bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Some Notes on Reading
Authors: Umeda N. , Quinn A. M. S.
Published: July 2014

This paper describes a method of estimating a person's reading rate from a small sample of his speech (in other words, a short sentence). Reading rate was obtained by measuring the speaking portion of a considerable amount of reading, .and dividing it by the number of phonemes in the material (this is called the grand mean). Out of 108 sentences read by four talkers, 58 having 15 words or less were selected. The ratio of unstressed to stressed syllables, and the number of syllables per occurrence of terminal lengthening were calculated for each of the 58 sentences. Sentences with both of these values in the middle range were considered to have an average phoneme duration close to the grand mean. The prediction was compared to actual readings by four talkers, with 83 percent agreement. The Summary section contains instructions for applying our method of estimating a person's reading rate. Those who are interested should read the Summary section and the Appendix first.
Language Comprehension in Sensorimotor Stages V and VI
Authors: Miller Jon F. , Chapman Robin S. , Branston Mary Beth , Reichle Joe
Published: July 2014

A cross-sectional study of language comprehension in relation to cognitive functioning in 48 10-to-21 month old children, 4 at each month of age, revealed significant correlations between comprehension and five sensorimotor subscales. Age, however, was the only significant predictor in multiple regression analyses adding either age or sensorimotor subscale in second. In specific instances in which sensorimotor tasks tapped hypothetical prerequisites to specific language comprehension items, the two domains corresponded closely; but the cognitive domain was not always the first to be passed. Comprehension items were ordered from easy to hard as follows: 1) understanding single words for present people or objects; 2) for actions; 3) for absent people or objects; 4) understanding two words for the semantic relations possessor-possession, action-object, and agent-action; 5) understanding three words for agent-action-object. Implications for the Cognition Hypothesis are discussed.
Statistical Prediction of Change in Aphasia
Authors: Porch Bruce E. , Collins Michael , Wertz Robert T. , Friden Thomas P.
Published: July 2014

We reviewed speech, language, and biographical data on 144 asphasic patients who had suffered left hemisphere cerebral vascular accidents. Using a step-wise multiple regression procedure, we attempted to predict change in severity of aphasia at three, six, and 12 months postonset based on performance at one, three, and six months post-onset. Our results suggest statistical prediction of change is feasible. Multiple correltion coefficients ranged from 0.74 to 0.94
Selected Acoustic Characteristics of Pathologic and Normal Speakers
Authors: Murry Thomas , Doherty E. Thomas
Published: July 2014

The purpose of this study was to determine if measures of speaking fundamental frequency and its perturbation could be useful in differentiating talkers with no known vocal pathology and talkers with cancer of the larynx. Ten male subjects, five with a diagnosed malignancy of the larynx and five with normal voice, produced speech samples from which five voice production measures were obtained: the average speaking fundamental frequency (SFF), SFF variability during the reading of a sentence, the f
0
of a sustained vowel and a percent and magnitude jitter value. The perturbation factors, both directional and magnitudinal, during sustained vowels were found to be significant in discriminating normal talkers from those with laryngeal cancer. The speaking funda- mental frequency and its variability during the reading of a sentence improved the dis- criminant function.
The "Linguameter"
Authors: Porter R. J. , Lubker J. F.
Published: July 2014

A device we call a Linguameter is described. It allows measurement of subjects' abilities to position their tongues at points in the horizontal plane. Results with a prototype are reported for three tasks. All subjects could reproduce, bisect, and transpose arbitrary intervals with a very high degree of accuracy. This highly accurate normal performance, coupled with the sensitivity of the device, may make it of interest in studies of the oral or other sensory-motor sytem's normal functioning, as well as in investigations of sensory-motor pathology.
Comments on the Myoelastic - Aerodynamic Theory of Phonation
Authors: Titze Ingo R.
Published: July 2014

The myoelastic-aerodynamic theory of phonation has been quantified and tested with mathematical models. The models suggest that vocal fold oscillation is produced as a result of asymmetric forcing functions over closing and opening portions of the glottal cycle. For nearly uniform tissue displacements, as in falsetto voice, the asymmetry in the driving forces can result from the inertia of the air moving through the glottis. This inertia can in turn be enhanced or suppressed by supraglottal or subglottal vocal tract coupling. More obvious and pronounced asymmetries in the driving forces are associated with non-uniform vocal fold tissue displacements. These are combinations of normal tissue modes, and can result in vertical and horizontal phase differences along the surfaces, as observed in chest voice. The ranges of oscillation increase among various models as more freedom in the simulated tissue movement is incorporated. Of particular significance in initiating and maintaining oscillation are the vertical motions that facilitate coupling of aerodynamic energy into the tissues and allow tissue deformations under conditions of incompressibility. Vertical displacements also can have a significant effect on vocal tract excitation. Control of fundamental frequency of oscillation (FO) is basically myoelastic, partially as a result of deliberate or reflex adjustments of laryngeal muscles, and partially as a result of nonlinear tissue strain over the vibrational cycle. This places limits on the control of FO by subglottal pressure, and forces such control to be inseparably connected with vibrational amplitude, or less directly, with vocal intensity.
Isotonic Vocalis Contraction as a Means of Producing Rapid Decreases in F
0
Authors: Harvey Nigel , Howell Pete
Published: July 2014

In a first experiment, subjects were presented with frequency modulated tones and instructed to vary their own vocal pitch to match what they were hearing. It was found that the faster a subject modulated his voice, the higher the carrier frequency he produced became relative to that specified as his target. In a second experiment, subjects were presented with one or two target tones. After one was presented, they were required to reproduce its pitch with their own voice. They did so accurately. After two were presented, they were asked to oscillate the pitch of their voice as rapidly as possible between them. In this case, it was found that the tones which were produced were higher than those specified by the targets. It is argued that the results from both experiments indicate that fast decreases in vocal pitch are produced by isotonic contraction of the vocalis muscles.
The Effects of Antagonistic Gestures on Temporal and Amplitude Parameters of Anticipatory Labial Coarticulation
Authors: Sussman Harvey M. , Westbury John R.
Published: July 2014

Anticipatory lip rounding before neutral versus antagonistic vowel environments was studied in a test of the compatibility notion of a look-ahead scanning mechanism (Henke, 1967). Electromyograms were obtained from orbicularis oris superior, an agonist for lip rounding, and risorius, an agonist for lip spreading, from three normal speakers repeating the nonsense disyllables /tiku/, /taku/, /tuki/, /kikstu/, and /kakstu/twenty times each, When the syllable-initial vowel was the lip spread vowel /i/, oris activity began earlier and with greater force than for syllable-initial /a/ contexts across all speakers. This finding argues for a revision of a key assumption underlying the look-ahead scan model for anticipatory lip rounding. The encoding program for speech exhibits temporal and amplitude adjustments in its coarticulatory behavior to accommodate in an active way contradictory neuromuscular and biomechanical conditions. These results are discussed with reference to current models of speech production.
A Comparison of the Effects of Hearing Impairment and Acoustic Filtering on Consonant Recognition
Authors: Walden Brian E. , Schwartz Daniel M. , Montgomery Allen A. , Prosek Robert A.
Published: July 2014

The relationship between consonant recognition under conditions of acoustic filtering and hearing loss was studied in subjects with unilateral hearing impairments, Using a procedure involving suprathreshold loudness balance between ears, a spectrum shaper was used to match the (suprathreshold) audiometric configuration of the impaired ear. Consonant recognition data were obtained from the impaired ear and from the normal ear listening through the spectrum shaper. To the extent that consonant recognition was similar in the two ears, the effect of the patient's hearing impairment on phoneme identification could be related to the audiometric configuration. A comparison between consonant recognition scores for the impaired ears and for the ears listening through the spectrum shaper revealed large individual differences among subjects. Mean consonant recognition ability, however, was generally lower in the impaired ear. Although overall consonant recognition and the error probabilities for individual consonants tended to be different between ears, the patterns of feature recognition were quite similar.
Articulatory Patterns of an Adventitiously Deaf Speaker
Authors: Zimmermann Gerald , Rettaliata Patricia
Published: July 2014

Kinematic analysis of selected articulatory gestures of an adventitiously deaf speaker is reported. High speed cinefluorography and a semiautomated analysis system were used to describe the coordination of lip, jaw, tongue tip, and tongue dorsum. The coordination of voicing and movements also was analyzed. Compared to a speaker with normal hearing, the deaf speaker showed systematic timing differences in the VC (closing) portion of each utterance. Coordination of tongue dorsum with other structures showed obvious deviations. Voice termination was consistently later for the deaf speaker. Speculations about the role of auditory information in the long-term monitoring or calibration of speech gestures are offered.
Transfer Effects from Listening to Frequency-Controlled and Frequency-Shifted Accelerated Speech
Authors: Wallace William P. , Koury Georgette
Published: July 2014

Two experiments examined intelligibility of sentences reproduced with increased tonal frequency (the spectrum of the speech signal shifted upward), increased speech rate, or both frequency and speech rate increased. The first experiment showed that both the frequency and speech rate increases independently impaired sentence intelligibility. Sentences played back at increased rates and increased frequencies also were perceived as having been spoken more rapidly. In the second experiment subjects listened either to practice sentences played back at frequency-shifted (FS) or frequency-controlled (FC) accelerated rates. Subsequent to this practice, an intelligibility test was given on 10 FS and 10 FC accelerated sentences played back at double speed. The accelerated sentences were more intelligible for practice groups than for a no-practice control group, and FC accelerated rates produced more intelligible sentences than FS acceleration. The specific training experiences produced an interaction with the type of test-sentence acceleration early in transfer. The FS accelerated sentences were more intelligible following FS practice compared to FC practice, and the FC accelerated sentences were more intelligible following FC practice compared to FS practice.
An Analysis of the Relationship among Stuttering Behaviors
Authors: Costello Janis M. , Hurst Marilyn R.
Published: July 2014

The purpose of this study was to determine whether different topographies of disfluent behavior form a response class. A within-subject, repeated reversals (ABAB) design was used to analyze the stuttering behavior of three adult stuttering speakers. A single type of stuttering behavior was punished for each subject while frequencies of occurrence of other types were concurrently measured. The results showed that: (1) stuttering behaviors displayed direct behavioral covariation for all subjects, illustrating the existence of a response class; and (2) the response classes observed included both kernel and accessory features of stuttering. The results are discussed in terms of the literature on response classes and two-factor learning theory of stuttering with special emphasis on the implications of these results for our understanding of the development of stuttering.
The Influence of the Onset of Phonation on the Frequency of Disfluency among Children Who Stutter
Authors: McGee Sandra R. , Hutchinson John M. , Deputy Paul N.
Published: July 2014

This study was designed to assess the effects of on-off voice adjustments on the frequency of stuttering in children. Essentially, this is a replication of the experimental paradigm used by Adams and Reis (1971, 1974) with adult stutterers who were asked to read two passages: one contained a normal distribution of voiced and voiceless sounds; the other contained nearly all voiced sounds. The latter passage was associated with less stuttering and more rapid adaptation. In this study, 15 childhood stutterers in the third through the seventh grades were asked to read these same two passages. Contrary to the previous results with adults, however, the children did not stutter less nor adapt more rapidly with the all-voiced passage. These results are discussed with reference to previous literature and to the influence of pausing.
Effects of Pictures and Picturability on Sentence Verification by Aphasic and Nonaphasic Subjects
Authors: Elmore-Nicholas Linda , Brookshire R. H.
Published: July 2014

Ten aphasic and ten non-brain-damaged subjects were asked to judge the truth or falsity of spoken comparative sentences. In one condition, pictures which contained the items being compared were presented, and in the other condition sentences were presented without accompanying pictures. Some of the pictures which accompanied the sentences depicted the comparative adjectives contained in the sentences, while other pictures simply illustrated the items being compared and gave no information about the comparative adjectives. Results of the experiment suggest that presenting pictures along with spoken sentences improves aphasic subjects' ability to judge the truth or falsity of those sentences. This facilitation occurs even when the pictures do not depict the relationships expressed by the comparative adjectives in the sentences.
Masking of Noise Bursts by an Adjacent Vowel for Hearing-Impaired Listeners
Authors: Revoile Sally , Pickett J. M. , Wilson Mary Pat
Published: July 2014

Some masking effects of synthetic vowels on adjacent noise bursts are reported for hearing-impaired listeners. The 200-ms vowels were similar to [ά] and [i]; the 50-ms noise bursts were in one of three frequency bands: .5 to 1.5, 1.5 to 4, or 4 to 6 kHz. With voiceless-stop-like temporal intervals between the stimuli, there was little backward or forward masking of the noise bursts by either vowel. Some forward masking occurred under proximate conditions of vowel and burst in time and frequency.
Responses to Requests in the Dialogues of Mothers and Their Stage 1 Children
Authors: Scherer Nancy J. , Coggins Truman E.
Published: July 2014

The development of conversation requires children to learn to relate their utterances to utterances from other speakers. This investigation examined one method in which children relate their utterances to preceding utterances in conversation, namely, response utterances to request utterances. Late Stage 1 children's responses were examined for their pragmatic and semantic relationships to five types of requests used by mothers. Conditional (child responses to mother's requests) and unconditional (child responses following mother's utterances) probabilities were generated using the lag sequential analysis. The level of significant difference between the conditional and unconditional probabilities was determined with the binomial distribution. The results indicate that the children produced contingent linguistic responses to the mothers' requests based on the pragmatic intent of the requests—specifically, those requesting semantic information, clarifying a misunderstood remark, and requesting agreement or disagreement with a proposition. Further, the children's responses to the mothers" requests for semantic information provided the appropriate semantic information requested by the mothers. The children produced contingent nonlinguistic responses to the mothers' requests for an action to be performed, whereas contingent nonlinguistic or linguistic responses following the mothers' requests for attention failed to achieve significance. These findings indicate that responses to requests are important in the development of early contingent speech and provide one means for structuring conversation with Late Stage 1 children.
Lingual Mechanoreceptive Information I
Authors: Bowman James P.
Published: July 2014

Afferents present in the distal hypoglossal nerve of the rhesus monkey include fibers derived from lingual muscle spindles. Using the evoked-potential technique in rhesus monkeys, the objective of this study was to determine whether the medial lemniscus (ML) represents the rostral projection path for hypoglossal afferent information. Responses evoked by low-intensity stimulation of the XIIth nerve were recorded with bipolar macroelectrodes at medullary, pontine, and midbrain levels in pentobarbital or urethane anesthestized animals. Results indicate that fibers related to XIIth nerve afferents ascend in association with the contralateral ML. This projection mediates the contralateral thalamic and cerebrocortical potentials shown in previous studies to be evoked bv XIIth nerve stimuli. The role this projection may play in tongue sensorimotor function is discussed. Results also demonstrate the presence of contralateral responses in the medial portion of the pontine reticulotegmental nucleus. These medially located potentials were isolated from responses evoked from the ML bv intervening unresponsive electrode tracks suggesting that a component of the lemniscal projection may terminate in the "face zone" of this precerebellar relay nucleus.
Newborn Acoustic Reflexes to Noise and Pure-Tone Signals
Authors: Bennett Michael J. , Weatherby Lynn A.
Published: July 2014

A variable-frequency probe-tone acoustic-impedance bridge has been developed to enable an artifact-free pure-tone acoustic reflex study to be carried out on neonates. Contralateral reflex thresholds for pure tones, broadband noise, and filtered noise were measured in 28 newborns aged 4–8 days. The mean reflex threshold for the broadband noise was 73 dB SPL, 4 dB lower than the reflex threshold for the 2600-Hz low- and high-pass noise bands. Reflex activation at 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz gave responses that closely followed the normal adult pattern although reflex thresholds were approximately 10 dB higher. Two infants failed to demonstrate reflexes. One of these failed a behavioral-response test using the Auditory Response Cradle and was found to have mild jaundice. The second infant passed the behavioral test and had measurable reflexes 5 weeks later. A third baby with elevated reflex thresholds also was jaundiced but had normal behavioral responses and was discharged. Discussion of these results emphasizes their value to those engaged in neonatal auditory assessment.
Early Lexical Acquisition in Children with Specific Language Impairment
Authors: Leonard Laurence B. , Schwartz Richard G. , Chapman Kathy , Rowan Lynne E. , Prelock Patricia A. , Terrell Brenda , Weiss Amy L. , Messick Cheryl
Published: July 2014

This study examined the characteristics of early lexical acquisition in children with specific language impairment. Sixteen unfamiliar words and referents were exposed across 10 sessions to language-impaired and normal children matched for level of linguistic development. Posttesting revealed similar comprehension-production gaps in the two groups of children. In addition, both groups showed greater comprehension and production of words referring to objects than words referring to actions. However, the language-impaired children's object word bias was not as marked as that of the normal children. For both groups, words containing initial consonants within the children's production repertoires were more likely to be acquired in production than words containing consonants absent from the children's phonologies. A similar tendency was not seen for comprehension.
The Lombard Sign as a Function of Age and Task
Authors: Amazi Deborah K. , Garber Sharon R.
Published: July 2014

The Lombard sign was investigated as a function of age and task. Twenty adults and 20 5-year-old children spoke in quiet and in the presence of a 90-dB SPL noise. Half the subjects labelled a series of pictures, half told stories about the pictures. All subjects increased vocal intensity in the presence of noise. Children increased intensity equally in both tasks. Adults increased intensity more during the story-telling task than during the labelling task.
A Calibration Procedure for the Assessment of Thresholds above 8000 Hz
Authors: Stelmacttowicz Patricia G. , Gorga Michael P. , Cullen John K.
Published: July 2014

A technique is described to estimate the sound pressure level developed by a broad frequency response transducer at the tympanic membrane. Real-ear probe tube measurements near the tympanic membranes of 10 subjects were used to obtain frequency-dependent correction values for a custom-designed flat-plate coupler. These latter measures can be used tot routine calibration of the transducer. Audiometric thresholds from 250 to 16000 Hz were obtained on 14 children (5–18 years).Threshold estimates were found to be comparable to previouslv reported values. Potential application and limitations of this technique are discussed.
Phonological Correlates of Middle-Ear Involvement in Speech-Delayed Children
Authors: Shriberg Lawrence D. , Smith Anne J.
Published: July 2014

The purpose of this note is to illustrate the potential contribution of phonological analysis to the study of the origins of developmental phonological disorders (delayed speech). Speech samples from two clinical populations of children with delayed speech were inspected. Within each group, children were subdivided on the basis of case records data on their histories of middle-ear involvement. In both clinical samples, children with positive histories of middle-ear involvement had statistically higher frequencies of occurrence of two sound change categories. Several analyses of one of the sound change categories were undertaken to determine whether these errors could be related to current deficits in underlying forms, to phonetic output constraints, or to perceptual-acoustic characteristics of the sounds involved.
The Effects of Presentation Modality Upon Learning in a Comprehension Task Using Oral, Manual, and Dual Modes Stimulus Cues
Authors: Karlan George R. , Lloyd Lyle L. , Fristoe Macalyne
Published: July 2014

Interest in how and why the use of nonspeech symbols such as manual signs facilities the communication development of language-handicapped individuals has been growing. One question of interest is whether comprehension is facilitated because manual sign cues are in the same stimulus modality (visual) as the objects or events to which they refer, in contrast to oral cues, which are in a different modality (auditory). Another question is, when total communication (words and manual signs) is used, which modality, visual or auditory, actually controls responding? Previous analogue research with normal adults has not controlled for representational iconicity and/or has utilized tasks different than those used with handicapped populations. In this study, 15 undergraduate students were trained to a criterion to identify abstract forms in response to manual sign, CVC nonsense syllables, or combined manual sign plus CVC nonsense syllables. Signed English signs normally representing common objects were matched to the abstract forms. Results from learning probes indicated that performance improved significantly following training for all types of labels. Performance on learning probes of responses to manual labels was significantly poorer than performance on probes of responses to oral labels, to manual labels previously used in combined labels, and to oral labels previously used in combined labels. However, there was no difference in performance among these latter three conditions. These results suggest that the facilitative effects of manual sign labels upon comprehension found in other research may be due to the iconic releationship between signs and their referents.
Effect of Age on Prediction of Hearing Loss with the Bivariate-Plotting Procedure
Authors: Silman Shlomo , Silverman Carol Ann , Showers Theresa , Gelfand Stanley A.
Published: July 2014

The effect of age on accuracy of prediction of hearing impairment with the bivariate-plotting procedure was investigated in 72 normal-hearing subjects aged 20–69 years and in 86 sensorineural hearing-impaired subjects aged 20–83 years. The predictive accuracy with the bivariate-plotting procedure improved markedly when the data from subjects over 44 years of age were excluded from the bivariate plot. The predictive accuracy improved further when the construction of the line segments in the traditional bivariate plot was modified.
Magnitude Estimation of Loudness I Application to Hearing Aid Selection
Authors: Geller Daniel , Margolis Robert H.
Published: July 2014

Three experiments were conducted to explore the utility of magnitude estimation of loudness for hearing aid selection. In Experiment 1 the loudness discomfort level (LDL), most comfortable loudness (MCL), and magnitude estimations (MEs) of loudness were obtained from normal-hearing subjects. MCLs fell within a range of loudnesses that was relatively low on the loudness function. The LDLs were lower than previously published values. Experiment 2 was performed to identify the source of disparity between our LDL data and previously reported results. The effects of instructions are demonstrated and discussed. In Experiment 3 magnitude estimations of loudness were used to determine the loudness of tonal stimuli selected to represent ⅓ octave band levels of speech. Over the 500–4000 Hz range, the contributions of the various frequency regions to the loudness of speech appears to be nearly constant. Methods are proposed for (a) predicting the frequency-gain response of a hearing aid that restores normal loudness for speech for the hearing-impaired listener and (b) psychophysically evaluating the compression characteristic of a hearing aid.
Analysis of Functions of Delayed Echolalia in Autistic Children
Authors: Prizant Barry M. , Rydell Patrick J.
Published: July 2014

This study was a preliminary attempt to determine how autistic children used delayed echolalia in naturalistic interactions with familiar people. Fourteen functional categories of delayed echolalia were derived based on videotape analyses of linguistic, extralinguistic, and paralinguistic features. Individual differences in functional usage were apparent across the three subjects. Delayed echolalia was found to vary along the dimensions of interactiveness, comprehension of the utterance produced, and relevance to linghistic or situational context. The diversity of delayed echolalic behavior is discussed in reference to its conventionality, the presence or absence of communicative intent, and its status as symbolic communicative activity.
Preschoolers with Language Disorders
Authors: Aram Dorothy M. , Ekelman Barbara L. , Nation James E.
Published: July 2014

Language, intelligence, academic achievement, and behavioral adjustment were assessed in a group of 20 adolescents originally studied 10 years earlier as preschoolers with language disorders. At follow-up, 20% had WISC-R IQ scores in the mentally deficient range and were being educated in EMR classrooms. Of the remaining 16, 11 (69%) had required special tutoring, grade retention, or LD class placement. The majority of non-EMR subjects continued to evidence persistent deficits in language and academic achievement and were rated by their parents as being less socially competent and having more behavioral problems than their peers. Of the initial preschool measures available, the Leiter was found to be the best single predictor of intelligence, language, class placement, and reading achievement in adolescence, although the NSST: Expressive subtest also was a strong predictor of adolescent language.
Masking-Level Difference in Filtered-Random and Amplitude-Modulated Noise
Authors: Wilson Richard H. , Argos John T. , Brown Carolyn J. , Bennett Leslie A.
Published: July 2014

The masking characteristics of filtered-random noise and amplitude-modulated noise (40-dB pressure-spectrum level) were studied in a series of four experiments using a masking-level difference paradigm, that is, 500-Hz thresholds in S
o
N
o
and S
π
N
o
binaural conditions. In Experiment 1 a filtered noise (200–800 Hz) and an amplitude-modulated noise (425–575 Hz) produced equal thresholds in S
o
N
o
; for S
π
N
o
, however, the thresholds in amplitude-modulated noise were 1.6 dB lower than were the thresholds in filtered noise. In Experiment 2 S
o
N
o
and S
π
N
0
thresholds were established in three filtered noise bandwidths (200–800 Hz, 335–685 Hz, and 410–600 Hz) and in the amplitude-modulated noise (425–575 Hz). When the bandwidths of the filteredrandom and amplitude-modulated noises were similar, the SπN
o
thresholds were the same but the S
o
N
o
thresholds were different. Experiments 3 and 4 indicated that with amplitude-modulated noise when the zero amplitude crossings of the tone and the noisecoincided, the S
o
N
o
, SπN
o
, and S
m
N
m
thresholds were 1.2–2.0 dB higher than were the thresholds when the zero crossings of the tone and noise did not coincide. The data indicate that the masking characteristics of filtered-random noise and amplitudemodulated noise are different. The findings are interpreted as an indication that perceptual phenomena depend on the temporal characteristies as well as the power spectrum of the signal and masker.
Relation between Reaction Time and Loudness
Authors: Humes Larry E. , Ahlstrom Jayne B.
Published: July 2014

The loudness of one-third octave bands of noise centered at either 1, 2, or 4 kHz was measured in 10 normal-hearing young adults for sound levels of 50–90 dB SPL. Reaction times (RT) in response to these same stimuli were also measured in the same subjects. A moderate-to-strong correspondence was observed between the slopes for functions depicting the growth of loudness with sound level and comparable slopes for the reaction-time data. The correlation between slopes for the RT-intensity function and the loudness-growth function was comparable in magnitude to the test,retest correlation for the loudness-growth function except at 1 kHz.
Distribution of Stuttering in Sentences
Authors: Jayaram M.
Published: July 2014

The purpose of this study was to analyze the influence of sentence length and clause position on stuttering in the complex sentences of two languages—English and Kannada. Ten monolingual adult stutterers read 20 sets of sentences while 10 bilingual adult stutterers read 40 sets of sentences (20 sets in each of the two languages). Each set consisted of a short sentence and two long sentences. Results indicated that (a) a clause placed at the beginning of a sentence was stuttered more often than the same clause placed at the end of the sentence and more than the same clause as an isolated sentence; (b) a clause placed at the beginning of a sentence was stuttered more often than the same clause placed at the end of a sentence, irrespective of sentence length; and (c) stuttering occurred more often on the first clause of a sentence than on the second in proportion to the difference in word length between the two clauses. These results suggest that the occurrence of stuttering might be related to the demands that speech makes on motor planning, particularly at the beginning of sentences, and might have significance for the speech breakdown views on stuttering.
Profiles of Communicative and Cognitive-Social Abilities in Autistic Children
Authors: Wetherby Amy Miller , Prutting Carol A.
Published: July 2014

The purpose of this study was to examine profiles of communicative and cognitive-social abilities in a small group of autistic children functioning in the prelinguistic and early stages of language development and to compare them with those of normal children functioning at similar stages of language development. The results of measures in the cognitive-social areas of communicative intent, tool use, imitation, and play and in language comprehension demonstrated uneven development for the autistic subjects. A functional analysis of communicative behaviors indicated that, despite a wide variation in communicative means, the autistic subjects displayed a relatively homogeneous profile of communicative functions that was both quantitatively and qualitatively different from the normal profile. Explanations for the heterochrony in communicative and cognitive-social development of these autistic children are discussed.
Word Recognition with Segmented-Alternated CVC Words
Authors: Wilson Richard H. , Arcos John T. , Jones Howard C.
Published: July 2014

Consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) monosyllabic words were segmented at the approximate phoneme boundaries and were presented to subjects with normal hearing in the following sequence: (a) the carrier phrase to both ears, (b) the initial consonant segment to one ear, (c) the vowel segment to the other ear, and (d) the final consonant segment to the ear that received the initial consonant. A computer technique, which is described in detail, was used to develop the test materials. The digital editing did not alter appreciably the spectral or temporal characteristics of the words. A series of four experiments produced a list of 50 words on which 10% correct word recognition was achieved by listeners with normal hearing when the vowel segment or the consonant segments of the words were presented monaurally in isolation. When the speech materials were presented binaurally—that is, the vowel segment in one ear and consonant segments in the other ear—word-recognition performance improved to 90% correct.
Temporal Gap Detection in Sensorineural and Simulated Hearing Impairments
Authors: Florentine Mary , Buus Søren
Published: July 2014

The objectives of this study were to assess the effect of the configuration of a hearing loss on gap detection and to determine if hearing impairment affects temporal resolution, per se. The minimum detectable gap duration, MDG, in a low-pass (cut-off at 7 kHz) noise was measured monaurally as a function of sound pressure level in six listeners with normal hearing, seven with hearing impairments of primarily cochlear origin, and eight with impairments simulated by masking. The impaired listeners' MDGs at 80 and 90 dB vary from about 3.5 ms (equal to the normal MDG) to about 8 ms and show little correlation with their average HL. At lower levels, the MDG is enlarged for all impaired listeners owing to the decreased SL of the noise. Most of the enlargement of the MDG could be reproduced by presenting a normal listener with a masking noise spectrally shaped to simulate the impaired listener's audiogram. However, at high levels, some impaired listeners performed worse than their simulated-loss counterparts, indicating that temporal resolution per se may be reduced in some, but not all, impaired listeners.
Postmasking Effects of Sensorineural Tinnitus
Authors: Tyler Richard S. , Conrad-Armes David , Smith Pauline A.
Published: July 2014

In this study we provide some preliminary results of our attempt to measure the perception of tinnitus after the termination of a masker. The minimum level to mask tinnitus was determined for a 1-s masker in 10 subjects with sensorineural tinnitus. A continuous masker (parametrically varied in duration, frequency, and level) was then presented to the ear ipsilateral to the tinnitus. At the termination of the masker, subjects were required to press a button when their tinnitus "first returned" and a second button when it returned to "normal loudness." These response times were recorded automatically, and subjects reported what they heard after each trial. At low-level and short-duration maskers, the tinnitus typically was heard immediately after the masker termination. At higher levels and longer durations, different responses were observed. In two subjects, a silent interval was present after the masker, then the tinnitus returned at a softer loudness before returning to its premasker loudness. In one subject, the tinnitus was louder after the masker, and gradually returned to its premasker loudness. In another subject, the tinnitus returned immediately after the masker, but was softer than before. It then gradually increased to its premasker loudness. In the other two subjects, the tinnitus returned immediately to its normal loudness when the masker was terminated at all masker levels and durations. Higher level and longer duration maskers generally produced greater effects. Masker frequency, however, had little effect.
Effects of Reducing Low-Frequency Amplification on Consonant Perception in Quiet and Noise
Authors: Gordon-Salant Sandra
Published: July 2014

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of low-frequency amplification on speech recognition performance by hearing-impaired listeners. Consonant identification performance by subjects with flat hearing losses and high-frequency hearing losses was assessed in three different hearing aid conditions, in quiet and noise. The experimental hearing aids all provided extra high-frequency amplification but differed in the amount of low-frequency amplification. The results showed that listeners with flat hearing losses benefited by low-frequency amplification, whereas subjects with high-frequency hearing losses exhibited deteriorating scores in conditions with greatest low-frequency amplification. Analyses of phonetic feature perception and individual consonant recognition scores revealed subtle interactions between hearing loss configuration and amplification contour.
Eye Movements of Stuttering and Nonstuttering Children during Silent Reading
Authors: Brutten G. J. , Bakker K. , Janssen P. , Van Der Meulen S.
Published: July 2014

During the silent reading of a 320-word passage, the eye movements of 22 grade school stutterers and 22 nonstutterers were recorded by means of a computer-controlled eye-marker. The recordings were made as a means of determining if the eye movements of the two groups differed and if the differences suggested that the young stutterers showed evidence of word-specific expectancy. Frame-by-frame analysis of the recordings revealed that the stuttering children displayed significantly more eye fixations and eye regressions than the nonstuttering children. The correlations among the different types of eye measures also varied between the subject groups. The differences observed were present despite the fact that the reading level of the two groups was age appropriate and the subjects sampled did not differ significantly in either reading errors or comprehension. These findings are like those previously found when stuttering and nonstuttering adults were similarly tested. They imply that expectancy is not the response province of older stutterers.
Cohesion in the Narratives of Normal and Language-Disordered Children
Authors: Liles Betty Z.
Published: July 2014

An adaptation of Halliday and Hasan's (1976) description of cohesion in English was applied to the spoken narratives of normal and language-disordered children. Three major questions were addressed: (a) the influence of the nonlinguistic environment on the use of cohesion, (b) the nature of language disorder as displayed in the use of cohesion, and (c) the relationship between comprehension and use of cohesion. Twenty normal and 20 language-disordered children, aged 7:6–10:6, were included in the study. Each child produced two narratives, one for an adult listener who saw a movie with the child and one who had not. Results indicate that both groups of subjects altered their use of cohesion as a function of the listener's needs in the same way. However, the normal and language-disordered subjects differed in their manner of cohesive organization, their cohesive adequacy, and their comprehension of the story.
Probe-Determined Hearing-Aid Gain Compared to Functional and Coupler Gains
Authors: Zemplenyi Jan , Dirks Donald , Gilman Samuel
Published: July 2014

In this investigation, hearing-aid gain as measured by a probe-earmold system was compared with gain determined from couplers (HA-2 coupler and ear simulator) and functional-gain measurements. Fifteen subjects with moderate sensorineural hearing loss were tested under aided and unaided conditions in the sound field. In order to determine the effect of the occluded ear canal length on these results, an optical method was developed using an operating microscope to measure the length of the individual subject's occluded ear canal. The results indicate that gain, as measured by the probe-earmold system, corrected for effects of occluded ear canal length, agrees closely with functional and ear-simulator gain through 4.0 kHz. At the frequencies of 5.0 and 6.0 kHz the probe-earmold system underestimated gain particularly when compared to measurements conducted with the ear simulator. Other comparisons were also made between gain measured in a HA-2 coupler and functional gain. The average differences between these measurements of gain agree with several previous investigations, but individual variation around the average difference was smaller than previously reported.
Some Phonological Characteristics of the Speech of Normal-Hearing Children of Deaf Parents
Authors: Schiff-Myers Naomi B. , Klein Harriet B.
Published: July 2014

Articulation and stress patterns of 5 hearing children of deaf parents were studied. The children's phonological processes were compared with those of children from normal-speaking homes and with those of their deaf mothers to identify similarities and differences. The phonological processes used most frequently by these children were those that have been identified as common processes among children from hearing homes. None of the children adopted, with any frequency, the less typical productions found in their mother's speech. This was also true for one of the children who was observed to produce articulation and stress patterns resembling "deaf" speech. Possible factors relating to the children's adoption of the standard speech model rather than deaf speech are discussed.
Phonetic Inventories, 15–24 Months
Authors: Stoel-Gammon Carol
Published: July 2014

Longitudinal samples of meaningful speech of 34 normally developing children were analyzed to determine the range and types of consonantal phones produced at 15, 18, 21, and 24 months. Separate inventories for word-initial and word-final consonants were constructed for each child at each age level. Group analyses showed that early inventories in initial position were composed primarily of voiced anterior stops, nasals, and glides; by 24 months, voiceless stops, velars, and a few fricatives were also included. In final position, inventories consisted primarily of voiceless stops and alveolar consonants. There was a strong tendency for the voiced stops to appear first in initial position and for [t] and [r] to appear first in word-final. Individual analyses of place and manner of articulation revealed highly similar patterns across subjects. The findings are related to other longitudinal research in early phonological development and to studies of babbling of younger subjects and correct productions of older subjects.
Vocal/Verbal Response Times of Normal-Hearing and Hearing-Impaired Children
Authors: Fletcher Samuel G. , Smith Stephen C. , Hasegawa Akira
Published: July 2014

A series of experiments are reported that contrast vocal/verbal reaction-time measures from 16 normal-hearing and 25 hearing-impaired children 7 to 14 years old. Sixteen of the hearing-impaired children were enrolled in a residential school, 9 in a day school. Vocal reaction time of the children in response to visually presented stimuli was measured in four tasks: phonating "uh", saying the word "one", counting to digits, and naming digits. No significant differences were found between the response latencies of the two hearing-impaired groups on any task. Nor were differences found between the normal and hearing-impaired groups when the task was simply phonating "uh". Differences between these groups began to emerge when the word "one" was spoken. These differences increased systematically with the phonetic complexity of the task. Hearing level, latency in the counting responses, and magnitude of a ratio between phonating and digit counting latencies were identified as major predictors of speech intelligibility. The results suggest that central phonetic processing functions may be related to the quality of speech production by hearing-impaired talkers.
Effects of Direction and Rate of Ear-Canal Pressure Changes on Tympanometric Measures
Authors: Shanks Janet E. , Wilson Richard H.
Published: July 2014

The effects of the direction (ascending and descending) and rate (12.5, 25.0, and 50.0 daPa/s) of ear-canal pressure changes on three tympanometric measures (peak static admittance, shape, and typanometric peak pressure) were studied in 24 adults with normal middle-ear transmission systems. Susceptance, conductance, admittance, and phase angle data for the six conditions both at 226 and 678 Hz were obtained using a general purpose computer. Peak static admittance was significantly affected by both the rate and direction of pressure change as evidenced by a decrease in phase angle for ascending and for fast rates of ear-canal pressure change. Tympanometric shape was broader for descending pressure changes with less frequent notching both for descending and for slow rates of pressure change. Finally, the difference in peak pressure for the two directions of pressure change increased with the rate of ear-canal pressure change.
Development of Conversational Repair Strategies in Response to Requests for Clarification
Authors: Brinton Bonnie , Fujiki Martin , Loeb Diane Frome , Winkler Erika
Published: July 2014

Conversational repair sequences are an important aspect of communicative interaction. These sequences may occur in the event of communication failure if a listener requests clarification of a previous aspect of the speaker's message. The purpose of this study was to investigate the repair strategies employed in conversation by children at four age levels.

Ten linguistically normal children were sampled from each of the following age levels: 2:7 to 3:10, 4:10 to 5:10, 6:10 to 7:10, and 8:10 to 9:10 (years:months), resulting in a total of 40 subjects. Each subject was asked to describe a series of action pictures for an examiner who was seated behind a screen. At regular intervals, the examiner responded to the child's description by initiating a stacked repair sequence. Results indicated that subjects at all age levels complied with the initial request for clarification the majority of the time. However, with increasing age, subjects became more adept at handling the stacked sequence of requests for clarification. Older children were more responsive to the requests, and 9-year-old subjects demonstrated a wider range of strategies in providing repairs.