bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Phoneme Discrimination in Older Persons Under Varying Signal-To-Noise Conditions
Authors: Smith Raymond A. , Prather William F.
Published: July 2014

Two groups of subjects, 10 older than 60 years of age and 10 between the ages of 18 and 30, having essentially normal hearing for pure tones at the speech frequencies, identified 16 consonants in a CV context. These syllables were presented at six sensation levels of noise over four signal-to-noise ratios. An analysis of variance of the mean percent correct responses showed that the older group performed significantly more poorly than the younger group over all listening conditions. However, there was no difference in the relative performance between the two groups as either the sensation level (SL) of noise was increased or the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio became poorer. An additional listening condition in which no noise was present in the signal and the syllables were presented at six sensation levels revealed results similar to the main experiment. Possible implications are presented.
Hyoid Positions During Repeated Syllables
Authors: Menon K. M. N. , Shearer William M.
Published: July 2014

Hyoid positions for the repeated vowels [i], [a], and [u] in combination with the [p] consonant were measured for seven subjects, using tracings from cinefluorographic films. Vowels were sampled three times, with each sample consisting of five continuous repetitions. Measures revealed a significant difference between vowels and no significant difference between samples of the same vowel. Syllable repetitions within a given sample were for the most part identical. Separate vowel positions for the hyoid bone tended to be more readily identified by horizontal movement than by vertical movement. Horizontal measures of the hyoid revealed the [i] to hold the most anterior position, followed in order by the [u] and the [a]. For vertical measures the [i] held the lowest position, with the [u] and [a] being successively higher.
Speaking Fundamental Frequency and Chronologic Age in Males
Authors: Hollien Harry , Shipp Thomas
Published: July 2014

Data are presented on the mean speaking fundamental frequency (SFF) of 175 male talkers, ranging in age from 20 to 89 years. Mean frequency levels by age decade show a progressive lowering of SFF from age 20 to 40 with a rise in level from age 60 through the 80’s.
Prediction of Stuttering by School-Age Stutterers
Authors: Silverman Franklin H. , Williams Dean E.
Published: July 2014

Each of 84 stutterers, ranging in age from 8 to 16 years, indicated, before reading aloud each of 50 words, whether or not he expected to stutter when he said each word. The percent of stutterings predicted was determined for each of the 62 subjects who stuttered at least once. These stutterers varied considerably in their ability to predict their stuttering; the percentages of correct predictions ranged from 0 to 100. Approximately half failed to predict the majority of their stuttering. The older subjects were not significantly more accurate in their predictions than were the younger ones. Implications of the findings for the application of anticipatory-struggle hypotheses to the stuttering problems of children between the ages of 8 and 16 years are discussed.
Selected Acoustic Characteristics of Esophageal Speech Produced by Female Laryngectomees
Authors: Weinberg Bernd , Bennett Suzanne
Published: July 2014

Voice fundamental frequency (VFF), phonation time, and duration characteristics were analyzed for 15 female and 18 male esophageal speakers to determine whether acoustic differences existed as a function of speaker sex. A significant difference was found between the mean fundamental frequency of esophageal speech produced by men and that produced by women. The average VFF of women was approximately seven semitones higher than that established for men. Without regard to speaker sex, the average voice fundamental frequency for the total sample of 33 talkers was 24.9 semitones (69 Hz). Mean fundamental frequencies for individual speakers ranged from 12.9–43.7 semitones (33–200 Hz). No significant sex differences were found for VFF variability, phonation time, and duration measures. The findings highlight the need for investigators to control for acoustic differences between male and female esophageal speakers.
Dysarthria in Multiple Sclerosis
Authors: Darley Frederic L. , Brown Joe R. , Goldstein Norman P.
Published: July 2014

Less than half of a series of 168 patients with multiple sclerosis presented significant speech deviations. The most frequent speech deviations observed were impaired loudness control and harshness; less frequently occurring deviations were defective articulation, restricted use of vocal variations for emphasis, poor pitch control, hypernasality, inappropriate pitch level, and breathiness. “Scanning speech” was not a prominent characteristic. Speech deviations were not solely attributable to cerebellar involvement. Their incidence was positively related to severity of neurologic involvement, becoming more prominent as additional motor systems were implicated.
Cinefluorographic Analyses of Selected Lingual Consonants
Authors: Kent Raymond D. , Moll Kenneth L.
Published: July 2014

Flesh points on the tongue body of two normal speakers were simulated by attaching small radiopaque markers to the lingual surface. Lateral-view cinefluorography was used to record the displacement patterns of the markers during the production of symmetric VCV utterances, where V is one of the vowels /i,u,a/ and C is one of the consonants /g,j,d,z/. The utterances were produced at two speaking rates, “moderate” and “rapid.” In addition to the analyses based on the movements of the radiopaque markers, measurements descriptive of the articulations of the Ungual apex and mandible were derived from cineradiography tracings. The variation in speaking rate only slightly affected articulatory velocities but did influence the articulatory patterns in some respects. Peculiarities of the tongue-point displacement patterns are discussed and an attempt is made to describe the articulatory targets of the tongue and jaw for the lingual consonants studied.
Some Observations of Articulation during Labial Sensory Deprivation
Authors: Putnam Anne H. B. , Ringel Robert L.
Published: July 2014

Photographic measurement techniques were used to study labial movement under normal speaking conditions and when sensory feedback from the lips was reduced by trigeminal nerve-block anesthesia. Lip activity was photographed as a subject spoke monosyllabic words initiated by /p/, /b/, or /m/. Qualitative observations were made of general articulatory characteristics, and frame-by-frame quantitative analyses were performed on the release phase of each bilabial consonant. The labial sensory deprivation condition resulted primarily in phonetic articulatory changes due to an overall reduction in the normal rate, accuracy, and extent of lip movement. The data were discussed in terms of the differential effects of reduced labial sensory feedback on the bilabial consonants and interpreted with respect to open- and closed-loop control of articulation.
Recovery from Stuttering in a Junior and Senior High School Population
Authors: Cooper Eugene B.
Published: July 2014

Recovery from stuttering was studied in the Tuscaloosa, Alabama junior and senior high schools. Of 5054 students interviewed, 119 active stutterers were observed and another 68 students reported recovery from stuttering. This one-third recovery rate for the total population, while contrasting with a four-fifths recovery rate reported in a college student study varied from less than one-third in the junior high group to approximately one-half in the high school population. Familial incidence of stuttering was negatively related to recovery from stuttering. A positive relationship was found between parental identification of stuttering and the stutterer’s receiving speech therapy. No relationships were observed among recovery and stuttering severity, participation in therapy, and the nature of initial disfluencies.
Imitative and Spontaneous Articulatory Assessment of Four-Year-Old Children
Authors: Kresheck Janet D. , Socolofsky Ginger
Published: July 2014

This study dealt with the influence of two methods of assessing articulation upon the articulation scores of 45 four-year-old children. The children were tested by both an imitative and spontaneous method of articulatory assessment on each of 87 words taken from the Templin-Darley Tests of Articulation. The results indicated a significant difference between the two methods of stimulus presentation in the children’s total articulation scores.
Time-by-Count Measurement of Diadochokinetic Syllable Rate
Authors: Fletcher Samuel G.
Published: July 2014

Diadochokinetic syllable rate has traditionally been assessed through counting the number of syllables spoken in a given time period. This count-by-time procedure has required two separate operations—one to measure time and the other to count syllables within time. A time-by-count strategy is proposed to enable an examiner to collect diadochokinetic measurements in sequential rather than overlapping tasks. Oscillographic and stop watch measurements, using the proposed new procedure, were generated and expressed as norms from syllable repetitions of 384 school-age children. The two measurements produced equivalent data. It was therefore concluded that the time-by-count procedure can produce accurate estimates of diadochokinetic syllable production. Additional conclusions regarding age, sex, and stimulus order are presented.
Hearing-Impaired Children’s Comprehension and Production of Syntax in Oral Language
Authors: Pressnell Lucille McKinney
Published: July 2014

The acquisition and development of syntax in oral language for 47 congenitally hearing-impaired children between the ages of five years and 13 years, three months, was compared with that of normal children. The Northwestern Syntax Screening Test was administered and a 50-sentence spontaneous-language sample was scored and analyzed. In addition to the significant differences found in the rate of acquisition of syntax in favor of the normal children, some differences were found in the sequential order of development for particular verb constructions. The investigator hypothesized that such differences were related to the teaching order in the classroom and to the degree of visual-auditory cues inherent in the language constructions for the hearing-impaired children. Information from the case histories was used in an attempt to identify the factors contributing to the development of syntax for the hearing-impaired subjects. Of the six factors considered, only chronologic age and severity of hearing impairment were identified as contributing factors for these subjects. However, those hearing-impaired children who have achieved good oral language skills would be attending schools with hearing children and, therefore, were not represented in this study.
Acoustic Characteristics of Speech Produced Without Oral Sensation
Authors: Horii Yoshiyuki , House Arthur S. , Li Kung-Pu , Ringel Robert L.
Published: July 2014

The acoustic characteristics of continuous speech produced by an adult male talker with and without oral (nerve block) anesthesia were investigated using digital speech processing procedures. Vowel-to-consonant ratios, long-time and short-time spectra, fundamental frequency distributions, phonation-time ratios, and rate of utterances were calculated and compared for the normal and anesthetized conditions. The results showed that the speech produced without oral sensation was characterized by a reduction and shift of high-frequency energy, temporal disorganization primarily manifested as prolongation of utterance, and higher and more variable fundamental frequencies. The study also demonstrated applicability of computer techniques on general acoustic analysis of continuous speech.
Combined Effects of Recovery Period and Stimulus Intensity on the Human Auditory Evoked Vertex Response
Authors: Nelson David A. , Lassman Frank M.
Published: July 2014

Averaged auditory evoked vertex responses were obtained from eight normal-hearing subjects in response to 32 monaural 1000-Hz tone bursts at 30 combinations of recovery period and stimulus intensity. From curves describing N
1
-P
2
peak-to-peak amplitudes, an equation was derived that describes the combined effects of recovery period and stimulus intensity on evoked response amplitude. The results show evoked response amplitude to be a dual function of both recovery period and stimulus intensity. At a given stimulus intensity, evoked response amplitude increases as a logarithmic function of recovery period. At a given recovery period, evoked response amplitude increases as a power function of stimulus intensity. The combined effects of recovery period and stimulus intensity produce equal ratio changes in the slope of the recovery function with equal ratio changes in stimulus intensity.
Discrimination of Formant Frequency Transitions in Synthetic Vowels
Authors: Danaher Ellen Martin , Osberger Mary Joe , Pickett James M.
Published: July 2014

Discrimination of second-formant (F
2
) transitions in synthetic vowels was measured with and without the first formant (F
1
) present, with and without a transition in F
1
, and with F
1
at various amplitudes relative to F
2
. Four normal-hearing subjects and 24 subjects with sensorineural loss were tested. At comfortably loud listening levels, F
1
interferes with discrimination of F
2
transitions by sensorineural subjects. Discrimination is affected by (1) the frequency region in which the F
2
transitions occur, (2) the relative amplitudes of F
1
and F
2
, (3) the presence of frequency transitions in F
1
, (4) the audiometric configuration of the listener, and (5) the proximity of F
1
to F
2
, in that order. When tested at high sound levels (95 and 105 dB SPL), normal-hearing subjects also show reduced discrimination.
The Influence of Preschoolers' Speech Usage on Their Disfluency Frequency
Authors: Silverman Ellen-Marie
Published: July 2014

A relationship between the function of speech usage and disfluency as it interacts with the speaking situation was hypothesized to explain a previously observed situational difference in preschoolers' frequency of disfluency. To test this hypothesis, speech samples collected from 10 preschoolers in their nursery school classroom and in a structured interview were subjected to a functional analysis. The results revealed that the function of the children’s language usage influenced the frequency of their disfluency.
Development of Phrase Structure Rules Involved in Tag Questions Elicited from Children
Authors: McGrath Carl O. , Kunze LuVern H.
Published: July 2014

This study demonstrated another way of measuring increasing precision in generating linguistic structure by children who are beyond the age for primary language acquistion. Tag questions were elicited from normal children ranging in age from five to 11 years. Their errors in generating tag questions established that there is a definite hierarchy of difficulty involved in the acquisition of the four linguistic operations which can account for tag question formation. These operations, from most to least difficult, are (1) addition or deletion of negation, (2) auxiliary verb selection, (3) pronoun selection, and (4) inversion of the pronoun and the auxiliary verb. This hierarchy remains constant from five through 11 years of age. Evidence is presented that younger children tend to abstract alternate phrase structure rules which are less complex (relative to the number of operations required) than the rules which can account for spontaneously generated tag questions.
Comprehension of Linguistic Concepts Requiring Logical Operations by Learning-Disabled Children
Authors: Wiig Elisabeth H. , Semel Eleanor M.
Published: July 2014

The comprehension of linguistic concepts requiring logical operations was compared in 32 learning-disabled and 16 achieving children. The results indicated that the learning-disabled children made significantly more errors than their controls. Comparison of the performances of learning-disabled males and females indicated no significant differences. It was concluded that children with specific learning disabilities exhibit significant deficits in their ability to comprehend linguistic concepts requiring logical operations. These deficits were interpreted to reflect impairments of abstraction and generalization and simultaneous analysis and synthesis as well as delays in logical development. Subsequently, the effect of remedial intervention was assessed in six learning-disabled, first-grade, transition-class males. The results showed no significant performance changes during a six-week control period before training. In contrast, there was a significant improvement in sentence comprehension after six weeks of remedial intervention. The preliminary finding that remedial intervention effectively improved logicogrammatical sentence comprehension indicates a favorable prognosis for the remediation of these deficits in children with learning disabilities.
Investigation of the Response Foils of the Modified Rhyme Hearing Test
Authors: Nixon James C.
Published: July 2014

The Modified Rhyme Hearing Test (MRHT) was presented to 28 young, normalhearing listeners as a free-response test, and written responses to the test words were obtained. These responses were compared with the foil words used in the MRHT multiple-choice answer forms. The comparisons indicated that for many of the test words only one or two of the six available response words serve as possible alternatives to the speech sounds (words) heard by the listeners; in a few cases, none of the available response words were realistic alternatives.
The Grammatical Factor in Childhood Disfluency in Relation to the Continuity Hypothesis
Authors: Helmreich Helaine Gewirtz , Bloodstein Oliver
Published: July 2014

The relationship between grammatical function and disfluency was investigated in 15 normal-speaking children aged three years 11 months to four years 10 months. Pronouns and conjunctions appeared in significantly greater proportion among the subjects' disfluent words than among their total words. On the other hand, nouns, verbs, and prepositions had a significantly low frequency of disfluency. In many respects, the results were similar to those previously found for preschool stutterers, though a notable difference occurred in the case of verbs. The findings were interpreted to be in general accord with the hypothesis that a continuity exists between early stuttering and certain forms of normal childhood disfluency.
Adjacency and Prediction in School-Age Stutterers
Authors: Avari Dinci N. , Bloodstein Oliver
Published: July 2014

The adjacency effect is the tendency for stutterings to occur adjacent to previously stuttered words which have been blotted out in successive readings of a passage. It is presumed to show that stuttering may be precipitated by cues that remind the stutterer of past moments of speech failure. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the adjacency effect is to be found in the stuttering of children of elementary school age, and particularly in those children who are unable to predict the occurrence of their blocks. Adjacency was investigated in 12 subjects. The same children were tested for the ability to predict the occurrence of their stutterings in oral reading by raising their hands whenever they anticipated a block. In addition, their judgments about the accuracy with which they could generally anticipate their blocks were recorded. An adjacency effect was observed in all subjects, including six who gave essentially no evidence that they could predict the occurrence of any of their blocks. The findings appear to suggest that a child’s inability to predict blocks does not in itself rule out the inference that his stuttering is an anticipatory struggle reaction.
The Electrophysiologic Assessment of Hemispheric Asymmetries during Speech
Authors: Grabow Jack D. , Elliott Frederick W.
Published: July 2014

Evoked potentials were summed and averaged for 14 normal subjects during language production tasks. No significant hemispheric asymmetries were obtained. Results show that there is insufficient evidence at this time to conclude that electroencephalographic hemispheric asymmetries are dependent on lateralized language functions. The contaminating influence of the glossokinetic potential on the scalp electroencephalogram is important during language production experiments.
Dysarthria in Wilson’s Disease
Authors: Berry William R. , Darley Frederic L. , Aronson Arnold E. , Goldstein Norman P.
Published: July 2014

Three judges rated a number of speech characteristics of 20 patients with Wilson’s disease, an inherited metabolic disease. The perceptual data suggest the presence of a mixed dysarthria with prominent ataxic, spastic, and hypokinetic features which were predictable from neurologic data on the patients. Perceptual data on 10 patients, recorded at two specific points in a treatment program, indicate that speech can be used as an effective monitor of progress in the treatment of this disease.
Body Inversion and the Acoustic Immittance of the Ear
Authors: Macrae J. H.
Published: July 2014

The effect of body inversion on the acoustic immittance of normal ears was investigated by means of admittance tympanometry at a probe-tone frequency of 660 Hz. In the upright position, maximum acoustic admittance at the tympanic membrane occurred when the air pressure in the external meatus was close to atmospheric pressure. In the inverted position, the admittance at the membrane was considerably reduced when the meatal air was at atmospheric pressure and maximum admittance occurred at a meatal air pressure of about 53 mm H
2
O, with the resistive component reduced and the reactive component slightly increased relative to their values in the upright position. When the middle-ear air pressure in the inverted position was equalized with the ambient atmospheric pressure, the maximum admittance at the membrane occurred at a meatal air pressure of 10–20 mm H
2
O and the reduction in conductance and slight increase in susceptance persisted. It was concluded that the effect of body inversion on the acoustic immittance of the ear is due largely to an increase in the air pressure in the middle-ear cavity (which is probably produced by an increase in the volume of the mucosa lining the cavity) and to a small extent to another overpressure which probably occurs in the labyrinthine fluids.
Relationship of Articulatory Defects to Speech-Sound Identification
Authors: Monnin Lorraine M. , Huntington Dorothy A.
Published: July 2014

Normal-speaking and speech-defective children were compared on a speech-sound identification task which included sounds the speech-defective subjects misarticulated and sounds they articulated correctly. The identification task included four tests: [r]-[w] contrasts, acoustically similar contrasts, acoustically dissimilar contrasts, and vowel contrasts. The speech sounds were presented on a continuum from undistorted signals to severely distorted speech signals under conditions which have caused confusion among adults. Subjects included 15 normal-speaking kindergarten children, 15 kindergarten children with defective [r]s, and 15 preschool-age children. The procedure employed was designed to test, in depth, each sound under study and to minimize extraneous variables. Speech-sound identification ability of speech-defective subjects was found to be specific rather than a general deficiency, indicating a positive relationship between production and identification ability.
Consonant Confusions Associated with Hearing Loss above 2000 Hz
Authors: Sher Annabelle E. , Owens Elmer
Published: July 2014

A 100-item test for the identification of phonemes was presented to two groups of listeners. One group consisted of 35 patients with normal hearing up to 2000 Hz accompanied by a high-tone loss. The other group consisted of persons with normal hearing who heard the speech stimuli presented through a low-pass filter with a cutoff at 2040 Hz. There were no significant differences between the two groups in overall scores, in probabilities of error for individual phonemes, or in the kinds of error substitutions made. Findings were as follows: (1) the overall scores indicated difficulty in phonemic identification; (2) the phonemes contributing to this difficulty were primarily /b, p, t, k, s, θ/ in both the initial and final positions, /t∫, ∫, f, dƷ, z, v/ in the final position only, and /d/ in the initial position only; and (3) the phonemes substituted for the stimulus phonemes in the initial position were the same in manner of articulation as the stimulus phoneme, and typically only one confusion occurred per stimulus phoneme. The phonemes substituted for the stimulus phonemes in the final position were not necessarily the same in manner of articulation as the stimulus phoneme, and more than one confusion generally occurred for each stimulus phoneme.
Some Statistical Characteristics of Voice Fundamental Frequency
Authors: Horii Yoshiyuki
Published: July 2014

Two experiments are reported in which the magnitude of sampling errors associated with estimates of the mean, median, and standard deviation of voice fundamental frequencies (f
o
) during oral reading is investigated as a function of sample size. In one experiment, voices are sampled with fixed time windows. In the other experiment, results of f
o
analysis are compared for single-sentence voice samples and paragraph voice samples. Overall shape of f
o
distributions as well as interrelationships among various distributional measures are discussed.
Self and Mutual Speech Comprehension by Deviant- and Normal-Speaking Children
Authors: Panagos John M. , King Rella Ruth
Published: July 2014

This study was conducted to determine whether deviant-speaking children can understand their own speech productions when these productions are presented to them from an external source (tape recorder). Two groups of children with normal and deviant speech attempted to comprehend their own and one another’s recorded repetitions of two matched lists of imperative sentences. Although there was a significant main effect for comprehension of high- and low-intelligibility sentences, a significant main effect for the groups' comprehension performances was not found. The results suggested that the deviant-speaking children were perceptually oriented to the standard code of the speech community rather than to their own deviant speech codes. Deficits in speech production are discussed in terms of a reduction theory of telegraphic speech. Deviant-speaking children may reduce complexity of speech output through the application of phonetic reduction rules.
A Comparison of Pure-Tone Thresholds as Measured by Delayed Feedback Audiometry, Electrodermal Response Audiometry, and Voluntary Response Audiometry
Authors: Billings Bradley L. , Stokinger Thomas E.
Published: July 2014

One hundred unselected patients seen for medical-legal evaluation were tested for pure-tone thresholds by delayed feedback audiometry (DFA), electrodermal response audiometry (EDRA), and voluntary response audiometry (VRA). The EDRA method was successful in 73% of the patients while the DFA method was successful in 88% of the patients. Eighty-six percent of the DFA thresholds obtained were within 10 dB of the patients' VRA thresholds. When both DFA and EDRA were successful, 88% of the DFA thresholds were within 10 dB of the EDRA thresholds. Ninety-six percent of the EDRA thresholds obtained were within 10 dB of the patients' VRA thresholds. Although DFA is not as precise in predicting threshold as is EDRA, it is successful in a significantly greater number of patients than is EDRA and is a useful clinical tool in medical-legal evaluation for hearing loss.
Stuttering: Discoordination of Phonation with Articulation and Respiration
Authors: Perkins William , Rudas Joanna , Johnson Linda , Bell Jody
Published: July 2014

Complexity of phonatory and respiratory adjustments was systematically simplified in 30 adult stutterers under three speaking conditions: voiced, whispered, and articulated without phonation. Stuttering was reduced considerably when whispering and was practically eliminated when articulating silently. The possibility that stuttering consistently results from complexity of phonatory coordinations with articulation and respiration was strongly supported. Increased speaking rates under conditions that decreased stuttering seemed to be evidence that efficient rhythmical flow of speech is facilitated by simplification of phonatory and respiratory adjustments.
Some Aspects of the Verb System in the Language of Deaf Students
Authors: Quigley S. P. , Montanelli D. S. , Wilbur R. B.
Published: July 2014

Approximately 480 deaf students (age 10 to 19 years) and 60 hearing students (age eight to 10 years) were asked to judge the grammaticality of sentences containing auxiliary verbs, of sentences where the verb had been deleted, and of sentences in which the verb tense was not marked. The results indicated that deaf students have considerable difficulty with the verb system of English. This difficulty was most pronounced in the formation of tense and voice and in agreement in number and tense. A possible ordering for the acquisition of tense did emerge; from earliest to latest it is: simple past, future, present progressive, perfective, and passive. Improvement in grammaticality judgments appeared to come from an increase in recognition that incorrect sentences were ungrammatical.
The Function of Imitation in Child Language
Authors: Ramer Andrya L. H.
Published: July 2014

The use and function of imitation were examined for seven children in the early syntactic period of language acquisition. The use of imitation was determined by the percent of syntactic imitation out of total syntactic output. Based on this measure, the children were divided according to whether they used imitations minimally, moderately, or extensively. The function of imitative repertoires was investigated by examining the lexical, syntactic, semantic, and communicative-interactional aspects of language as they were reflected in imitation. The analyses revealed that degree of imitation interacted with function of imitation in the acquisition process. Management implications are discussed.
Validity of the Sklar Aphasia Scale
Authors: Cohen Rudolf , Engel Dorothea , Kelter Stephanie , List Gudula , Strohner Hans
Published: July 2014

A German version of the Sklar Aphasia Scale (SAS) was administered to groups of fluent aphasics, nonfluent aphasics, and three control groups (brain-damaged patients without aphasia, schizophrenics, and normal subjects). The SAS discriminated fluent and nonfluent aphasics from schizophrenic, brain-damaged, and normal control subjects with a high level of confidence; 91.8% of the aphasic and 81.5% of the brain-damaged patients without aphasia were correctly classified. However, the SAS did not discriminate between fluent and nonfluent aphasics. A factor analysis, which also included the subtests of the Token Test and eight other variables, showed the SAS and the Token Test to load mainly on the same general factor, which represents the severity of language disorders or the impairment of those left-hemisphere functions that might be basic to language. Subtests II and IV of the SAS also had loadings on a memory factor, but none of the subtests had variance on the third factor which represented the sensory-motor or fluency/nonfluency dimension.
Effect of Adjacency on the Distribution of New Stutterings in Two Successive Readings
Authors: Wong Catherine Y. Y. , Bloodstein Oliver
Published: July 2014

The consistency with which stuttering tends to occur on the same words in successive readings of a passage, though high enough to warrant the assumption that stuttering is a response to stimuli, is generally far from perfect. It was hypothesized that this is partly because stuttering sometimes occurs adjacent to previously stuttered words rather than on them, as a result of a type of adjacency effect. Ten stutterers read a 300-word passage twice in succession. The words stuttered for the first time in the second reading were analyzed to determine whether an unusually large proportion of them were adjacent to words stuttered in the first reading. No such tendency was found.
Effects of Stimulus Frequency and Intensity on the Middle Components of the Averaged Auditory Electroencephalic Response
Authors: Thornton Aaron R. , Mendel Maurice I. , Anderson Charles V.
Published: July 2014

Middle components (la6tency 8–50 msec) of the averaged auditory electroencephalic response (AAER), evoked by brief duration tone bursts, were recorded from 11 normal-hearing subjects. Latency and amplitude measurements were made on five peaks (N
a
, P
a
, N
b
, P
b
, and N
c
) of the AAER waveforms recorded for 27 experimental conditions: three conditions of stimulus frequency (250, 1000, and 4000 Hz) at each of nine conditions of signal intensity (a no-stimulus control and 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, and 80 dB re: group thresholds). Latency for each peak decreased with increased stimulus frequency, and it tended to decrease slightly with increases in stimulus intensity. Amplitude input-output characteristics varied with stimulus frequency and response peak. In general, the most linear input-output characteristics occurred for the early peaks and high stimulus frequencies. Characteristics for later peaks and lower frequencies tended to asymptote at moderate stimulus intensities. Between-subject variability was not much greater than within-subject variability for the single event auditory evoked potential (AEP). The variance of the AEP, however, was nearly as great (as much as two-thirds) as the variance of the background EEG, despite the large difference between AEP and background EEG amplitude.
Effects of Selected Linguistic Variables on Apraxia of Speech
Authors: Hardison Debra , Marquardt Thomas P. , Peterson Harold A.
Published: July 2014

Ten adults with apraxia of speech responded to sentences of an article (pronoun) + noun + verb + article (pronoun) + noun design. Each sentence was presented and then re-presented with the noun in Noun Phrase 1 (NP
1
) or Noun Phrase 2 (NP
2
) omitted. The subjects' task was to orally produce the omitted word. Sentences were either active or passive and the omitted noun was a concrete, abstract, or nonsense word. Results revealed significantly more errors in NP
1
than NP
2
, more errors on nonsense and abstract nouns than on concrete nouns, and more errors on passive than on active voice sentences. Linguistic bases for these findings are discussed.
A Story Completion Approach as a Measure of Language Development in Children
Authors: Bliss Lynn S. , Allen Doris V. , Wrasse Kenneth W.
Published: July 2014

A task employing a story completion approach was administered to 120 children who exhibited normal language development. Fifteen boys and 15 girls at four-, five-, six-, and seven-year age levels were tested. The test elicits 14 grammatical structures using 28 stories. Significant differences in structures did not occur between the sexes at any age level but males required more prompting. Significant differences in the total number of correct responses were established between the four and five year olds and between the five and six year olds but not between the six and seven year olds. Performance by age varied according to the grammatical structure. Simple structures were produced most accurately by the younger subjects while the more advanced ones were used by the older subjects. Discussion of results emphasized normal cognitive and language development as well as the clinical significance for the assessment of language behavior.
Effect of Auditory Prestimulation on Naming in Aphasia
Authors: Podraza Bonnie Louise , Darley Frederic L.
Published: July 2014

In five aphasic subjects, picture naming alone was compared with picture naming in the presence of four different auditory cues. Eighty words represented by pictures were associated with the following auditory cues: the first phoneme of the target word; an open-ended sentence designed to elicit the target word; three words, one of which was the target word; three words, all semantically related to the target word. Three conditions—the phonetic cue, the open-ended sentence, and the set of three words containing the target word—facilitated naming significantly. The condition making use of semantically related words resulted in a significant decrease in naming performance. Implications of these findings for theories of verbal recall, impairment of verbal recall in aphasia, and language therapy are discussed.
Sound Pressure in Insert Earphone Couplers and Real Ears
Authors: Burkhard M. D. , Sachs R. M.
Published: July 2014

It is known that sound pressure, measured in couplers via a probe-tube microphone, often shows a pressure vs frequency response that drops sharply at a single frequency. In this study sound pressure was theoretically determined at various locations within a hard-walled cylindrical cavity, driven by a constant-volume velocity source with circular symmetry. At each location in the volume, a transfer impedance was defined as the ratio of pressure to inlet-volume velocity. In the region around the inlet, the transfer impedance passes through zero as it changes from negative to positive reactance with increasing frequency. Two hard-walled cavity examples were examined in detail (1) the main cavity of a 2-cm
3
HA-2 coupler, and (2) a cavity having dimensions approximately equal to the occluded ear canal between an earmold tip and the eardrum. Contours of constant minimum sound pressure vs frequency are given for these two cylindrical volumes with experimental verification. Implications for probe microphone calibration and measurement of sound pressure in ears are discussed.
Correlates of Psychological Dimensions in Talker Similarity
Authors: Walden Brian E. , Montgomery Allen A. , Gibeily George J. , Prosek Robert A. , Schwartz Daniel M.
Published: July 2014

This investigation identifies correlates of psychological dimensions in talker similarity. Twenty adult male talkers recorded a monosyllabic word, and 13 acoustic measurements were made from spectrograms of each talker’s production. All possible pairs of voices were presented to 11 adult listeners for similarity judgments via a paired-comparison paradigm. A four-dimensional INDSCAL analysis of the similarity ratings was employed to derive psychological dimensions of talker similarity. Correlations between the acoustic measurements and the INDSCAL dimensions revealed that fundamental frequency and word duration were moderately correlated with two of the psychological dimensions. The other two dimensions were not convincingly correlated with any of the acoustic measurements, but are best described as representing voice quality and talker age. A listener’s familiarity with the talkers did not seem to influence his judgment of voice similarity.
Some Airflow, Volume, and Duration Characteristics of Oral Reading
Authors: Horii Yoshiyuki , Cooke Paul A.
Published: July 2014

Inspiratory and expiratory airflow (oral + nasal), volume, and duration characteristics during oral reading were investigated for eight young adults. Flow signals, sensed through a facemask-pneumotachometer-pressure transducer system, were quantified and analyzed by a computer program. Results showed that the modification of volume and flow during oral reading was primarily related to the timing of inspiratory and expiratory phases and secondarily to the magnitude of oronasal air volume. Effects of linguistic constraints were observed in inspiratory behavior, within and between sentences. Connected utterances showed lower and more variable peak flows than those reported for isolated syllables or words.
Neural Response Time of Stutterers and Nonstutterers in Selected Oral Motor Tasks
Authors: McFarlane Stephen C. , Prins David
Published: July 2014

Neural response time (NRT) was compared for 12 adult stutterers and 12 matched normal speakers on two verbal tasks (production of /pæ/ and /bæ/) and one oral, nonverbal task (lip closure) in response to visual and auditory stimulation. The auditory response stimulus was presented separately to the left and right ears, and the visual stimulus to both eyes. NRT was defined as the time interval between stimulus offset and the onset of electromyographic (EMG) activity from orbicularis oris superior muscle. Results show, in general, that stutterers are slower in NRT for all response tasks in both stimulus modes. Significant differences were found, however, for only the auditory mode. Analyses of the differences between and within groups for response tasks and stimulus modes are discussed in terms of recent research in and theory of timing disturbances in stuttering.
The Structural Characteristics of Monologues in the Speech of Normal Children: Syntactic Nonconversational Aspects
Authors: Craig Holly K. , Gallagher Tanya M.
Published: July 2014

The syntactic nonconversational features of monologue speech were investigated as a companion paper to Gallagher and Craig’s (1978) study of the semantic and conversational aspects of monologues. The monologue-dialogue language samples collected by Gallagher and Craig from nine normal subjects, three at Brown’s language stages I, II, and III, were analyzed syntactically. The original procedure consisted of the collection of a two-hour language sample from each child containing alternations of dialogue with the examiner and monologue produced during independent play. The results indicate that the syntactic categories that occurred in monologue speech were similar to those appearing in dialogue speech but the percentage frequencies differed. Monologue subsamples can be characterized syntactically as highly structured sequences of revision behavior reflecting a basic metalinguistic performative. The clinical implications of the naturally occurring analysis procedures observed are discussed.
Methods of Training Deaf Children to Comprehend the Passive Voice
Authors: Frankmann Judith P. , Herman Sandra E. , MacKain Kristine S. , Oyer Herbert J.
Published: July 2014

Four variations of programmed filmstrips were shown to deaf children to improve comprehension of the passive voice. The design included two training strategies that treated the passive voice either as a unitary structure or as a contrast to the active voice. Within strategies two orders of training were compared for the various types of passive sentences: (nonreversible, reversible, agent-deleted) and (agent-deleted, nonreversible, reversible). Six filmstrips were constructed for the two strategies and three types of passive. Evaluation tests were administered before, immediately after, and three months following training. Forty deaf children were selected from two age ranges, 9 to 12 and 13 to 16 years. Within age groups 10 subjects served under each of the four strategy-order conditions. Evaluation tests consisted of a multiple choice picture-sentence matching test and a performance test in which subjects acted out six passive sentences using toys.

Performance test scores increased significantly after training and surpassed pre-training after three months. Highest scores were achieved on nonreversible passives followed by reversible and agent-deleted passives. Reversal of agent and object was the most frequent error. Strategy and order differences were not significant.
Pattern A Personality and Noise-Induced Vasoconstriction
Authors: Ickes William K. , Espili Julie , Glorig Anne Mary
Published: July 2014

A perplexing question about noise-induced hearing loss is why some persons seem to be more affected by high intensity noise than others. Hawkins (1971) has shown noise-induced vasoconstriction to be implicated in noise-induced hearing loss in animals as evidenced by vascular changes within the inner ear and he asks the question: Are these changes caused by the noise itself or mediated by the autonomic nervous system (ANS)? Our research employed a plethysmograph to measure ANS mediated vasoconstriction during noise exposure. The subjects were stress prone males and females (Pattern A) whose behavior in noise was compared to non-stress prone males and females (Pattern B). The results indicated Pattern A males showed marked vasoconstriction in the presence of noise whereas Pattern B males did not. Pattern A females performed very much like Pattern A males with no statistical difference between these two groups. However, Pattern B females demonstrated a significant increase in vasoconstriction in the presence of noise and in this respect Pattern B females are different from Pattern B males. This difference possibly resulted from the use of a test to assess personality type which was intended for use with male subjects. The authors conclude there is strong evidence to suggest that being prone to stress in the presence of noise is a contributing factor to noise-induced hearing loss.
Pragmatic and Semantic Development in Young Children with Impaired Hearing
Authors: Curtiss Susan , Prutting Carol A. , Lowell Edgar L.
Published: July 2014

The purpose of the study was to characterize the early pragmatic-semantic communicative development of young hearing-impaired children learning spoken English as a first language. Twelve children with impaired hearing, ranging in age from 22 months to 60 months, were videotaped. Approximately 13 hours of videotaped data from four different communicative settings were analyzed. The pragmatic and semantic categories used by these children varied across age groups. Results are discussed with regard to age, expressive modality, mean length of utterance (MLU), and hearing loss. There was much variation among these parameters in communicative development across children.
Acoustic Characteristics of Dysarthria Associated with Cerebellar Disease
Authors: Kent Ray D. , Netsell Ronald , Abbs James H.
Published: July 2014

The speech of five individuals with cerebellar disease and ataxic dysarthria was studied with acoustic analyses of CVC words, words of varying syllabic structure (stem, stem plus suffix, stem plus two suffixes), simple sentences, the Rainbow Passage, and conversation. The most consistent and marked abnormalities observed in spectrograms were alterations of the normal timing pattern, with prolongation of a variety of segments and a tendency toward equalized syllable durations. Vowel formant structure in the CVC words was judged to be essentially normal except for transitional segments. The greater the severity of the dysarthria, the greater the number of segments lengthened and the degree of lengthening of individual segments. The ataxic subjects were inconsistent in durational adjustments of the stem syllable as the number of syllables in a word was varied and generally made smaller reductions than normal subjects as suffixes were added. Disturbances of syllable timing frequently were accompanied by abnormal contours of fundamental frequency, particularly monotone and syllable-falling patterns. These dysprosodic aspects of ataxic dysarthria are discussed in relation to cerebellar function in motor control.
Intonation and Intelligibility of Time-Compressed Speech. Supplementary Report: English vs. French
Authors: Wingfield A. , Buttet J. , Sandoval A. W.
Published: July 2014

Comparative data are reported for the intelligibility of English and of French time-compressed speech when heard spoken either in normal intonation or in intonation patterns conflicting with underlying syntactic structure. Within an overall decrement in intelligibility with increasing compression, both French and English show similar superiority functions for sentences heard in normal intonation. Results suggest a role of prosodic features in perceptual processing of French comparable to that previously reported for English.