purpose of this study was to test the visibility of one suprasegmental morphemic structure—terminal pitch contour. Twenty-one college students viewed three speakers who had been recorded on video tape as they spoke interrogative statements structured to allow the terminal pitch contour to either rise or fall and still remain grammatically correct. The students responded by identifying the direction of the pitch movement.

For each speaker, direction of terminal pitch contour was significantly identified beyond chance. These results lead to the conclusion that pitch variation, as it is morphemic, is visible and that more information is needed about the visibility of pitch variation and other suprasegmental morphemes.
A Procedure for Testing Position Generalization From Articulation Training
Authors: Powell Judith , McReynolds Leija
Published: July 2014

Generalization was repeatedly tested in individual children during an articulation training program which progressed in phases from isolated sound training to medial position training using nonsense syllables and, if necessary, words. Four children who misarticulated the /s/ in initial, final, and medial positions in words comprised the population of the study. If complete generalization on 12 test probes had not occurred after 3 phases of nonsense syllable training, 3 additional phases (initial, final, and medial position) of word training were administered. Training was terminated when (1) complete generalization had occurred or (2) all phases of the program had been administered. Two children generalized completely at the end of nonsense syllable training, one child generalized after nonsense syllable training, word training, and instructions, and the fourth child did not generalize completely by the end of the study. Although the correctly articulated /s/ began to control the children’s responses in untrained contexts, the results showed that position generalization was not a function of the position trained. As the children progressed through the program, generalization increased, but sometimes failed to stabilize on specific items from phase to phase.
Coding Medium and Word Recall by Deaf and Hearing Subjects
Authors: Odom Penelope B. , Blanton Richard L. , McIntyre Cynthia K.
Published: July 2014

Forty deaf subjects were compared with 40 fifth graders with normal hearing on the learning of 16 English words. Eight of the words had sign equivalents; eight did not. The task consisted of eight study-test trials. Analysis of the mean number of correct responses showed higher recall of signable than unsignable words. The deaf recalled all words better than the hearing, but this advantage was due primarily to the deaf’s superior recall of the signable words. It was concluded that having a single sign equivalent for a word facilitated its recall.
Narrow-Band Noise Audiometry for Hard-to-Test Patients
Authors: Sanders Jay W. , Josey Anne Forrest
Published: July 2014

This study investigated the applicability, validity and reliability of narrow bands of white noise as test stimuli for obtaining audiograms under earphones with hard-to-test patients. The noise bands used were those produced by a commercially available narrow-band masking noise generator. The noise bands were calibrated re the 1964 ISO standard for pure tones with a group of normal hearers. Test results for a group of hearing-impaired children and for a group of mentally retarded children suggest that validity and reliability are better for noise-band audiometry than for pure-tone assessment in such subjects. The results with the mentally retarded group suggest that the task of attending to narrow-band noise stimuli is easier than the pure-tone listening task and is therefore applicable with a larger population of hard-to-test patients than is pure-tone audiometry. The noise-band procedure retains the advantages of pure tone audiometry in that it can be used as a means of monaural assessment of hearing sensitivity by frequency; and, like pure-tone audiometry, it tests functional hearing rather than peripheral sensitivity.