bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Notes on an Artifact in Measurement of the Acoustic Reflex
Authors: Danaher Ellen Martin , Pickett J. M.
Published: July 2014

Measures of the acoustic reflex were obtained on 15 subjects with moderate to severe, long-term sensorineural loss. At high sound levels (105 dB SPL and above), the eliciting stimulus can cross over to the ear in which the probe is placed and can interact with the probe tone which is present continuously in that ear. This interaction between the two sounds can be misinterpreted as a reflex. Ways of detecting and avoiding this test artifact are discussed.
Sentence Intelligibility as a Function of Key Word Selection
Authors: Duffy Joseph R. , Giolas Thomas G.
Published: July 2014

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between word predictability and sentence intelligibility. This relationship was examined by comparing intelligibility scores obtained with frequency-filtered sentences (CID Sentence Lists B and D and Revised List C) which were scored using key words empirically determined to be representative of three different degrees of predictability. We hypothesized that the scores obtained would be a function of the predictability status of the key words used in scoring. Results indicated significant differences between the three scoring procedures for each sentence list under two filtering conditions (420-Hz and 360-Hz low pass) and these differences were in the hypothesized direction. The results suggest that use of “easy-to-predict” words for scoring purposes will increase sentence intelligibility scores, while use of “difficult-to-predict” words will depress scores. We concluded that word predictability is a factor influencing sentence intelligibility and that careful selection of key words, based on their predictability status, is a method of controlling or influencing the intelligibility of sentences.
The Effects of Three Levels of Auditory Masking on Selected Vocal Characteristics and the Frequency of Disfluency of Adult Stutterers
Authors: Adams Martin R. , Hutchinson John
Published: July 2014

This study was designed to test the hypothesis that the growth function of the masking effect in stuttering behavior is promoted by systematic increases in vocal intensity. Sixteen normal-hearing adult stutterers read aloud in four conditions (quiet and 10-, 50-, and 90-dB sensation levels of continuous white noise). The oral readings were tape recorded. The recorded data were analyzed later to quantify subjects' vocal intensity, stuttering frequency, and reading time in each condition. The results showed that under various levels of masking, there is an inverse relationship between vocal intensity and stuttering frequency. The results of reading time comparisons between conditions were affected by the absolute frequency of stuttering in quiet or the magnitude of the masking effect or both. Finally, changes in vocal intensity were translated into physiological terms and then interpreted in light of how they might promote fluency and reduce stuttering.
Social Position and Speaking Competence of Stuttering and Normally Fluent Boys
Authors: Woods C. Lee
Published: July 2014

To assess the relation of social position to speaking competence and to determine the stuttering child’s awareness of peer evaluation, ratings of social position and speaking competence were obtained from 24 stuttering boys (12 mild and 12 moderate or severe) in each the third and sixth grade and from 562 of their normally fluent male classmates. Peer ratings, self-estimates of ratings, and reasons for certain ratings also were obtained. No significant differences between groups of stuttering boys were found. Upon comparison with fluent boys, stuttering boys both expected to be and were rated significantly poorer as speakers than were the normally fluent. No significant differences were found, however, between stuttering and fluent boys on social position measures, suggesting that whether or not an elementary-school-age boy stuttered was of minor importance in determining his social role among his peers.
Cost-Benefit Analysis of Two Decision Criteria for Spondee Threshold Measurements
Authors: Chial Michael R. , Beck William G. , Vanlandingham Glen
Published: July 2014

Normal-hearing subjects were tested and retested using two spondee threshold criteria: a strict 50% correct rule and a 50% or 75% correct (or both) rule. The 50% criterion produced lower thresholds at the cost of poorer test-retest reliability and longer test durations. Both decision rules gave lower threshold SPL values and required less testing time during the second trial. A proposed benefit-cost ratio model indicated that the 50% or 75% (or both) decision rule gives a better return on the investment of clinical effort.
Articulatory Inconsistencies in the Speech of Normal Children
Authors: Gallagher Tanya M. , Shriner Thomas H.
Published: July 2014

The spontaneous speech of three children about three years old was recorded and transcribed into C
n
V syllabic units. C
n
represents any number of consonants preceding a vowel and is not lexically constrained. Inconsistent production of /s/ and /z/ was found to be related to motor sequencing constraints independent of word boundaries. The results support a model of speech physiology as well as theoretical formulations of child speech production within an adult phonological system.
Measuring In-The-Ear Gain of Hearing Aids by the Acoustic Reflex Method
Authors: Tonisson William
Published: July 2014

The gain of hearing aids is conventionally measured in a hard-walled 2-cc coupler. It has become increasingly apparent, however, that many interacting variables can affect the aid’s behavior in an individual ear quite significantly. Therefore it is desirable that any departure from coupler response be known. A number of methods have been used to measure real-ear gain, some of which require expensive or non-standard instrumentation. An alternative method is described, based on measurements of aided and unaided acoustic reflex thresholds that appears to have certain advantages over other methods. Sound-field intra-aural reflex thresholds for six one-third-octave noise bands were determined for 20 subjects using a postauricular aid under three conditions—unaided, aided/ear occluded, and aided/ear nonoccluded. Real-ear gain was defined as the difference in decibels between aided and unaided thresholds. Results showed wide individual differences in real-ear response. Average occluded real-ear gain was about 5 dB greater at 1.6 k Hz, and about 5 dB less at 3.15 k Hz, than the gain in the artificial ear. When the aid was coupled to the open ear, average real-ear response was down at all frequencies relative to the 2-cc coupler, although relative to the closed-ear response frequencies above 1.6 k Hz were emphasized. It is argued that real-ear response can be expected to vary considerably depending on the location and orientation of the microphone of the aid on the head or body. It is suggested therefore that real-ear measurements be part of every aid selection procedure, especially for persons with a reduced dynamic range. Response modifications might then be possible to enable the critical speech frequencies to be heard at a comfortable level.
Memory for Speech and Speech for Memory
Authors: Locke John L. , Kutz Kathryn J.
Published: July 2014

Thirty kindergarteners, 15 who substituted /w/ for /r/ and 15 with correct articulation, received two perception tests and a memory test that included /w/ and /r/ in minimally contrastive syllables. Although both groups had nearly perfect perception of the experimenter’s productions of /w/ and /r/, misarticulating subjects perceived their own tape-recorded w/r productions as /w/. In the memory task these same misarticulating subjects committed significantly more /w/-/r/ confusions in unspoken recall. The discussion considers why people subvocally rehearse; a developmental period in which children do not rehearse; ways subvocalization may aid recall, including motor and acoustic encoding; an echoic store that provides additional recall support if subjects rehearse vocally, and perception of self- and other-produced phonemes by misarticulating children—including its relevance to a motor theory of perception. Evidence is presented that speech for memory can be sufficiently impaired to cause memory disorder. Conceptions that restrict speech disorder to an impairment of communication are challenged.
Deaf and Hearing Children’s Use of Language Describing Temporal Order among Events
Authors: Jarvella Robert J. , Lubinsky Jay
Published: July 2014

Six experiments are described in which deaf and hearing subjects decided the temporal order of events in picture series and in sentences. The deaf subjects, eight and 11 years old, performed as well as hearing children on a nonverbal picture sedation task. Both deaf and hearing subjects also described most picture series in the natural left-to-right order in which they were shown, and identified the left-hand picture in most series as happening first and the right-hand picture as happening last. In most respects, the deaf children’s linguistic performance resembled that of much younger hearing children. Two major results were that deaf children generally used a sequence of simple sentences to describe the events shown in a picture series, and responded to most multiple-clause sentences presented as though the events being described had occurred in the order they were mentioned.
Language Performance of Educable Mentally Retarded and Normal Children at Five Age Levels
Authors: Naremore Rita C. , Dever Richard B.
Published: July 2014

The present study comprised an analysis and comparison of the language performance of educable mentally retarded and normal children at mental age levels six through 10 years. Both syntactic and functional performance variables were investigated. The results indicate language performance differences between the two groups with the primary discriminators being hesitation phenomena (false starts, filled pauses, and repeats) and clausal constructions (relative and subordinate clauses), resulting in a higher sentence elaboration level for normal children.
Ultrasonic Measurement of Lateral Pharyngeal Wall Motion at Two Levels in the Vocal Tract
Authors: Zagzebski James A.
Published: July 2014

Ultrasonic time-motion records of lateral pharyngeal wall motion have previously been derived from the level of the angle of the mandible. In the present study a comparison is made between lateral pharyngeal wall displacements monitored at this level and displacements monitored at the level of velopharyngeal closure. Ultrasonic records were derived from both vocal tract levels in three normal adult speakers during utterances containing high and low vowels as well as nasal and nonnasal consonants. Mesial displacements of the lateral pharyngeal wall were greater at the superior monitoring site than at the level of the angle of the mandible. In addition, the displacement pattern was found to differ between the two sites. Low pharyngeal wall displacements followed a low vowel versus high vowel pattern, with greater displacements for low vowel phonations. In contrast, high pharyngeal wall displacements exhibited a nasal versus nonnasal character with greater lateral wall motion in a nonnasal environment. The results indicate the two levels of the pharynx are subject to different muscular forces.
Word Order in Early Two and Three Word Utterances: Does Production Precede Comprehension?
Authors: Chapman Robin S. , Miller Jon F.
Published: July 2014

Comprehension and production of subject-object order in semantically reversible sentences with animate or inanimate subject and object was studied in an object-manipulation paradigm. Three groups of five children each, average mean utterance length 1.8, 2.4, and 2.9 morphemes, respectively, participated. Children preserved subject-object order with respect to the verb significantly more often than they used ordering information to determine the event to be demonstrated; that is, grammatical production preceded comprehension. Comprehension of the subset of the sentences with animate subject and inanimate object was near 100%, however, suggesting the presence of semantic strategies for subject-object comprehension.
Vowel and Nasal Duration as Cues to Voicing in Word-Final Stop Consonants: Spectrographic and Perceptual Studies
Authors: Raphael Lawrence J. , Dorman M. F. , Freeman Frances , Tobin Charles
Published: July 2014

To determine durational differences between vowel and nasal segments preceding word-final /t/ and /d/, spectrograms were made of adult speakers' productions of minimal pairs of the type /pεent/-/pεnd/. Vowel, nasal, and vowel plus nasal (vocalic nucleus) durations were greater before /d/ than before /t/. Assuming the voiceless context as a base, the increase in nasal duration in the voiced case was proportionately greater than the increase in vowel duration. This outcome suggests that nasal duration is a more powerful cue to the voicing characteristic of the following consonant than is vowel duration. To test this, adult listeners were presented synthetic CVNC utterances in which the nasal and vowel segments were independently varied in duration over a range of 40 msec to 200 msec and were instructed to label the final stop consonant as either voiced /d/ or voiceless /t/. Although changes in both vowel and nasal duration were sufficient to cue both voiced and voiceless judgments, listeners' categorization of final consonants shifted more rapidly as a result of varying nasal rather than vowel duration. Nasal duration, therefore, appears to be a stronger cue than vowel duration for the word-final voiced-voiceless consonant distinction in CVNC utterances.
Intelligibility Characteristics of Superior Esophageal Speech Presented under Various Levels of Masking Noise
Authors: Horii Yoshiyuki , Weinberg Bernd
Published: July 2014

Broad-band masking of speech was used to assess the effects that broad-band masking noise had upon the recognition of consonants and vowels produced by esophageal speakers. Procedures were developed to compare the articulation functions of superior esophageal speech with those of normal speech under comparable levels of masking noise. Within the range of speech-to-noise ratios studied, articulation functions for vowels were essentially the same for esophageal and normal talkers (4% per dB). With respect to consonants, the intelligibility scores for esophageal speech were 12 to 14% lower than for normal speech under adverse noise conditions. Gains in the consonant articulation functions were 2.5%/dB and 4%/dB for normal and esophageal talkers, respectively. For adverse noise conditions, the lowered consonant scores for esophageal speakers were the result of poorer than normal intelligibility for liquid-glides and nasal and, secondarily, for stop consonants. Additional differences between the intelligibility characteristics of esophageal and normal speech were found in word-position and voicing features.
Effect of Selected Word Attributes on Preschoolers' Speech Disfluency: Initial Phoneme and Length
Authors: Silverman Ellen-Marie
Published: July 2014

This study was designed to determine whether preschool nonstutterers tend to be disfluent on words that begin with consonants or on words that begin with vowels and whether they tend to be disfluent on long or on short words. Analyses of the spontaneous speech of 10 four-year-old boys sampled both in their nursery school classroom and in an interview situation indicated that initial phoneme exerted no influence on the distribution of their speech disfluencies. Word length, however, exerted an influence in the interview situation where the children tended to be disfluent on monosyllabic words. These data raise questions with respect to the applicability of Bloodstein’s (1974) model of the development of stuttering to the disfluency behavior of nonstutterers.
Dimensions of Consonant Perception in Normal and Hearing-Impaired Listeners
Authors: Walden Brian E. , Montgomery Allen A.
Published: July 2014

Judgments of consonant similarity were obtained from subjects who had normal hearing, high-frequency sensorineural hearing loss, or relatively flat sensorineural hearing loss. The individual differences model through program INDSCAL was used to derive a set of perceptual features empirically from the similarity judgments, and to group the subjects on the basis of strength of feature usage. The analysis revealed that sonorance was the dominant dimension in the similarity judgments of the subjects with high-frequency hearing losses, while sibilance tended to dominate the judgments of the subjects with flat audiometric configurations. The normal-hearing subjects tended to weight these two dimensions approximately equally. These differences in similarity judgments were observed based upon audiometric configuration, despite the fact that the two hearing-impaired groups were not unique in word-recognition ability.
Lingual-Palatal Pressure Measurement and Analysis Techniques
Authors: Leeper Herbert A. , Appl Franklin J.
Published: July 2014

Peak lingual pressure magnitude measurements obtained during speech are related to the design of the pressure-sensing transducers. The results of one investigation (Appl and Leeper, 1973) suggest that the response of cantilever beam transducers used to collect lingual pressure data is dependent upon the location of the strain gages upon the beam. Some differences between prior investigations designed to study the role of lingual pressure in a feedback model of speech processing can be explained by the placement of the strain gages on the beam.
Contextual Variables Related to Inconsistent /s/ and /z/ Production in the Spontaneous Speech of Children
Authors: Gallagher Tanya M. , Shriner Thomas H.
Published: July 2014

The relationship between phonetic context and inconsistent productions of /s/ and /z/ in the spontaneous speech of three approximately three-year-old children was investigated using a nonlexically constrained segmentation, the VC
n
V syllable. C
n
represents any number of consonants occurring between two vowels. The results indicate that of the speech segments surrounding /s/ and /z/ only the identity of consonants following these segments was significantly related to the accuracy of /s/ and /z/ production. The implications of the data for models of speech production are discussed.
Localization of Two Noise Sources Overlapping in Time
Authors: Thurlow Willard R. , Jacques Judith C.
Published: July 2014

The accuracy of localization of two independent, wide-band noise sources, overlapping in time, was measured. Subjects given preliminary practice had little difficulty in localizing when sources separated by 55 degrees were located in front of them or in back of them, with one source 10 degrees from the midline. But when sources were at the side of the subject, perception that there were two sources present was poor if the sounds started only a few milliseconds apart; perception that there were two sources present tended to improve significantly as time between onset of the sounds was increased to 100 msec. Once a sound was perceived to be present, it was localized with fairly high accuracy.
The Effect of Combining Low- and High-Frequency Passbands on Consonant Recognition in the Hearing Impaired
Authors: Franklin Barbara
Published: July 2014

A comparison was made of the effect on consonant-recognition scores when a low-frequency passband and a high-frequency passband were presented to either the same ear or opposite ears of hearing-impaired subjects. The Fairbanks Rhyme Test was filtered into two bands—240–480 Hz (low band) and 1020–2040 Hz (high band). The high band was presented at 10 dB re threshold at 1500 Hz to the better ear of six subjects with moderate to severe sensorineural hearing losses. The low band was presented to the same (ear receiving high band) or the opposite ear at levels of 10, 30, or 50 dB SL re threshold at 360 Hz in that ear. When the low band and high band were added to the same ear, there was little change in the consonant-recognition score, but, when presented to opposite ears, there was a significant increase in the score, at each of the three sensation levels.
Pronoun Assessment: A Free Speech Technique
Authors: Davis Barbara Bergmann , Seitz Sue
Published: July 2014

A study of the free speech pronoun usage of 15 normal and 15 language-delayed children showed that it is possible to distinguish between children at five different levels of language development by considering linguistically relevant pronoun properties. The discriminating measure considered the frequency of pronoun types as a percentage of the child’s total utterances. It is suggested that eliciting child utterances in a free play situation with the principal caregiver provides a good language sample and has potential as a diagnostic method.
INDSCAL Analysis of Perceptual Judgments for 24 Consonants via Visual, Tactile, and Visual-Tactile Inputs
Authors: Danhauer Jeffrey L. , Appel Margret A.
Published: July 2014

Twenty-four normal-hearing subjects received CV stimuli of uni- and bisensory inputs through the visual (speechreading), tactile (touch), and visual-tactile (speechreading and touch) modalities. Stimuli were presented via either a videotape monitor or a tactile vibrator or both. The purposes were to investigate the contribution of the tactile modality in uni- and bisensory conditions, and to analyze consonantal substitution errors to find perceptual features utilized by the subjects in their decision-making processes. The subjects' consonantal perceptions were phonetically transcribed and submitted to INDSCAL analysis which yielded mainly a four-dimensional solution. The interpretations of these dimensions were primarily closed bilabial, easy to see/hard to see, voiced/voiceless, and front/back place. Additional features were retrieved, but occurred less consistently.
Dynamics of the Chest Wall during Speech Production: Function of the Thorax, Rib Cage, Diaphragm, and Abdomen
Authors: Hixon Thomas J. , Mead Jere , Goldman Michael D.
Published: July 2014

Anteroposterior diameters of the rib cage and abdomen and esophageal and gastric pressures were measured in normal subjects in upright and supine body positions during respiratory maneuvers and utterance tasks. Data were charted in relative motion diagrams and various motion-pressure diagrams which enabled graphic solution for muscular pressures exerted by the chest wall and individually by the thorax, rib cage, diaphragm, and abdomen during utterances. Behaviors of the chest wall and its parts were found to depend upon lung volume, utterance loudness, body position, and utterance task. For utterances encompassing most of the vital capacity, chest wall effort was at first net inspiratory and later net expiratory. The former was governed predominately by the rib cage and the abdomen in the upright body position and by the diaphragm in the supine position. For conversational speech, chest wall effort was continuously expiratory, control being vested in the rib cage and the abdomen in the upright body position and typically in the rib cage alone in the supine position. Mechanisms operating during the utterances are discussed, particularly those involved with conversational speech production. We conclude that the abdomen occupies an especially important role in running conversational speech in that it mechanically tunes the diaphragm to increase the latter’s inspiratory efficiency and thus enables man to minimally interrupt his ongoing speech for needed inspiratory pauses. We also discuss the relevance of our findings to clinical endeavors.
Factors Contributing to the Reduction of Stuttering during Singing
Authors: Healey E. Charles , Mallard A. R. , Adams Martin R.
Published: July 2014

This study was conducted to determine if the reduction of stuttering typically observed during singing is associated with altered vocalization or the familiarity of the melody and lyrics of the song sung by the stutterer, or both. Subjects were eight adult male stutterers. Prior to testing, each of these individuals demonstrated that he knew the melody and lyrics of a well-known song from memory. Subsequently, subjects were asked to read these lyrics aloud and then sing them. Next, subjects had to read aloud and then sing a set of unfamiliar lyrics to the conventional melody of the same song. The stutterers' reading and singing performances were audiotaped. The dependent measures of utterance duration and stuttering frequency were extracted from the tapes. Results showed that subjects' utterance durations were significantly longer during singing than reading. The main effects of singing and familiarity were both associated with significant reductions in stuttering frequency. The greatest decrement in stuttering occurred in the condition where subjects sang the familiar melody and lyrics. These findings were interpreted to mean that changes in vocalization cannot account for all of the decrease in stuttering that occurs during singing. During song, the familiarity of the melody and lyrics being produced may also affect stuttering frequency.
A New Technique for Measuring Velopharyngeal Orifice Area during Sustained Vowel Production: An Application of Aerodynamic Forced Oscillation Principles
Authors: Hixon Thomas J. , Bless Diane M. , Netsell Ronald
Published: July 2014

A new technique for measuring velopharyngeal orifice area during sustained vowel production is described. The technique is based on a simple oscillatory flow balancing procedure between two aerodynamic branches, a mechanical model of the human upper airway and the subject’s upper airway. The area of the velopharyngeal orifice in the model is adjusted until identical oscillatory flows traverse it and the subject’s velopharyngeal orifice in response to a common forced oscillatory pressure. When identical oscillatory flows are observed, the area of the adjusted orifice is taken as a measure of the area of the subject’s velopharyngeal orifice.
Auditory Assembly Abilities of Stuttering and Nonstuttering Children
Authors: Manning Walter H. , Riensche Linda
Published: July 2014

The auditory assembly abilities of 30 stuttering and 30 nonstuttering children were investigated. Subjects were first- through fourth-grade children matched for age, grade level, sex, and misarticulations. They were individually presented four tape-recorded lists of both meaningful and nonmeaningful CVC syllables with one of four silent interphonemic intervals (100, 200, 300, or 400 msec) spliced between the phonemes of each syllable. There was no significant overall difference between the performance of the stuttering and the nonstuttering children. The results failed to support the findings of previous investigations which have suggested that stutterers are less adept than nonstutterers in the performance of auditory processing tasks.
Effects of Training on the Visual Recognition of Consonants
Authors: Walden Brian E. , Prosek Robert A. , Montgomery Allen A. , Scherr Charlene K. , Jones Carla J.
Published: July 2014

Visual recognition of consonants was studied in 31 hearing-impaired adults before and after 14 hours of concentrated, individualized, speechreading training. Confusions were analyzed via a hierarchical clustering technique to derive categories of visual contrast among the consonants. Pretraining and posttraining results were compared to reveal the effects of the training program. Training caused an increase in the number of visemes consistently recognized and an increase in the percentage of within-viseme responses. Analysis of the responses made revealed that most changes in consonant recognition occurred during the first few hours of training.
Auditory Reaction Times for Functional and Nonfunctional Hearing Loss
Authors: Wood Thomas J. , Goshorn Edward L. , Peters Robert W.
Published: July 2014

Differences in decision processes as measured by auditory reaction times of simulated or actual functional hearing-loss subjects and nonfunctional subjects were investigated. Sensation level data are presented that reflect marked differences between such individuals with regard to probability of response, and means and standard deviations of auditory reaction times. Means and standard deviations of auditory reaction times for nonfunctional subjects are greatly reduced when compared with results obtained by simulated or actual functional subjects. Probability of response data was less effective in differentiating functional from nonfunctional subjects. Individuals who were trained to simulate hearing loss responded in a manner similar to functional patients. The results of this study suggest that auditory reaction time measures can be employed to determine the existence or nonexistence of functional hearing loss with considerable accuracy.
Validity of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test as a Measure of Hearing Vocabulary in Mentally Retarded and Normal Children
Authors: Williams Ann M. , Marks Colleen J. , Bialer Irv
Published: July 2014

The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) and the auditory and visual subtests of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (ITPA) were administered to 48 normal and 48 retarded subjects. Results suggested that the PPVT is not an adequate measure of hearing vocabulary for mentally retarded subjects. Half of each group was given the visual reception subtest of the ITPA in a form which had been modified to control the visual memory variable. No differences were found as a function of that variable. It was concluded that caution should be exercised when using the PPVT as a clinical diagnostic procedure in the assessment of receptive auditory vocabulary.
Factor Analysis of Measures of Articulation, Language, Auditory Processing, Reading-Spelling, and Maxillofacial Structure
Authors: Johnson Anita F. , Shelton Ralph L. , Arndt William B. , Furr Montie L.
Published: July 2014

This study was concerned with the correspondence between the classification of measures by clinical judgment and by factor analysis. Forty-six measures were selected to assess language, auditory processing, reading-spelling, maxillofacial structure, articulation, and other processes. These were applied to 98 misarticulating eight- and nine-year-old children. Factors derived from the analysis corresponded well with categories the measures were selected to represent.
Using Circumaural Enclosures with Children
Authors: Musket Carolyn H. , Roeser Ross J.
Published: July 2014

Pure-tone thresholds were obtained from 24 children between the ages of eight and 13 years using a standard, supraaural cushion (MX-41/AR), and one of four circumaural cushions. Testing was performed in quiet and in the presence of wideband noise presented at 60 dB SPL for three conditions: Condition 1 (test) used a TDH 39 driver mounted in the MX-41/AR cushion; Condition 2 (experimental) used the same TDH 39 driver mounted in one of the circumaural cushions under investigation; and Condition 3 (retest) which was the same as Condition 1. Statistically significant differences were found between thresholds with the MX-41/AR cushion and thresholds with one of the circumaural enclosures in quiet. In noise, thresholds with three of the circumaural enclosures were significantly lower than those with the MX-41/AR cushion. A significant test/ret est difference was observed for the MX-41/AR cushion at 6000 Hz in quiet only.
Short-Term Memory Factors in Oral Retention
Authors: Marshall Philip H. , Sharrow Margaret , Yairi Ehud
Published: July 2014

Study or exploration time and retention interval duration between orignal-form exploration and test-form exploration were varied to assess the effect of these two variables on performance accuracy on an oral stereognostic memory task. Irregularly shaped, four-sided plastic forms were used as stimuli. Retention performance improved significantly with an increase in exploration time of up to 15 seconds, but was not effected by delays in testing of up to 60 seconds. Clincal and theoretical implications for oral stereognosis are discussed.
Methods for Measuring the Temporal Characteristics and Filter Response of Electroacoustic Impedance Instruments
Authors: Margolis Robert H. , Gilman Samuel
Published: July 2014

Methods for determining the temporal response of electroacoustic impedance instruments are presented along with sample measurements from one instrument. The conditions under which reflex artifacts may occur are discussed in light of electrical measurements of filter response characteristics and measurements of the “threshold” of the artifact measured from two subjects with no acoustic reflex.
Delayed Judgment Speech-Sound Discrimination and /r/ or /s/ Articulation Status and Improvement
Authors: Shelton Ralph L. , Johnson Anita F. , Arndt William B.
Published: July 2014

A delayed judgment test of speech-sound discrimination was correlated with measures of articulation status and articulation improvement with training in two groups of subjects, an /r/ group and an /s/ group. While the discrimination measures were reliable and internally consistent, discrimination-articulation correlations were low. Several possible psychometric explanations for the nonsignificant results are ruled out, and subject and task variables that might interfere with children’s performance on discrimination measures are discussed.
A Comparison of Four Hearing Aid Measurement Systems
Authors: Townsend Thomas H. , Schwartz Daniel M.
Published: July 2014

Measurements of hearing aid performance were made using four different electroacoustic systems. Nine hearing aids were evaluated three times in each of the four systems: a standard Bruel and Kjaer apparatus, a Fonix 5000, and both a Phonic Ear HC 1000 and HC 2000. Tests included frequency response and, when possible, total harmonic distortion, second harmonic distortion, and third harmonic distortion. Results were equivalent for frequency response and second harmonic distortion, whereas significant differences occurred for total harmonic distortion and third harmonic distortion at both the low and high frequencies. The degree to which the sum of second harmonic distortion and third harmonic distortion fails to equal the total harmonic distortion was also examined. In the low frequency region, second harmonic distortion plus third harmonic distortion yielded values considerably less than the total harmonic distortion, although good agreement was found in the midfrequencies.
Acquisition of Comprehension of the Verb Phrase Anaphora Construction
Authors: Baumgardner Mary J. , Lasky Elaine Z.
Published: July 2014

The verb phrase (VP) anaphora is a commonly used construction in English in which part of a sentence, including the verb, is replaced or deleted. The present study investigated comprehension of four types of VP anaphora constructions. Significant differences demonstrated that second graders performed better than first graders, and first graders better than kindergarteners. Significant differences were also found among the different types of VP anaphoric constructions: VP deletion was easier than pro-form, pro-form was easier than prosententialization, and prosententialization was easier than gapping. Implications for evaluation of language, and specifically evaluation of comprehension of language for learning, are discussed.
Comprehension of Pronominal Reference by Speakers of Black English
Authors: Bountress Nicholas
Published: July 2014

This study was concerned with the comprehension of pronoun reference by children from north Texas who used features of black English in their oral language. Forty-eight children were included in the study, eight selected from each chronological age group from four through nine years. Tasks required that the children listen to 15 sentences, five of which included a pronoun with unrestricted reference and 10 of which included a pronoun operating under the nonidentity requirement with restricted reference to a subject outside of the sentence. In response to specific questions, subjects were required to point to toy figures that represented the pronoun referents in the sentences. Results showed a significant and uniform increase in comprehension as a function of chronological age, with no subject attaining less than 90% comprehension among the seven-, eight-, and nine-year-old children.
Effects of Noise and Rhythmic Stimulation on the Speech of Stutterers
Authors: Brayton Evelyn R. , Conture Edward G.
Published: July 2014

This study was designed to investigate the effects of noise and rhythmic stimulation on stutterers' vocal fundamental frequency, vowel duration, and vocal level, and the relation these variables have to one another and to stuttering during noise and rhythmic stimulation. Measurements of speech variables were obtained from audio and graphic-level recordings and from narrow- and broad-band spectrograms. Results indicated that stuttering was significantly reduced during noise and rhythmic stimulation with the reduction during rhythmic stimulation being significantly greater than the reduction during noise. Decreases in stuttering were correlated with increases in vowel duration during both conditions for seven of nine subjects. We interpret our findings to suggest that temporal changes in speech production are related to the decrease in stuttering that occurs during noise and rhythmic stimulation.
Effects of Cerebellar Lesions on Monkey Jaw-Force Control: Implications for Understanding Ataxic Dysarthria
Authors: Larson Charles R. , Sutton Dwight
Published: July 2014

Eight macaques were trained on one of two isometric force regulation tasks. Six animals were trained to maintain a static force for a 2-sec period, and two animals were trained to make a rapid series of bites on a force transducer four times in succession. Electromyographic (EMG) electrodes were chronically implanted into temporalis and masseter muscles. Lesions were made in the cerebellum in seven monkeys and a control surgery with no neural damage was performed on one monkey. Following cerebellar lesions, the abilities of the monkeys to maintain a static isometric force for 2 sec were impaired. Animals overshot the correct force band and force tremors increased in amplitude following the lesions. Cerebellar lesions were followed also by a reduction in biting frequency from about 3 Hz to 2 Hz. Measurements of the temporalis EMG indicated that the reduced biting rate was associated primarily with a prolongation of the inter-EMG interval and secondarily with a prolongation of the EMG duration. Changes in jaw-force regulation following the lesions appear to be similar to the types of changes observed in arm control in monkeys, and in the speech of persons with ataxic dysarthria.
Minimal Reaction Times for Phonatory Initiation
Authors: Izdebski Krzysztof , Shipp Thomas
Published: July 2014

The maximum speed at which voluntary vocal and digital responses can be initiated was investigated in 15 male and 15 female neurologically normal adults using simple reaction time (RT) methodology. All subjects were pretrained to respond as quickly as possible to stimulus onset following a computer-controlled preparatory interval. Voluntary minimal RTs for phonation initiation were studied as a function of (1) stimulus type (auditory and somesthetic), (2) prephonatory vocal-fold position (abducted and adducted), and (3) subject’s lung volume (75%, 50%, and 25% VC). The average minimal vocal RT across subjects was 195 msec, and the fastest recorded vocal RT was 120 msec. Although vocal responses to an auditory stimulus were somewhat shorter than to a somesthetic stimulus, neither these differences nor the RTs between sexes were statistically significant except that females had shorter vocal RTs from an abducted prephonatory vocal-fold position. Shorter vocal RTs were obtained when phonation was initiated at midlung volume than at the lung volume extremes, and for both sexes the average digital RTs were significantly shorter than vocal RTs.
Maturational Influences on Perception of Coarticulatory Effects
Authors: Parnell Martha M. , Amerman James D.
Published: July 2014

Three experimental groups consisting of ten four-year-olds, ten 11-year-olds, and ten adults were presented with tape-recorded voiceless stop + vowel syllables and subsyllabic segments isolated from the syllables by electronic gating. Subjects were instructed to identify each syllable. Comparisons of the performances of subjects in the three age groups permitted description of maturational influences on the ability to utilize coarticulatory cues in speech perception. The responses of the four-year-olds indicated that they were able to process coarticulatory information for the identification of consonants and vowels from subsyllabic segments. However, their ability to utilize these cues was more limited than that of 11-year-olds and adults. The four-year-old children experienced particular difficulty in the use of aperiodic information. The relative distribution of perceptual cues throughout the portions of the CV syllables was similar for all age groups. The overall phoneme identification accuracy levels of the 11-year-olds appeared to be established at an adult accuracy level. However, differences among all three age groups in regard to consistency of responses, markedness of substitution error preferences, and magnitude of the influence of acoustic stimulus duration on response accuracy suggest that strategies for estimation of phoneme identity may undergo further modification beyond the 11-year-old level before attaining the characteristics of the adult decoding process.
Interference and the Persistence of Articulatory Responses
Authors: Winitz Harris , Bellerose Betty
Published: July 2014

An experimental test of the effect of phonological interference on short-term recall was conducted using non-English phonological sequences which were easily pronounceable. Subjects were normal speaking and normal hearing third-grade English speaking children. Experimental subjects produced the phonologically inadmissible [3a], [u′mÎ], [vε], and control subjects produced the phonologically allowable [d3a], [u′mî], [ve
i
]. Following a retention interval of 30 sec, one free recall trial was administered. Experimental subjects correctly recalled significantly less often than control subjects, suggesting that phonological rules can effect a decrement in short-term recall for phonetic units which are easy to pronounce.
Sentence Structures of Trainable and Educable Mentally Retarded Subjects
Authors: Bliss Lynn S. , Allen Doris V. , Walker Georgia
Published: July 2014

Educable and trainable mentally retarded children were administered a story completion task that elicits 14 grammatical structures. There were more correct responses from educable than from trainable mentally retarded children. Both groups found imperatives easiest, and future, embedded, and double-adjectival structures most difficult. The children classed as educable produced more correct responses than those termed trainable for declarative, question, and single-adjectival structures. The cognitive and linguistic processing of both groups is discussed as are the implications for language remediation.
The Perception of Temporally Segmented Vowels and Consonant-Vowel Syllables
Authors: Tekieli Mary Ellen , Cullinan Walter L.
Published: July 2014

The minimum initial-portion durations required by listeners for the correct identification of spoken isolated vowels and consonant-vowel (CV) syllables were determined. Eight vowels /i
i
u
u
æ ε a Λ/ and 64 CVs comprised of each of eight consonants /b p d t g k d
3
t∫/ in combination with each of the eight vowels were used. Segments consisted of the initial 10 to 150 milliseconds of each stimulus in 10-msec steps. The major findings were (1) clues for better than chance correct identification of tongue advancement and tongue height values for isolated vowels occur within the first 10 msec of the stimuli whereas approximately 30 msec of the stimuli are needed for the tense-lax feature to reach threshold, (2) clues for better than chance correct identification of place of articulation for the stop consonants are found within the initial 10 msec of the CVs whereas approximately 22 msec are needed for the voicing threshold to reach threshold, and (3) the threshold of voicing increases from front to back place of articulation for the stop consonants. The implications of the findings are discussed.
Tempo of Spectrum Change as a Cue in Speech-Sound Discrimination by Infants
Authors: Hillenbrand James , Minifie Fred D. , Edwards Thomas J.
Published: July 2014

Six- to seven-month-old infants were tested on their ability to discriminate among three speech sounds which differed on the basis of formant-transition duration, a major cue to distinctions among stop, semivowel and diphthong classes. The three speech sounds, [bε], [wε], and [uε] were produced in two different ways. The stimuli for one experiment were two-formant synthetic tokens which differed in formant-transition duration. The stimuli for a second experiment were produced with a computer-modification technique which artificially shortened or lengthened the formant-transition portion of a naturally produced [wɛ], resulting in tokens of [bɛ] and [uɛ]. The discrimination procedure involved visual reinforcement of a head-turn response following a change from a repeating background stimulus to a contrasting stimulus. Infants in both experiments discriminated [bɛ] from both [wɛ] and [uɛ]; evidence for [wε]-[uɛ] discrimination was obtained for the “computer modified” tokens only. These findings are discussed in terms of possible mechanisms underlying speech perception in infancy.
Effects of Stimulus-Onset Asynchrony on the Dichotic Performance of Children with Auditory-Processing Disorders
Authors: Tobey Emily A. , Cullen John K. , Rampp Donald L. , Fleischer-Gallagher Ann M.
Published: July 2014

Dichotic stop-consonant-vowel identification was investigated in two experiments using two groups of learning-disabled children demonstrating clinical manifestations of auditory-processing disorders, and two groups of matched, control subjects. Two-item, forced-choice paradigms were used in both experiments. Overall (total) dichotic performance for the two learning-disabled groups was significantly lower than that of the control subjects in all dichotic conditions. This lower performance was attributable to the number of trials in which both stimulus items were correctly identified. Analysis of trials in which only one response was correct showed no differences between the groups in terms of magnitude or direction of ear-advantage (right). In conditions where stimulus onsets were separated by 30, 90, and 150 msec, analysis of one-correct trials demonstrated more accurate identification of the temporally lagging stimulus for all subjects. However, as the onset-time separation increased, the control group’s identification of leading and lagging items approached equality. The learning-disabled group, on the other hand, showed little increase in identification of temporally leading items even when stimuli were separated by 150 msec. These data suggest learning-disabled children with auditory-processing disorders may have a reduced temporal efficiency in processing rapidly varying acoustic patterns associated with stop-consonants that is observable when speech perceptual mechanisms are stressed through dichotic competition.
Acoustic Qualities of Phonation in Young Hearing-Impaired Children
Authors: Monsen Randall B.
Published: July 2014

Monosyllables were recorded from a group of 24 hearing-impaired and 6 normal-hearing children between three to six years of age. Tokens of the syllables /ba/ and /bo/ were placed on listening tapes and a panel of 10 experienced listeners made ratings of relative voice quality. The phonation samples were subjected to both a gross (spectrographic) and a fine (computer-aided) acoustic analysis. The following acoustic characteristics were examined: (1) mean fundamental frequency, (2) duration, (3) mean period-to-period changes in intensity and in fundamental frequency, (4) spectral energy ratio above and below 1000 Hz, and (5) intonation contour. The type of intonation contour appeared to be the most important characteristic separating the better from the poorer deaf speakers. The hearing-impaired subjects produced four different types of deviant intonation contours. In addition, two abnormalities of phonation, diplophonia and breathiness, are described.