bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Auditory Perception of Speech Contrasts by Subjects with Sensorineural Hearing Loss
Authors: Boothroyd Arthur
Published: August 2014

The goal of these studies was to find out how much of the acoustical information in amplified speech is accessible to children with varying degrees of sensorineural hearing loss. Context-varying, forced-choice tests of speech perception were presented, without feedback on performance, to orally trained subjects with better ear, three-frequency average hearing losses in the range 55-123 dB HL. As expected, average performance fell with increasing hearing loss. The values of hearing loss at which scores fell to 50% (after correction for chance) were 75 dB HL for consonant place; 85 dB HL for initial consonant voicing; 90 dB HL for initial consonant continuance; 100 dB HL for vowel place (front-back); 105 dB HL for talker sex; 115 dB HL for syllabic pattern; and in excess of 115 dB HL for vowel height. Performance on the speech contrast tests was significantly correlated with the intelligibility of the subjects' own speech and with the open-set recognition of phonemes in monosyllabic words, even when puretone threshold was held constant.
Mechanics of Vocal Fold Vibration and Laryngeal Articulatory Gestures Produced by Hearing-Impaired Speakers
Authors: Metz Dale Evan , Whitehead Robert L. , Whitehead Brenda H.
Published: August 2014

The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of how abnormal laryngeal mechanical valving actions might contribute to excessive air volume expenditures during the speech of the deaf. High-speed laryngeal film and high-quality acoustic data were collected simultaneously from two normally hearing and four hearing-impaired adults. Results indicate that hearing-impaired speakers (a) may be unable to control the intrinsic laryngeal musculature which maintains periodic vocal fold oscillation, and (b) may exhibit inappropriate positioning of laryngeal structures during speech production.
Effects of Stimulus Material on the Dichotic Listening Performance of Patients with Sensorineural Hearing Loss
Authors: Speaks Charles , Niccum Nancy , Van Tasell Dianne
Published: August 2014

Dichotic listening scores were obtained from 27 patients with sensorineural hearing loss in response to four dichotic speech tests: digits, vowel words, consonant words, and CV nonsense syllables. Monotic performance-intensity functions for each ear were defined with the CV syllables, and the four dichotic tests were administered at an intensity that produced asymptotic monotic performance for both ears with the CV syllables. Four blocks of 30 pairs of items per block were presented for each dichotic test, which produced 240 responses per test for each patient. Reliable differences among left-ear scores, right-ear scores, performance level, and the ear advantage were observed among the four tests. The digit test appeared to be most promising for assessing central auditory function when the patient had a sensorineural hearing loss because performance for the digits was only slightly affected by the peripheral loss.
Speaking Clearly for the Hard of Hearing I
Authors: Picheny Michael A. , Durlach Nathaniel I. , Braida Louis D.
Published: August 2014

This paper is concerned with variations in the intelligibility of speech produced for hearing-impaired listeners under two conditions. Estimates were made of the magnitude of the intelligibility differences between attempts to speak clearly and attempts to speak conversationally. Five listeners with sensorineural hearing losses were tested on groups of nonsense sentences spoken clearly and conversationally by three male talkers as a function of level and frequency-gain characteristic. The average intelligibility difference between clear and conversational speech averaged across talker was found to be 17 percentage points. To a first approximation, this difference was independent of the listener, level, and frequency-gain characteristic. Analysis of segmental-level errors was only possible for two listeners and indicated that improvements in intelligibility occurred across all phoneme classes.
Maximum Voluntary Closing Forces in the Upper and Lower Lips of Humans
Authors: Barlow Steven M. , Rath Erick M.
Published: August 2014

Forces generated by facial muscles during speech production have previously been estimated to involve up to 20% of maximum voluntary closing force. The gross nature of this estimate is due, in part, to the complex relationship between muscle contraction and three-dimensional tissue conformation and to the lack of data concerning maximum force. The objective of the present study was to determine the maximum voluntary closing forces for the upper and lower lips in male and female adults. The results indicate the maximum force capabilities for the lower lip to be approximately three times greater than for the upper lip. Male subjects generated significantly greater lip closing forces than female subjects. The large difference between the upper and lower lips as force plants is discussed in relation to speech function and skilled motor behavior.
Perception of Emotional Intonation by Brain-Damaged Adults
Authors: Tompkins Connie A. , Flowers Charles R.
Published: August 2014

This research examined perception of moods from the tone-of-voice of semantically neutral phrases following unilateral cerebrovascular accident. It was hypothesized that right hemisphere damage (RHD) would impair even low-level discrimination and recognition of affective prosody, while left hemisphere damage (LHD) would affect performance only as associational- cognitive task demands increased. Thirty-three male subjects, 11 each in RHD, LHD, and normal groups, were given three tasks that varied in presumed amounts of processing undertaken for successful completion. Discrimination of prosodic patterns was expected to require the fewest cognitive operations. An intermediate task involved selecting from two possibilities the label that described moods conveyed prosodically. In the third task, prosodic mood selection was made from four choices, increasing the number of comparisons necessary for accurate judgment. As hypothesized, RHD subjects were inferior to normal subjects in all tasks. LHD subjects were equivalent to normal subjects for the first two tasks, but fell to the level of the RHD group for the third task. These results indicated that the right hemisphere in men was primarily involved in the reception and recognition of emotional prosodic stimuli. Increasing cognitive demands, however, brought about a shift in emphasis from the right hemisphere to both hemispheres. An implication of these findings concerns the need to examine performance levels that invoke changes from expected patterns of hemispheric specialization to advance our knowledge of functional asymmetries.
Changes in Aerodynamic Characteristics of Stutterers' Fluent Speech Associated with Therapy
Authors: Samar Vincent J. , Metz Dale Evan , Sacco Pat Richard
Published: August 2014

Stuttering frequency and four aerodynamic measures of articulatory events within perceptually fluent voiced and voiceless intervocalic intervals were obtained from 15 stutterers prior to and at the termination of a concentrated program of stuttering therapy. Three of the four aerodynamic variables showed group changes over the course of therapy concomitant with improvements in fluency. Additional correlational analyses suggested that one of the aerodynamic variables was specifically related to stuttering frequency. It is argued that both fluency enhancing and ancillary components of therapy operate to influence the intervocalic interval.
Speech Waveform Perturbation Analysis
Authors: Askenfelt Anders G. , Hammarberg Britta
Published: August 2014

The performance of seven acoustic measures of cycle-to-cycle variations (perturbations) in the speech waveform was compared. All measures were calculated automatically and applied on running speech. Three of the measures refer to the frequency of occurrence and severity of waveform perturbations in special selected parts of the speech, identified by means of the rate of change in the fundamental frequency. Three other measures refer to statistical properties of the distribution of the relative frequency differences between adjacent pitch periods. One perturbation measure refers to the percentage of consecutive pitch period differences with alternating signs. The acoustic measures were tested on tape recorded speech samples from 41 voice patients, before and after successful therapy. Scattergrams of acoustic waveform perturbation data versus an average of perceived deviant voice qualities, as rated by voice clinicians, are presented. The perturbation measures were compared with regard to the acoustic-perceptual correlation and their ability to discriminate between normal and pathological voice status. The standard deviation of the distribution of the relative frequency differences was suggested as the most useful acoustic measure of waveform perturbations for clinical applications.
Masked and Filtered Simulation of Hearing Loss
Authors: Fabry David A. , Van Tasell Dianne J.
Published: August 2014

Hearing threshold configuration of the impaired ear was simulated via two different methods in the normal ear of each of 6 subjects with unilateral sensorineural hearing loss. The two hearing loss simulation methods were (a) frequency-specific attenuation (filtering), and (b) masking by shaped masking noise. Identification responses to 20 consonant-vowel nonsense syllables were obtained from the normal ear of each subject in the two hearing loss simulation conditions, as well as from the impaired ear. Speech data were scored both for overall percent correct consonant recognition and for error patterns on a set Of eight consonant features. The computed correlation between gross error difference scores and a similarity metric for feature error pattern was essentially zero, indicating that these may be relatively independent measures of speech recognition, and thus may reflect different aspects Of subjects' behavior. For 3 subjects, both masking and filtering successfully simulated the effects of sensorineural hearing loss on consonant feature error patterns. For 1 subject, only filtering produced feature error patterns similar to those of the impaired ear. For the remaining subjects, neither simulation was successful.
Acoustic-Immittance Measures in Normal Ears
Authors: Wiley Terry L. , Oviatt Dana L. , Block Michael G.
Published: August 2014

A data base of acoustic-immittance measures in normal adults is presented. The subject pool consisted of 127 adults with normal hearing and a negative otologic history. Norms are presented for hearing thresholds, ipsilateral and contralateral acoustic-reflex thresholds, tympanometry, static acoustic-admittance measures, and middle-ear (tympanogram peak) pressure.
Reaction Times of Aging Subjects to Monaural Verbal Stimuli
Authors: Rastatter Michael P. , Lawson-Brill Cindy
Published: August 2014

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effects of advanced aging on hemispheric organization for linguistic processing. Specifically, it was an attempt to identify whether the neurological substrate responsible for right-hemispheric language analysis diminishes in function. Measures of the influence on reaction time of the hand used to respond versus the hemisphere stimulated were obtained for a geriatric sample in an attempt to obtain an index of right-versus left-hemisphere auditory-verbal processing ability. Twenty-four right-handed geriatric subjects responded to monaurally presented verbal stimuli with their right and left hands at separate times. Reaction times were significantly faster when subjects heard the words in their right ears, regardless of the hand used to respond. Such findings were consistent with a strict model of neurolinguistic organization that suggests that the left hemisphere was responsible solely for language processing in the present group of elderly subjects. Compared to data previously gathered for young subjects, the current findings were interpreted to suggest that right-hemispheric language processing ability is inhibited in the more advanced stages of life.
Clustering of Disfluencies in the Speech of Stuttering and Nonstuttering Preschool Children
Authors: Hubbard Carol P. , Yairi Ehud
Published: August 2014

Cluster formation in speech disfluencies of 15 preschool stuttering children and an equal number of nonstuttering control subjects was studied and compared. Clustering was defined as the occurrence of two or more disfluencies on the same or adjacent words. A computer program, based on the Monte Carlo method, was used to generate sets of expected numbers of single disfluencies and disfluencies in various cluster sizes according to simulation models. Results indicate that disfluencies occurred in clusters more often than could have been expected by chance for both groups. The proportions of clustered disfluencies, as well as the size of clusters, in the speech of the stutterers were significantly greater than those of the nonstuttering subjects.
A Note on the Variability of Timing Control
Authors: Crystal Thomas H. , House Arthur S.
Published: August 2014

Analyses of duration data measured from connected-speech signals for three "slow" and three "fast" adult talkers produced, for various sound categories and talkers, mean values and standard deviations that demonstrated strong functional relationships. These relationships preclude the use of the two measurements as independent descriptors of speech production. Typical distributions are shown. The implications of these data for the interpretation of the standard deviation of duration distributions in studies of the development of motor control and skilled action in children are discussed.
Speech Acts and the Pragmatic Deficits of Autism
Authors: Loveland Katherine A. , Landry Susan H. , Hughes Sheryl O. , Hall Sharon K. , McEvoy Robin E.
Published: August 2014

In a videotaped free-play session with a parent, autistic children were compared with mental-age matched Developmental Language Delay (DLD) children and with normally developing (ND) 2-year-olds in the use of communicative acts by parent and child. Groups were matched for language level. Autistic children had more incidents of no responses, produced less affirming, turn-taking vocalization, and gesture, and were less likely to initiate communication than other children. Parent groups differed only in a greater amount of initiating and use of imperatives by parents of autistic children. Few relations between parent behaviors and child behaviors were found. Nonresponses by all children were concentrated subsequent to parent imperatives and questions, but no group differences were found in the distribution of nonresponses to various parent communicative acts. Results are interpreted to support the hypothesis that autistic children's language can serve a number of useful functions but that their pattern of language functions differs from that of nonautistic language-impaired children and much younger normal children of similar language level.
Stutterers' Self-Ratings of Speech Naturalness
Authors: Ingham Roger J. , Ingham Janis Costello , Onslow Mark , Finn Patrick
Published: August 2014

Using single-subject experiments with 3 adult stutterers, this study evaluated the effects of instructions to stutterers to rate and modify how natural their speech sounds on experimenters' ratings of speech naturalness, stuttering frequency, and speaking rate. The study also included an investigation of the reliability of stutterers' and listeners' naturalness ratings. The stutterers were partway through a therapy program using prolonged speech or rate control. Results showed the stutterers could modify their speech so that their naturalness ratings increased or decreased. These changes were independent of stuttering or speaking rate. Experimenter ratings of speech naturalness were unchanged in conditions where stutterers judged their speech to sound more natural, but paralleled the stutterers' ratings when they judged their speech to sound more unnatural. An attempt to see if stutterers differed in their ratings of how natural their speech sounded or felt showed differences for one stutterer. Reratings of randomized session recordings by experimenters and independent judges showed that their ratings were highly reliable. When the same randomized session recordings were rerated by the stutterers (1 and 3 months after the experiment), their judgments of changes in their speech naturalness, which were not found in the experimenters' ratings, remained consistent and reliable.
Speaking Clearly for the Hard of Hearing III
Authors: Picheny M. A. , Durlach N. I. , Braida L. D.
Published: August 2014

Previous studies (Picheny, Durlach, & Braida, 1985, 1986) have demonstrated that substantial intelligibility differences exist for hearing-impaired listeners for speech spoken clearly compared to speech spoken conversationally. This paper presents the results of a probe experiment intended to determine the contribution of speaking rate to the intelligibility differences. Clear sentences were processed to have the durational properties of conversational speech, and conversational sentences were processed to have the durational properties of clear speech. Intelligibility testing with hearing-impaired listeners revealed both sets of materials to be degraded after processing. However, the degradation could not be attributable to processing artifacts because reprocessing the materials to restore their original durations produced intelligibility scores close to those observed for the unprocessed materials. We conclude that the simple processing to alter the relative durations of the speech materials was not adequate to assess the contribution of speaking rate to the intelligibility differences; further studies are proposed to address this question.
Acoustic Correlates of Vocal Quality
Authors: Eskenazi L. , Childers D. G. , Hicks D. M.
Published: August 2014

We have investigated the relationship between various voice qualities and several acoustic measures made from the vowel /i/ phonated by subjects with normal voices and patients with vocal disorders. Among the patients (pathological voices), five qualities were investigated: overall severity, hoarseness, breathiness, roughness, and vocal fry. Six acoustic measures were examined. With one exception, all measures were extracted from the residue signal obtained by inverse filtering the speech signal using the linear predictive coding (LPC) technique. A formal listening test was implemented to rate each pathological voice for each vocal quality. A formal listening test also rated overall excellence of the normal voices. A scale of 1–7 was used. Multiple linear regression analysis between the results of the listening test and the various acoustic measures was used with the prediction sums of squares (PRESS) as the selection criteria. Useful prediction equations of order two or less were obtained relating certain acoustic measures and the ratings of pathological voices for each of the five qualities. The two most useful parameters for predicting vocal quality were the Pitch Amplitude (PA) and the Harmonics-to-Noise Ratio (HNR). No acoustic measure could rank the normal voices.
A Model for Neurologic Sources of Aperiodicity in Vocal Fold Vibration
Authors: Titze Ingo R.
Published: August 2014

The time course of a force twitch in the thyroarytenoid muscle is modeled, and trains of twitches are summed to simulate force tetani. By incorporating means and standard deviations of motoneuron firing rates, and by applying random phase relationships between simulated motor units, a quantitative model of the ripple of vocal fold tension is obtained. From this ripple, perturbations in fundamental frequency are calculated as a function of the number of motor units in the muscle, the mean and standard deviation of the firing rate of dominant motoneurons, and the variability in the size (twitch amplitude) of the motor units. Predicted perturbations range between 0.2% and 1.2%, depending on the choice of parameters. Perturbation decreases with the number of motor units and with increased mean firing rate, but increases with the variability in motor unit size and with variability in the firing rate. Techniques are discussed by which neurologic jitter might be isolated from other sources of irregularity in vocal fold vibration.
Actual and Predicted Word-Recognition Performance of Elderly Hearing-Impaired Listeners
Authors: Schum Donald J. , Matthews Lois J. , Lee Fu-Shing
Published: August 2014

Word-recognition scores in quiet and in noise were obtained from both ears of 101 elderly listeners demonstrating sensorineural hearing loss. These performance scores were compared to word-recognition scores predicted using Articulation Index analysis procedures Negative difference scores (actual performance less predicted performance) would reflect aspects of the hearing impairment and/or the aging process that extend beyond the simple speech audibility constraints imposed by the hearing loss and masking noise. The distributions for both the left and right ears of difference scores in quiet revealed the majority of scores to be grouped near 0. In contrast, both distributions of difference scores in noise were normally distributed around means of approximately –25. These results suggest that the typical elderly hearing-impaired listener should be expected to demonstrate word-recognition performance in quiet similar to that of a normally hearing listener, given the same level of audibility of the speech material. On the other hand, in noise, this typical listener may be expected to demonstrate some word-recognition performance decrement, even after accounting for the audibility constraints of the hearing loss and noise.
Frequency Response of the Fourcin Electroglottograph and Measurement of Temporal Aspects of Laryngeal Movement During Swallowing
Authors: Perlman Adrienne L. , Liang Haixiang
Published: August 2014

The purpose of this investigation was to study the frequency response of a modified Fourcin EGG at frequencies associated with the slow varying laryngeal movement of swallowing and to compare those findings with the response characteristics of the EGG at frequencies associated with phonation. Frequency-dependent differences were found. At very low frequencies the EGG output was found to be the derivative of the changes in neck impedance; at higher frequencies the EGG output directly represented the changes in neck impedance. Three of the four phases of the pharyngeal stage of the swallow are represented by the EGG signal.
Brain Blood Flow Related to Acoustic Laryngeal Reaction Time in Adult Developmental Stutterers
Authors: Watson Ben C. , Pool Kenneth D. , Devous Michael D. , Freeman Frances J. , Finitzo Terese
Published: August 2014

The 1980s witnessed renewed interest in the relation between developmental stuttering and central nervous system (CNS) abnormalities. We have reported differences between nonstutterers and developmental stutterers on electrophysiologic (QTE) and metabolic (rCBF) measures of brain function. A critical step in the interpretation of results of functional brain imaging studies is to determine the relation, if any, of identified CNS abnormalities to speech motor control in persons who stutter. In this study we addressed the interpretation of rCBF findings by asking whether we could identify patterns of impaired acoustic laryngeal reaction time (LRT) as a function of response complexity parallel to rCBF findings. Stutterer subgroups determined by clinical seventy ratings were not differentiated by LRT values as a function of response complexity. Stutterers with relative blood flow asymmetry below the normal median value involving both left superior and middle temporal regions of interest (ROIs) showed significantly longer LRT for the complex response than did normal speakers and stutterers with above-normal median relative flow values to at least one of these temporal ROIs. Stutterer subgroups based on reduced cingulate flow alone were not differentiated by LRT values. Findings are consistent with Goldberg’s (1985) model of CNS premotor processing. Findings also suggest that stutterer subgroups might be distinguished by the presence, loci, and relative magnitude of cortical and/or subcortical rCBF abnormality in regions that subserve a fluency-generating system.
The Effect of Stimulus Duration Using the Brookler-Grams Closed-Loop Caloric Irrigator
Authors: Karlsen Elizabeth A. , Norris C. W. , Hassanein Ruth S.
Published: August 2014

Nystagmic responses to traditional 40-sec, 30 °C water calorics were recorded and compared to those obtained with the Brookler-Grams closed-loop irrigator using 30 °C, 40-, 50-, and 60-sec irrigations. Significant differences were noted between the responses to the water irrigator and the 40- and 50-sec closed-loop irrigations. The 60-sec closed-loop irrigation produced responses that were equivalent to the responses obtained with the water irrigation in slow component velocity, amplitude, frequency, latency, and duration. The 30 °C 60-sec closed-loop irrigation is an acceptable stimulus in electronystagmographic caloric testing.
The Relationship Between Communication Attitude, Anxiety, and Depression in Stutterers and Nonstutterers
Authors: Miller Susan , Watson Ben C.
Published: August 2014

People who stutter are frequently viewed as more anxious than nonstutterers and as being depressed. Further, a strong and pervasive stereotype is held by nonstutterers that people who stutter are guarded, nervous, and tense. This study examined self-perceptions of general state and trait anxiety, depression, and communication attitude in matched groups of stutterers and nonstutterers. Results refute the assertion that people who stutter are more anxious or depressed than those who do not. Anxiety and depression are not related to self-ratings of stuttering severity. Communication attitude is negative for this group of people who stutter and becomes increasingly negative as self-ratings of stuttering become more severe. People who stutter, grouped by severity rating, differed in the strength of the relation between measures of communication attitude, anxiety, and depression. Findings suggest that the anxiety of people who stutter is restricted to their attitude towards communication situations and that it is a rational response to negative communication experiences.
The Correspondence of Vocal Tract Resonance With Volumes Obtained From Magnetic Resonance Images
Authors: Moore Christopher A.
Published: August 2014

The increasing availability of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as a research, and even clinical, tool in speech production makes possible a wide range of quantitative methods in vocal tract measurement. In these initial stages of application, it is essential that the limits of the method be identified. The present investigation was designed to apply the techniques of digital image analysis and volumetric measurement to MRls obtained for the vocal tract during production of continuant speech sounds, and to apply these measures to a well-established and thoroughly tested model of acoustic transmission (Stevens & House, 1955). The results demonstrated that, although there were several sources of relatively large error and measurement bias, the vocal tract volumes obtained from MRIs were significantly predictive of vocal tract resonance frequencies. These results are discussed with respect to limits and potential for future application of MRI to speech production research.
Variables Influencing Perceptions of the Communicative Competence of an Adult Augmentative and Alternative Communication System User
Authors: Bedrosian Jan L. , Hoag Linda A. , Calculator Stephen N. , Molineux Barry
Published: August 2014

The effects of aided message length, partner reauditorization, and observer background on perceptions of the communicative competence of an adult augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) system user were examined. Two groups of subjects participated: naive adults with minimal exposure to nonspeaking persons, and speech-language pathologists currently working with AAC users. Four scripted videotaped conversational conditions involving an AAC user and a normally speaking partner were employed to manipulate aided message length and partner reauditorization. A balanced incomplete block design was used. Following each viewing, subjects completed a questionnaire designed to assess the communicative competence of the AAC user. Results indicated a significant interaction effect involving subject group and aided message length. The speech-language pathologists were affected by aidedmessage length. Furthermore, significant differences between subject groups were found inspecific conditions. Future research directions are discussed.
Speaking Rates, Response Time Latencies, and Interrupting Behaviors of Young Stutterers, Nonstutterers, and Their Mothers
Authors: Kelly Ellen M. , Conture Edward G.
Published: August 2014

The purpose of this study was to investigate the speaking rates, interrupting behaviors, and response time latencies (RTL) produced by stuttering and nonstuttering children and their mothers, and the relationship these three paralinguistic behaviors have to children’s speech disfluencies. Subjects were 13 boys who stutter (mean age= 4:0) and their mothers and 13 nonstuttering boys (mean age= 4:0) and their mothers. No significant differences were found between the two groups of children or between the two groups of mothers for any of the three paralinguistic behaviors with the exception that the mothers of nonstuttering children exhibited significantly (
p
< 0.01) faster rates of speech than either group of children. A strong positive correlation (
r
= .84) was found between stuttering children’s scores on the Stuttering Severity Instrument (Riley, 1980) and the durations of the overlapping portions of their mothers’ interruptions (i.e., their simultalk). Findings of this study are taken to support a facilitative demands-capacities model of conversational interaction in which mothers adjust the demands of their speaking models in response to their children’s demonstrated capacities for fluent speech production.
Evaluating Memory Wallets in Conversations With Persons With Dementia
Authors: Bourgeois Michelle S.
Published: August 2014

The use of memory wallets to self-prompt factual information during prompted conversations with familiar partners was evaluated for 9 subjects with dementia. Memory wallets contained 30 pictures and sentences about familiar persons, places, and events that each participant had difficulty remembering. The amount of training by caregivers was the one component of the intervention package that varied among the nine attempts to replicate condition effects observed on introduction of the wallets. All subjects learned to use the memory wallets to improve their conversations by making more accurate factual statements. Even when caregiver training was not provided to 3 subjects, condition effects were still demonstrated, with only 1 subject requiring a brief orientation to his wallet. Long-term maintenance of condition effects was demonstrated for 3 subjects up to 30 months'postintervention. These results support the clinical utility of a memory wallet intervention package for persons with dementia and provide preliminary evidence that often little more than preparing memory wallets and providing a brief orientation are required to facilitate their use in improving conversations with familiar conversational partners.
Changes in Auditory-Vocal Reaction Times Within and Across Experimental Sessions
Authors: Sapir Shimon , Li Ligang , Ragin Ann B. , Dod James M.
Published: August 2014

Changes in auditory-vocal reaction times (AVRTs) within and across experimental sessions were studied in 13 healthy university students, all females. Subjects were required to listen to a series of synthesized vowels and utter each of the vowels as soon as they heard it. The vowels were /i/, /u/, /a/, /o/, and /æ/, each presented 14 times and all presented in random order and at irregular intervals (2.5–4.5 sec). The stimuli and the instructions were prerecorded and presented to the subjects binaurally at a comfortable intensity level via headphones in an IAC booth. Each subject performed the experimental task twice, a week apart. The stimuli and the vocal responses were tape recorded and later digitized and computer analyzed. Serial analysis of successive AVRTs revealed significant intra- and intersession decreases in AVRTs in the majority of the subjects. Increases in AVRTs were also seen, but much less frequently. The implications of these findings are discussed.
Syllabic Timing in Dysarthria
Authors: Ziegler Wolfram , Hartmann Erich , Hoole Philip
Published: August 2014

A new, intensity-based method of measuring syllable duration was used to assess syllabic timing in 75 patients with dysarthria of predominantly traumatic and cerebro-vascular origin and in 30 normal subjects. The applied speech tasks included repetitions of sentences containing chains of plosive-vowel-syllables. The logarithm of the duration of the syllable carrying sentence accent proved to be particularly highly correlated with perceived speech rate. Among the potential sources of temporal variability, segmental influences and the influence of sentence stress were examined. Further, the between-sentence variation of syllable duration was assessed. The resulting measures of variability were correlated with the severity of dysarthric impairment. A strengthening of normal effects was found in the consonant-related variation, whereas intrinsic vowel effects and the influence of sentence stress were largely reduced. These results are discussed from the viewpoint of timing theories in speech and limb motor control. They are considered to provide a valuable background against which the speech impairments of specific neurologic groups can be tested.
Segmental Intelligibility and Speech Interference Thresholds of High-Quality Synthetic Speech in Presence of Noise
Authors: Koul Rajinder K. , Allen George D.
Published: August 2014

Technological advancement in the area of synthetic speech has made it increasingly difficult to distinguish quality of speech based solely on intelligibility scores obtained in benign laboratory conditions. Intelligibility scores obtained for natural speech and a high-quality text-to-speech system (DECtalk) are not substantially different. This study examined the perceived intelligibility and speech interference thresholds of DECtalk male and female voices and compared them with data obtained for natural speech. Results revealed that decreasing signal-to-noise levels had more deleterious effects on the perception of DECtalk male and female voices than on the perception of natural speech. Analysis of pattern of phoneme errors revealed that similar general patterns of errors tended to occur in DECtalk and in natural speech. The speech interference test did not demonstrate any significant difference between the DECtalk male and female voices. These results were supported by the absence of a significant difference between DECtalk male and female voices during intelligibility testing at different signal-to-noise ratios.
Effect of Microphone Type and Placement on Voice Perturbation Measurements
Authors: Titze Ingo R. , Winholtz William S.
Published: August 2014

This study was conducted to explore the effects of microphone type (dynamic vs. condenser) and pattern (omnidirectional vs. cardioid) on the extraction of voice perturbation measures for sustained phonation. Also of interest were the effects of distance and angle between the source and the microphone. Four professional-grade and two consumer-grade microphones were selected for analysis. Synthesized phonation with different amplitude and frequency modulations at fundamental frequencies of 100 Hz and 300 Hz were presented over a loudspeaker. Human phonation was also included to test the validity of loudspeaker presentations. Three microphone distances (4 cm, 30 cm, 1 m) and three angles (0°, 45°, 90°) were used for microphone placement. Among the professional grade microphones, the cardioid condenser type had the smallest effect on perturbation measures. In general, condenser types gave better results than dynamic types. Microphones with an unbalanced output did not perform as well as those with balanced outputs. Microphone sensitivity and distance had the largest effect on perturbation measures, making it difficult to resolve normal vocal jitter at anything but a few centimeters from the mouth. Angle had little effect for short distances, but a greater effect for longer distances. These conclusions are preliminary because the sampling of microphones, distances, and signal types was very coarse. The study serves only to chart the course for future work.
Grammatical Morpheme Acquisition in 4-Year-Olds With Normal, Impaired, and Late-Developing Language
Authors: Paul Rhea , Alforde Sally
Published: August 2014

The production of the grammatical morphemes studied by Brown and his colleagues was examined in free speech samples from a cohort of 4-year-olds with a history of slow expressive language development (SELD) and a control group of normal speakers. Results suggest that children with SELD acquire morphemes in an order very similar to that shown in previous acquisition research. Children who were slow to begin talking at age 2 and who continued to evidence delayed expressive language development by age 4 showed mastery of the four earliest acquired grammatical morphemes, as would be expected, based on their MLUs, which fell at Early Stage IV. Four-year-olds with normal language histories produced all but one of the grammatical morphemes with more than 90% accuracy, as would be expected based on their late Stage V MLUs. Children who were slow to acquire expressive language as toddlers, but who "caught up" in terms of sentence length by age 4 did not differ in MLU from their peers with normal language histories. However, they had acquired fewer of the grammatical morphemes. The implications of these findings for understanding the phenomenon of slow expressive language development are discussed.
Effects of Synthetic Voice Output on Attitudes Toward the Augmented Communicator
Authors: Gorernflo Carole Wood , Gorernflo Daniel W. , Santer Sarah A.
Published: August 2014

This study investigated the effects of four different voice synthesizers on attitudes of nondisabled individuals toward an augmented communicator. Subjects (
N
=284) viewed one of four videotapes depicting an adult VOCA (voice output communication aid) user having a conversation with a normal-speaking individual. The voice synthesizers used in the respective videotapes were ArticR65B male voice, Smoothtalker 3.0 male voice, RealVoice female, and DECtalk “Beautiful Betty.” The Attitudes Toward Nonspeaking Persons Scale (ATNP) was used as the primary dependent variable. Results showed that attitudes toward the augmented communicator are more favorable in terms of evaluation and potential interaction when the synthetic voice is “easier to listen to.” Gender-appropriate voice did not produce more favorable attitudes than gender-inappropriate voice. Implications of these findings for technological development of augmentative devices are discussed.
Effects of Temporal Alterations on Speech Intelligibility in Parkinsonian Dysarthria
Authors: Hammen Vicki L. , Yorkston Kathryn M. , Minifie Fred D.
Published: August 2014

The effect of two types of temporal alterations, paced and synthetic, on the intelligibility of parkinsonian dysarthric speech was investigated. Six speakers with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease served as subjects. Paced temporal alterations were created by slowing each speaker to 60% of his/her habitual speaking rate. The synthetic alterations were created by modifying the habitual rate speech samples using digital signal processing. Three types of synthetic alterations were examined: Pause Altered, Speech Duration Altered, and Pause and Speech Duration Altered. The 60% of habitual speaking rate condition was more intelligible than the synthetic conditions. In addition, none of the synthetic alterations were found to be more intelligible than samples produced at habitual speaking rates. The results suggest that simple alterations of speech signals do not explain the differences in intelligibility that have been observed when parkinsonian dysarthric speakers reduce speaking rates. Reasons for the failure of synthetic alterations to increase speech intelligibility scores are discussed.
Masking Level Differences for Tones and Speech in Elderly Listeners With Relatively Normal Audiograms
Authors: Grose John H. , Poth Elizabeth A. , Peters Robert W.
Published: August 2014

This study measured the masking level difference (MLD) for both 500-Hz tone detection and spondee word recognition in two groups of listeners. One group consisted of 9 elderly listeners with normal audiometric sensitivity bilaterally, up to at least 2000 Hz. The other group was a control group of 10 young listeners with normal hearing. The intent was to determine whether the elderly listeners exhibited a reduction in binaural performance that might contribute to the difficulties many such listeners have in understanding speech in noisy situations. By measuring MLDs in elderly listeners in the absence of marked peripheral hearing loss, it was hoped that any observed changes in MLD could be more strongly attributed to central effects. For both tone detection and speech recognition, it was found that the elderly performed more poorly than the young listeners, primarily on the NoSπ condition.
A Prospective Longitudinal Study of Language Development in Late Talkers
Authors: Weismer Susan Ellis , Murray-Branch Jamie , Miller Jon F.
Published: August 2014

This longitudinal investigation charted the course of cognitive and language development from the prelinguistic period to multiword productions in 19 typically developing (TD) toddlers and 4 toddlers who were subsequently identified as having late onset of expressive language. Assessments were conducted at 3-month intervals over a 21-month period, with 12 months of prospective assessment data comparing the TD and late talker (LT) subjects (mean CA: 13 to 25 months) and 9 months of follow-up data (mean CA: 25–34 months) on the 4 subjects who were identified as late talkers at age 2. Three different developmental profiles were identified, and predictors of expressive language outcomes for the LT subjects were evaluated.
Long-Term Results of an Intensive Treatment Program for Adults and Adolescents Who Stutter
Authors: Boberg Einer , Kully Deborah
Published: August 2014

In order to determine the long-term effects of an intensive treatment program, 17 adult and 25 adolescent stutterers were tested 2 or 3 times during a 12- to 24-month post-intensive treatment phase. The results of this study are intended to augment and supplement the growing body of evidence about the effects of intensive treatment programs on adult and adolescent stutterers. Follow-up measures included surprise phone calls to clients at home/work and a self-administered Speech Performance Questionnaire. Careful training of speech raters was undertaken to ensure high reliability of speech measures. Results from the phone call samples indicated that about 69% of the subjects maintained a satisfactory level of post-treatment fluency, with an additional 7% maintaining a level that was judged to be marginally satisfactory. On the self-administered Questionnaire, 80% of the subjects rated their speech fluency as good or fair 12 to 24 months after treatment.
Breathing Patterns During Spontaneous Speech
Authors: Winkworth Alison L. , Davis Pamela J. , Adams Roger D. , Ellis Elizabeth
Published: August 2014

Lung volumes, speech intensity, the linguistic location of inspirations, and the variability of each, were studied during spontaneous speech in 6 healthy young women over 7 to 10 sessions each, using respiratory inductance plethysmography. Although average lung volume levels were within the vital capacity range previously reported for speech (Hixon, Goldman, & Mead, 1973), significant inter- and intrasubject variability was observed. This variability was considerable for some subjects (average initiation lung volume varying between 42 and 63% VC over the sessions) and relatively small for others (between 47 and 53% VC). Some of the lung volume variation was associated with changes in mood state, examined by self-report questionnaire at each measurement occasion. Linguistic factors were important influences in the lung volume variation. The majority of breaths in the conversations and monologues preceded structural (clause) boundaries. The volume of air inspired preutterance was found to be linked to the length of the ensuing breath group in each of our 6 subjects, as longer breath groups, spanning up to seven clauses in the spontaneous speech, were anticipated by inspiring to a higher lung volume. The subjects used a comfortable speaking intensity range, which varied for different individuals and sessions over 4 to 18 dB. Increases in speech intensity within individual ranges were not associated with increased lung volumes. The data provide novel insight into associations between physiological and linguistic factors in the control of speech breathing, and are suggestive of the existence of neural planning of the respiratory system, in anticipation of the demands of the utterance.
Acoustic Prediction of Severity in Commonly Occurring Voice Problems
Authors: Wolfe Virginia , Fitch James , Cornell Richard
Published: August 2014

The relative effectiveness of three acoustic measures (jitter, shimmer, and harmonic/noise ratio) in predicting the dysphonic severity of a diverse clinical population singly and together was investigated. Phonatory samples were recorded from 20 normal subjects and 60 patients representing 3 laryngeal groups (nodules, paralysis, and functional). The phonatory samples were evaluated by 22 listeners using a 7-point equal-appearing interval scale. Shimmer produced a bivariate correlation of 0.54 with dysphonic severity; harmonic/noise ratio correlated −0.32 with dysphonic severity; and jitter produced no significant correlation with severity. The combination of acoustic variables through multiple regression analysis produced a correlation of 0.56, with only shimmer and average F
0
contributing to the correlation. For this particular clinical population, therefore, findings indicated that (a) none of the variables was strongly correlated with dysphonia ratings, and (b) a combination of acoustic predictors was no more successful than a single predictor of dysphonic severity, namely, shimmer.
Effects of Picture Size and Placement on Memory for Written Words
Authors: Blischak Doreen M. , McDaniel Mark A.
Published: August 2014

A study investigating the effects of varying size and position of line drawings in combination with written words was conducted with kindergarten students. Subjects were shown written words under four conditions that represented various size and position relationships between line drawings and orthography. After 4 consecutive days of exposure in an incidental learning task, both identification and recognition measures were obtained. Results showed superior performance for word-only and enhanced-word conditions, over those in which small and large line drawings were paired with written words, supporting similar research findings conducted with reading tasks. Implications are drawn for application to individuals with little or no functional speech who use graphic symbols for expressive communication.