bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Identifying the Onset and Offset of Stuttering Events
Authors: Ingham Roger J. , Cordes Anne K. , Ingham Janis Costello , Gow Merrilyn L.
Published: July 2014

This study was designed to investigate the apparent contradiction between recent reports of physiological and interpersonal research on stuttering that claim or imply high agreement levels, and studies of stuttering judgment agreement itself that report much lower agreement levels. Four experienced stuttering researchers in one university department used laser videodisks of spontaneous speech, from persons whose stuttering could be described as mild to severe, to locate the precise onset and offset of individual stuttering events. Results showed a series of interjudge disagreements that raise serious questions about the reliability and validity of stuttering event onset and offset judgments. These results highlight the potentially poor reliability of a measurement procedure that is currently widespread in stuttering research. At the same time, they have isolated some few highly agreed stuttering events that might serve as the basis for the further development of either event-based or interval-based judgment procedures.
Measurement of Speech Quality as a Tool to Optimize the Fitting of a Hearing Aid
Authors: Preminger Jill E. , Tasell Dianne J. Van
Published: July 2014

The purpose of the present research was to develop a theoretical basis for the adjustment of hearing aid frequency response based on speech quality measurements. Speech quality measurements were made using continuous discourse and a category rating procedure for the following dimensions: intelligibility, pleasantness, loudness, effort, noisiness, and total impression. Speech quality ratings were obtained from a group of listeners with hearing loss who wore hearing aids. The stimulus conditions simulated hearing aid frequency response alterations within a frequency response range where intelligibility was held constant at or near 100%. The subject ratings revealed that (a) different listeners interpreted the individual dimensions in different ways; (b) within listeners, most of the dimensions were unique; that is, they were rated differently; and (c) across listeners, pleasantness was the dimension most highly correlated with total impression.
Traditional and Phonological Treatment for Teaching English Fricatives and Affricates to Koreans
Authors: Schmidt Anna Marie , Meyers Kelly A.
Published: July 2014

Non-native speakers of English are being seen for accent reduction in speech-language pathology clinics although there is little evidence that treatment is effective. Two types of treatment were evaluated. Traditional articulation-based treatment was successful for 2 native Korean speakers in improving English fricatives and affricate production. A second treatment using phonologically based contrasts was also successful for the same sounds with 2 other Korean speakers. Some issues in foreign accent reduction are discussed.
Temporary and Permanent Threshold Shift Caused by Hearing Aid Use
Authors: Macrae John H.
Published: July 2014

Excessive amplification by hearing aids causes temporary threshold shift (TTS) and permanent threshold shift (PTS). This investigation addressed the question whether it might be possible to predict the eventual amount of PTS caused by excessive amplification from the amount of TTS it causes after a day of hearing aid use. Asymptotic TTS (ATS) to be expected as a result of hearing aid use was predicted for 8 children with sensorineural hearing loss and the predicted ATS was compared with observed permanent deterioration of their thresholds attributed to hearing aid use. There was good agreement between the predicted ATS and observed PTS at 500 to 2000 Hz. It follows that, for prediction of PTS caused by hearing aid use, the mean of the sound levels produced in the ear by the hearing aid is the correct equivalent continuous level (ECL) to use and that the Modified Power Law (MPL) is the appropriate method of adjusting the predictions for sensorineural hearing loss, because these have been shown to be appropriate for prediction of TTS caused by hearing aid use. Predictions of the PTS to be expected for the children that were carried out using the MPL and the mean level as the ECL were in good agreement with the observed PTS at 500 to 2000 Hz, whereas predictions of PTS based on an alternative method of correction for sensorineural hearing loss (the Continuation Hypothesis) were significantly less than the observed amounts. The results of the PTS predictions therefore confirmed the conclusions drawn from the results of the ATS predictions.
Factor Analysis of Proficient Esophageal Speech: Toward a Multidimensional Model
Authors: Slavin Dianne C. , Ferrand Carole T.
Published: July 2014

This study identified acoustic patterns in the speech samples of 26 esophageal speakers judged by experienced listeners to be highly proficient and intelligible. Tape-recorded readings were acoustically analyzed in terms of frequency, intensity, and duration variables. Application of two multidimensional statistical procedures, factor analysis and cluster analysis, revealed four distinctive acoustic profiles that captured all 26 subjects. The multidimensional model derived from these profiles maintains important individual differences in alaryngeal speech style.
Transparency of One-Handed Amer-Ind Hand Signals to Nonfamiliar Viewers
Authors: Campbell Cheryl R. , Jackson Susan T.
Published: July 2014

Thirty non-brain-damaged adults viewed 104 videotaped Amer-Ind hand signals. The majority of these hand signals were produced with one hand; 60 originally one-handed gestures and 31 left-hand adaptations of two-handed gestures were included in the data analyses. Nineteen subjects were between the ages of 20 and 30 years (younger group), and 11 subjects were between the ages of 50 and 69 years (older group). After viewing each hand signal twice in succession, the subjects wrote at least one word for that signal’s meaning. The mean percentage of one-handed signals correctly identified was 48.2%; these signals varied widely in transparency (0% to 100%). The left-hand adaptations were significantly lower in transparency than the originally one-handed signals. The younger and older subjects did not differ in the mean percentage of one-handed signals they identified correctly (49.0% and 46.4%, respectively). However, some individual hand signals were easier for the younger subjects to identify; the opposite was also true.
Redirects: A Strategy to Increase Peer Initiations
Authors: Schuele C. Melanie , Rice Mabel L. , Wilcox Kim A.
Published: July 2014

Preschoolers’ verbal abilities influence their verbal interactions with play partners. Previous research has suggested that preschoolers with specific language impairment (SLI) are more likely to initiate conversations with adults than with peers, as compared to their typically developing peers. This study investigated a teacher-implemented procedure, redirects, as a means to facilitate initiations to peers. A redirect occurs when a child initiates to the teacher, and the teacher then suggests the child initiate to a peer, thereby redirecting the child from an adult to a peer. Four preschool boys with SLI participated in the study. The teacher training was successful in increasing the teacher’s ability to redirect the children’s initiations. The children consistently responded to redirects by initiating to peers, and most redirected initiations received conversational responses from peers. Generalization effects to spontaneous peer initiations following the intervention period were demonstrated for 2 of the boys.
Visual Word Recognition in Two Facial Motion Conditions: Full-Face Versus Lips-Plus-Mandible
Authors: Marassa Lynn K. , Lansing Charissa R.
Published: July 2014

The present study used a new method to develop video sequences that limited exposure of facial movement. A repeated-measures design was used to investigate the visual recognition of 60 monosyllabic spoken words, presented in an open set format, for two face exposure conditions (full-face vs. lips-plus-mandible). Twenty-six normal hearing college students and 4 adults with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss speechread a video laserdisc presentation of a male talker under the two face exposure conditions. Percent phoneme correct scores were similar in the part-face and full-face conditions. However, scores significantly improved for the repeated measure independent of the face exposure condition observed. The results suggested that speechreaders (a) can recognize monosyllabic words in video sequences that provide information only about movements of the lips-plus-mandible region and (b) are sensitive to practice effects.
Sources of Error in Estimation of Laryngeal Airway Resistance in Persons With Spasmodic Dysphonia
Authors: Finnegan Eileen M. , Luschei Erich S. , Barkmeier Julie M. , Hoffman Henry T.
Published: July 2014

Estimation of laryngeal airway resistance is a noninvasive method that has proven useful in the study of people with normal and some types of disordered voices. We were interested in examining more closely the application of this method to persons with spasmodic dysphonia (SD), a voice disorder sometimes associated with fluctuating airflow. We speculated unstable airflow could affect the estimation of subglottal pressure and laryngeal airway resistance. Oral pressure and airflow were collected from 10 subjects with SD and 10 control subjects during repetition of /pi/. The coefficient of variation (COV) of airflow during vowel production was calculated to quantify stability of airflow. The results indicated that although some SD subjects produced steady flows during the syllable repetition task, others exhibited substantially varying flows. Inability on the part of the subject to attain steady flows could compromise the usefulness of a midpoint measure of airflow and/or estimation of subglottal pressure, resulting in sources of error in estimation of laryngeal airway resistance. As a result, of the 10 subjects with SD in this study, laryngeal airway resistance could not be estimated in 6 subjects with unsteady flows. Laryngeal airway resistance was estimated in 4 SD subjects who produced steady airflow. Two of these subjects exhibited high laryngeal airway resistance; the others exhibited normal laryngeal airway resistance.
Dynamic Temporal Processing of Nonspeech Acoustic Information by Children With Specific Language Impairment
Authors: Visto Jane C. , Cranford Jerry L. , Scudder Rosalind
Published: July 2014

The present study investigated whether children with specific language impairment (SLI) differed from children with normal language learning in their ability to process binaural temporal information. The SLI group was matched with peers of the same chronological age, as well as peers with similar language age. All three subject groups were tested with measures of complex sound localization involving the precedence effect phenomenon. Subjects were required to track the apparent motion of a “moving” fused auditory image (FAI). Movement of the FAI was simulated by varying the delay incrementally between pairs of clicks presented, one each, from two matched loudspeakers placed on opposite sides of the child’s head. With this task, the SLI subjects’ performances were found to be similar to their language age-matched but chronologically younger peers. Both groups exhibited tracking skills that were statistically poorer than that of the chronologically age-matched group. Additional tests indicated this effect was not due to differences in motoric tracking abilities nor to the SLI subjects’ abilities to perceive small binaural time cues. Thus, children with SLI appear to be impaired in their ability to use binaural acoustic information in a dynamic ongoing fashion. The requirements for processing such nonlinguistic acoustic information in a “dynamic and ongoing” fashion may be similar to those involved in the ongoing processing of rapid changes in the temporal and spectral components of the speech chain.
Perception of Stop Consonants in Children With Expressive and Receptive-Expressive Language Impairments
Authors: Stark Rachel E. , Heinz John M.
Published: July 2014

The performance of 32 children with language impairment—11 with expressive language impairment only (LI-E subgroup) and 21 with both receptive and expressive language impairment (LI-ER subgroup)—and of 22 children without language impairment (LN subgroup) was examined in a study of perception and imitation of synthesized /ba/ and /da/ syllables. Formant transition duration and task difficulty were varied in the perceptual tasks. The LI-E children were able to identify the syllables as well as the LN; the LI-ER were not. Of the children who succeeded on an identification task and proceeded to a serial ordering task incorporating the same stimuli, the LI-E children were the least successful on the second task. The ability to label the stimuli perceptually was highly correlated with absence of speech articulation errors in the LI children and with performance on the imitation task in all subjects. The findings are examined in relation to the hypotheses that rapid-rate perceptual processing is the sole basis of language impairment in children and that, in these children, production skill may predict phoneme perception rather than the reverse.
Online Sentence Processing in Adults Who Stutter and Adults Who Do Not Stutter
Authors: Bosshardt Hans-Georg , Fransen Hans
Published: July 2014

This study had two specific aims. The first aim was to investigate whether, during a silent reading task, persons who stutter encode phonological and semantic information more slowly than persons who do not stutter. The second aim was to investigate how the syntactic context of stimulus sentences influences the speed of coding. Fourteen adult persons who stutter and 14 adult persons who do not stutter participated in a self-paced word-by-word reading experiment. While reading a prose text silently, participants monitored target words that were specified before the presentation of the text. The target words to be monitored for were phonologically similar, categorically related, or identical to a cue word. The influence of syntactic information on the word-monitoring reaction time was studied by presenting the text either as normal prose, in a syntactically correct but semantically anomalous version, or in random word order. The results suggest that the two groups are not different with respect to the speed of word identification but that persons who stutter retrieve semantic information more slowly than persons who do not stutter.
The Relation Between Speech Perception and Phonemic Awareness
Authors: Nittrouer Susan
Published: July 2014

The Developmental Weighting Shift (DWS) suggests that children adjust the weights they assign to the acoustic parameters of the speech signal as they gain experience with a native language, and that this developmental shift in perceptual weighting strategies is related to another developmental change: increased sensitivity to the phonetic structure of the speech signal. To test these claims, children presumed to differ in the amount of linguistic experience they had received during their preschool years participated in two kinds of tasks: a labeling task designed to estimate differences among groups in the weights assigned to various acoustic parameters, and tasks of phonemic awareness. The experimental groups were children from low-socioeconomic (low-SES) backgrounds, children with histories of chronic otitis media (OM), and children who experienced both conditions. A control group of children who experienced neither of these conditions also participated. The hypotheses were that, because of their diminished linguistic experience, children in the three experimental groups would display both more immature weighting strategies and poorer phonemic awareness than children in the control group, and that developmental advance in perceptual weighting strategies and phonemic awareness would be correlated. Results indicated that children with histories of chronic OM performed more poorly on both kinds of tasks than did children in the control group, and low-SES children performed more poorly still. Children experiencing both low-SES and chronic OM performed no differently than the low-SES children. These results provide support for the claim that the development of mature perceptual weighting strategies for speech and of phonemic awareness are related. Support is also provided for the claim that both depend on receiving sufficient and appropriate experience with a native language during the preschool years.
Electrophysiological Indices of Lexical Processing
Authors: Rubin Scott S. , Newhoff Marilyn , Peach Richard K. , Shapiro Lewis P.
Published: July 2014

To further investigate the effects that argument structure can have on language processing, reaction-time (RT) and event-related potential (ERP) data were collected for 14 younger subjects (M= 23 years) and 13 older subjects (M= 66 years). A cross-modal lexical decision (CMLD) task, involving online processing of high- and low-complexity verbs embedded in sentences, was used. Results of a baseline nonlinguistic visual ERP task indicated that the older group of subjects demonstrated significantly longer P300 latencies and significantly lower P300 amplitudes than the younger subjects. In the sentence task, younger subjects exhibited significantly higher P300 amplitudes when processing high- versus low-complexity verbs, with a similar pattern noted for the older subjects. P300 latencies were significantly shorter for the older group than the younger group. Neither P300 latencies nor RTs were significantly related to verb complexity, although medium to large effect sizes were present. Overall, these findings support earlier notions of argument structure effects.
Effect of Single-Channel Compression on Temporal Speech Information
Authors: Souza Pamela E. , Turner Christopher W.
Published: July 2014

Although syllabic compression systems are available in many currently marketed hearing aids, the benefit of such systems continues to be debated. The goal of this study was to determine the effect of single-channel amplitude compression on use of speech information by listeners with hearing impairment. Effects on both temporal and spectral information were considered, with particular focus on temporal cues. Speech recognition scores were assessed under four conditions, using two types of speech materials. Both temporal and spectral information were provided in the FullSpeech or natural speech stimuli. Unlike previous studies in which use of temporal information may have been confounded by spectral changes, in this study the listener's ability to use temporal information was tested
directly
using signal-correlated noise (SCN) stimuli, which consisted of a time-varying speech envelope modulating a broad-band noise carrier. Two conditions (FullSpeech and SCN) retained their natural amplitude characteristics. In two corresponding conditions the same stimuli were compressed digitally, using compression parameters appropriate for syllabic compression. This compression reduced the range of time-intensity variations. Recognition scores were obtained from listeners with mild-to-severe sensorineural loss and from a control group of listeners with normal hearing. All stimuli were presented at high levels to reduce potential effects of reduced audibility. Additionally, short-term speech level measurements were compared to individual listener's hearing thresholds to determine the range of speech levels in each frequency region that was audible for each stimulus condition. Results demonstrated no effect of compression on recognition scores for either the FullSpeech or SCN signals for listeners with normal hearing or listeners with hearing loss. This suggests that single-channel syllabic compression processing, of the type used in this study, does not alter the temporal (or spectral) signal sufficiently to cause decreased recognition for VCV syllables when speech audibility is maintained.
Treatment Efficacy
Authors: Weinstein Barbara E.
Published: July 2014

Hearing impairment in adults is a prevalent chronic condition, associated with psychosocial and quality-of-life handicaps. Recent investigations have demonstrated that individuals with handicapping hearing impairments do indeed benefit from the rehabilitative services offered by audiologists, with the primary intervention being hearing aid provision. My objective here is to review the experimental research, program evaluation data, and case studies documenting the efficacy of hearing aids, with an emphasis on the functional and communicative benefits accruing from hearing aid use. It is hoped that the information contained herein will provide clinicians with outcome data to share with the hearing impaired, toward the goal of encouraging such individuals to take advantage, at least for a trial period, of one of the many technologies available to assist them to function better in their daily lives.
Establishing the Validity of Recovery From Stuttering Without Formal Treatment
Authors: Finn Patrick
Published: July 2014

There is no empirical basis for determining goals for stuttering treatment. One approach that might resolve this issue is to systematically investigate persons who claim to have recovered from stuttering without the assistance of treatment. However, critical methodological and conceptual issues must be overcome first in order to assure these persons had a valid stuttering problem and that their recovery was independent of treatment. This study examined a validation procedure for solving these issues based on the combination of two methods: independent verification and self-reports. Forty-two subjects participated: 14 adults who recovered from stuttering without assistance, 14 adults with persistent stuttering, and 14 adults who were normally fluent speakers. For the independent verification, a Speech Behavior Checklist was administered to 42 individuals familiar with the recovered subjects' past speech and the other subjects' current speech. Results indicated that persons who knew the recovered subjects when they used to stutter recalled speech behaviors consistent with subjects who still stuttered, but not the same as speech behaviors consistent with subjects who never stuttered. These findings were supported by an objective analysis of the recovered subjects' descriptions of their past stuttering. Furthermore, a content analysis of subjects' self-reports indicated that recovery was independent of treatment.
Evidence of Sensitivity to Structural Contrasts in the Literature on Children's Language Comprehension
Authors: Sutton Ann
Published: July 2014

This paper reviews the developmental literature on grammatical knowledge in language comprehension in the preschool years from the perspective of sensitivity to structural contrasts. This concept differs from mastery of individual grammatical structures. Structural sensitivity focuses on increments of partial grammatical knowledge that can be observed in distinctive response patterns to contrasting grammatical structures. Direct evidence of sensitivity to structural contrasts is found in comprehension studies that measured differential responding. Indirect evidence of sensitivity can also be discovered by detailed examination of the data presented in several additional studies. The evidence suggests that there may be a developmental sequence of increasing sensitivity with age to finer distinctions and to more detailed aspects of grammatical structure. The notion of sensitivity to structural contrasts has implications for future research.
Velocity Profiles of Lip Protrusion Across Changes in Speaking Rate
Authors: Shaiman Susan , Adams Scott G. , Kimelman Mikael D. Z.
Published: July 2014

The effects of speaking rate manipulation were examined in the velocity profiles of anticipatory lip protrusion gestures. Systematic changes in the shape, symmetry, and smoothness of the velocity profiles were observed as speaking rate was modulated across a wide range of self-selected rates, from fast to slow. Velocity profiles of movements produced at slower than normal speaking rates demonstrated greater asymmetry, irregularity, and differences in geometric form, compared to normal and faster-than-normal rates. Subjects evidenced both inter- and intrasubject variability in the accomplishment of lip protrusion and rate manipulations. These results indicate that the velocity profiles of lip protrusion gestures do not necessarily remain invariant across changes in speaking rate. Rather, the data suggest that distinct movement patterns may be generated for slow speaking rates, with select characteristics of the movement pattern being maintained across normal and fast speaking rates.
Functional-Lesion Investigation of Developmental Stuttering With Positron Emission Tomography
Authors: Ingham
Published: July 2014

The article by Ingham et al., "Functional-Lesion Investigation of Developmental Stuttering With Positron Emission Tomography," which appeared on pp. 1208–1227 of the December 1996
JSHR
, contained an error. The text of Footnotes 1 and 2 were reversed: The text of Footnote 1 on p. 1210 should be the text of Footnote 2 on p. 1215, and the text of Footnote 2 should appear under Footnote 1. We apologize for the error.
Syntactic Complexity, Fluency, and Accuracy of Sentence Imitation in Adolescents
Authors: Silverman Stacy W. , Ratner Nan Bernstein
Published: July 2014

The majority of work that suggests a relationship between syntactic complexity and the frequency of stuttering has been carried out with young children. In this paper, we investigate whether or not syntactic complexity exerts an influence on the frequency of stuttering in adolescent speech. Fourteen adolescents, 7 of whom stuttered, and 7 of whom were normally fluent, ages 10–18 years, participated in a sentence imitation task in which stimuli were divided into three classes of grammatical complexity. Results indicated that for both groups of speakers, normal disfluencies and errors in repetition accuracy increased as syntactic complexity increased. However, stuttering frequency did not appear to be affected by changes in the syntactic complexity of the target stimuli. Such findings suggest either a diminution of the effects of syntactic complexity on stuttering over the course of language acquisition or changes in the mix of chronic and nonchronic stuttering speakers from those used in earlier studies of the effects of linguistic structure on stuttering in children.
Developmental Apraxia of Speech
Authors: Shriberg Lawrence D. , Aram Dorothy M. , Kwiatkowski Joan
Published: July 2014

This second paper in a series on developmental apraxia of speech (DAS) (Shriberg, Aram, & Kwiatkowski, 1997a) reports findings from two studies. Study I compares speech and prosody-voice profiles of a group of 14 children with suspected DAS to profiles of 73 children with speech delay (SD). Results suggest that the only linguistic domain that differentiates some children with suspected DAS from those with SD is inappropriate stress. Study II cross-validates these findings, using retrospective data from a sample of 20 children with suspected DAS evaluated in a university phonology clinic over a 10-year period. Discussion considers methodological and conceptual issues in the measurement of linguistic stress. Theoretical issues and implications for research and clinical practice are deferred for synthesis of the present findings with those from a multi-site crossvalidation project (Shriberg, Aram, & Kwiatkowski, 1997b).
Age-Related and Gender-Related Changes in Monaural Speech Recognition
Authors: Dubno Judy R. , Lee Fu-Shing , Matthews Lois J. , Mills John H.
Published: July 2014

Previous studies of older listeners suggest age-related declines in speech recognition. However, the interpretation of these results is not straightforward because auditory thresholds, which account for the largest proportion of the variance in speech-recognition scores, also vary considerably with age. Here, effects of age, gender, and auditory thresholds on several measures of speech recognition were assessed for a large sample of individuals enrolled in a longitudinal study of agerelated hearing loss. Participants ranged in age from 55–84 years. They were evaluated with a battery of conventional audiometric measures and speechrecognition materials, including NU-6 monosyllabic words, Synthetic Sentence Identification sentences, and high-context and low-context sentences from the Speech Perception in Noise test. Two analyses were conducted to assure that changes in speech-recognition scores with age were examined independently of age-related changes in auditory thresholds. In the first analysis, no significant differences in speech recognition were observed for individuals in three age groups (55–64, 65–74, 75–84 years) who were selected so that average puretone thresholds for the groups were within 5 dB. In the second analysis, using partial correlations to adjust both score and age for their association with average thresholds, significant declines with age were observed for males in maximum word recognition, maximum synthetic sentence identification, and keyword recognition in high-context sentences. For females, no significant changes in speech recognition with age were observed for any test.
Determinants of Sentence Comprehension in Aphasic Patients in Sentence-Picture Matching Tasks
Authors: Caplan David , Waters Gloria S. , Hildebrandt Nancy
Published: July 2014

The results of two studies of sentence comprehension in aphasic patients using sentence-picture matching tests are presented. In the first study, 52 aphasic patients were tested on 10 sentence types. Analysis of the number of correct responses per sentence type showed effects of syntactic complexity and number of propositions. Factor analysis yielded first factors that accounted for two-thirds of the variance in performance to which all sentence types contributed. Clustering analysis yielded groups of patients whose performances progressively deteriorated and in which performance was more affected by sentence types that were harder for the group overall. These results were very similar to those previously obtained using an enactment task. In the second study, 17 aphasic patients were tested on the same 10 sentence types using both sentence-picture matching and enactment tasks. Correlational analyses showed that performance on the two tests was significantly correlated across both subjects and sentences. The results provide data relevant to the determinants of the complexity of a sentence in auditory comprehension.
A Comparison of the Benefit Provided by Well-Fit Linear Hearing Aids and Instruments With Automatic Reductions of Low-Frequency Gain
Authors: Humes Larry E. , Christensen Laurel A. , Bess Fred H. , Hedley-Williams Andrea
Published: July 2014

In this clinical study, 110 patients seen at three different clinical facilities were fit binaurally with linear, in-the-canal (ITC) hearing aids. All patients were new hearing aid users. Each of the hearing aids was equipped with an adjustable control that could be set by one of the audiologists (Audiologist A) at each site to convert it from a linear instrument to an experimental nonlinear one with automatic reduction of low-frequency gain at high input levels (or base increase at low levels, BILL). Both the patient and the audiologist performing the outcome testing at each site (Audiologist B) were blind as to the present setting of the hearing aid. Each participant was enrolled in the study for a total of 12 weeks, with the hearing aid set to either the linear or BILL-processing mode of operation for the first 8 weeks and the opposite setting for a subsequent 4-week period. In summary, this was a prospective, doubleblind, crossover study of 110 new hearing-aid users. Outcome measures focused on hearing-aid benefit and included both objective and subjective measures. Objective measures were derived from scores on the Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6 (NU-6) and the Connected Speech Test (CST) obtained for all possible combinations of two speech presentation levels (60 and 75 dB SPL), two types of background noise (cafeteria noise and multitalker babble), and two signal-to-noise ratios (+5 and +10 dB). Subjective outcome measures included magnitude estimation of listening effort (MELE), the abbreviated form of the Hearing Aid Performance Inventory (HAPI), and estimations of hearing-aid usage based on daily-use logs kept by the participants. All of these measures were used to evaluate the benefit provided by linear amplification and the benefit resulting from the experimental BILL processing. Participant preferences for the experimental BILL-processing scheme or linear processing were also examined by using a paired-comparison task at the end of the study. Results were analyzed separately for three subgroups of patients (mild, moderate, severe) formed on the basis of their average hearing loss at 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz. In all three subgroups, significant improvement in performance was observed for linear amplification and for BILL processing when compared to unaided performance. There were no significant differences in aided performance, however, between linear processing and the experimental BILL processing.
Vocal Reaction Times of Children With CAPD, Age-Matched Peers, and Young Adults to Printed Words
Authors: Dagenais Paul A. , Cox Michele , Southwood M. Helen , Smith Stephen C.
Published: July 2014

The purpose of this study was to determine if there were differences between children identified in a clinical setting as having Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD), an age-matched peer group, and young adults when tested using a vocal reaction time (VRT) format. The children with CAPD were matched by gender and age to peers between the ages of 8 and 10 years. All speakers were presented visually with printed third-grade-level one- and two-syllable words (e.g.,
boy, mother
) as well as the syllable “uh.” Participants spoke each word according to the criteria of seven separate conditions, which included immediate naming tasks (0 s delay), a short delay before speaking (
M
=1.5 s), and a longer delay before speaking (
M
=4.0 s). Speakers' VRTs were measured, and production errors were recorded. All speakers took longer to respond in the immediate-response conditions than the delayed-response conditions. Statistically significant differences were found for the immediate-response conditions, with means for the children with CAPD reflecting slower performance than that of their peers. The peer group was slower than the adults. For the delayed conditions, both groups of children responded with significantly longer VRTs than the adults. The two groups of children did not differ for these tasks. The children with CAPD produced a significantly greater number of errors than their peers, specifically for the long-delay conditions. The adults showed no performance differences across the immediate response conditions nor across the delayed conditions. These results suggested that children with CAPD may have processing difficulties with visual stimuli.
Adults Recovered From Stuttering Without Formal Treatment
Authors: Finn Patrick
Published: July 2014

The purpose of this study was to determine if the speech of adults who self-judged that they were recovered from stuttering without the assistance of treatment is perceptually different from that of adults who never stuttered. Fifteen adult speakers verified as persons who had recovered from a valid stuttering problem without the assistance of treatment were compared with 15 adult speakers verified as persons with normally fluent speech. Judges viewed videotaped speech samples of all speakers and were instructed to decide whether a speaker used to stutter or never stuttered. A separate group of judges rated the same samples for speech naturalness. Various speech behavior measures were also obtained. Results revealed that the speech of speakers who used to stutter was perceptually different from that of speakers who never stuttered. This difference was correlated with unnatural sounding speech and a high frequency of part-word repetitions.
Children Recovered From Stuttering Without Formal Treatment
Authors: Finn Patrick , Ingham Roger J. , Ambrose Nicoline , Yairi Ehud
Published: July 2014

Current evidence suggests that young children who recover from stuttering are essentially stutter-free. However, there is no evidence to indicate if their speech is perceptually indistinguishable from normally fluent peers or whether they retain perceptually unusual speech. One important example of recovery from stuttering is children who have recovered without receiving formal treatment. An investigation was conducted to determine if the speech of these children is perceptually different from the speech of children who have never stuttered. Speakers consisted of 10 preschool and early school-age children documented as recovered from stuttering without benefit of formal treatment. In a series of studies they were compared with 10 children who had never stuttered. Three groups of judges— sophisticated, unsophisticated, and experienced—were separately asked, using videotaped speech samples of the children, to decide which samples were from children who used to stutter. Results revealed that the children who recovered from stuttering were perceptually indistinguishable from the normal controls. The same result was obtained regardless of whether the samples were presented in paired-stimulus or single-stimulus mode. Two of the groups of judges were also instructed to rate the speech naturalness of the speech samples. The speakers were not distinguished on this measure either. Methodological issues and the implications of the findings are discussed.
Effect of Acoustic Cues on Labeling Fricatives and Affricates
Authors: Hedrick Mark
Published: July 2014

Previous studies have shown that manipulation of frication amplitude relative to vowel amplitude in the third formant frequency region affects labeling of place of articulation for the fricative contrast /s/- /∫/(Hedrick & Ohde, 1993; Stevens, 1985). The current study examined the influence of this relative amplitude manipulation in conjunction with presentation level, frication duration, and formant transition cues for labeling fricative place of articulation by listeners with normal hearing and listeners with sensorineural hearing loss. Synthetic consonant-vowel (CV) stimuli were used in which the amplitude of the frication relative to vowel onset amplitude in the third formant frequency region was manipulated across a 20 dB range. The listeners with hearing loss appeared to have more difficulty using the formant transition component than the relative amplitude component for the labeling task than most listeners with normal hearing. A second experiment was performed with the same stimuli in which the listeners were given one additional labeling response alternative, the affricate /t∫/. Results from this experiment showed that listeners with normal hearing gave more /t∫/labels as relative amplitude and presentation level increased and frication duration decreased. There was a significant difference between the two groups in the number of affricate responses, as listeners with hearing loss gave fewer /t∫/labels.
A Validity Study of an Implicit Phonological Awareness Paradigm
Authors: Lance Dee M. , Swanson Lori A. , Peterson Harold A.
Published: July 2014

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the validity of a nonsense-word-pairs paradigm as an implicit phonological awareness task. For this task one member of each nonsense-word-pair violated the rules of consonant combination in English (e.g., /∫kib/), and the other did not (e.g., /∫rib/). The subjects were required to choose the member of the pair that contained permissible consonant sequence(s). Eighty-one normally developing first- and second-graders were given the implicit phonological awareness task, 3 explicit phonological awareness tasks, 2 reading tasks, and a multisyllabic word production task. There were significant correlations between the implicit phonological awareness task and all of the experimental tasks, with the exception of one. Additionally, the implicit phonological awareness task was sensitive to developmental differences between the first- and second-grade readers.
Acoustic Measures of Temporal Intervals Across Speaking Rates
Authors: Max Ludo , Caruso Anthony J.
Published: July 2014

It has been suggested previously that at least some levels of the temporal organization for speech production are characterized by proportional timing. The proportional timing model maintains that the duration of temporal intervals within a sequence would remain proportionally invariant across changes in overall duration of the sequence. In order to test this hypothesis for the acoustic level of speech production, 18 women produced three trials of the utterance "
Buy Bobby a poppy
" at each of three speaking rates (i.e., slow, normal, fast). Acoustically derived temporal intervals were paired to form ratios reflecting either syllablelevel or phrase-level relative timing. Findings indicated that ratios of temporal intervals at both the syllable-level and phrase-level did not remain invariant across speaking rates. Rather, statistically significant changes in the relative duration of both types of intervals were observed as a function of overall rate of production. For most of the obtained ratios, the direction of these changes was highly consistent across individual subjects.
The Perception of Internal Circuit Noise in Hearing Aids by Listeners With Normal Hearing
Authors: Agnew Jeremy , Block Michael
Published: July 2014

Internal circuit noise in hearing aids is distracting to a listener and, if loud enough, may interfere with intelligibility, either by direct masking of weak components of speech or through the generation of undesired intermodulation products, which can also act as a source of masking. The objective characteristics of noise may be measured; however, wearers of hearing aids often differ in their subjective reporting of the perceived characteristics of the internal noise. This study reports on the results for four listeners with normal hearing of matching pitch and amplitude to the internal noise generated within a series of hearing aids. Results of these experiments showed that the listeners (a) primarily matched the perceived pitch of the noise to the frequency of their most sensitive hearing, and (b) matched the perceived level of the noise approximately to the total SPL noise level.
The Influence of Sentence Elicitation Variables on Children's Speech Production
Authors: Weston Audrey D.
Published: July 2014

This study investigated the potential influence of adult-modeled sentences on the speech production of 15 children with speech delays of unknown origin. Two comparison tokens of target words containing sounds with inconsistently realized phonemes were sampled in picture descriptions elicited with and without adultmodeled descriptive sentences. Ten listeners made forced-choice paired-comparisons to identify the children's relatively more advanced word productions. From 205 total comparisons, listeners identified 130 word pairs that included one token more advanced than the other. Significantly more of the children's advanced word productions occurred in sentences elicited with an adult model sentence. Discussion considers theoretical and clinical perspectives of an assumption that variables facilitating children's language production may benefit speech production.
The Nature of Word-Finding Errors of Preschoolers With and Without Word-Finding Deficits
Authors: McGregor Karla K.
Published: July 2014

Twelve preschoolers with word-finding deficits (WF) and their age-matched normally developing (ND) peers participated in three tasks requiring word finding: the noun-naming and verb-naming subtests of the Test of Word Finding (TWF-N, TWF-V) and story retelling. The general error profiles of the two subject groups were similar. Semantic errors were always more common than phonological errors and were typically more common than unrelated errors (e.g., "I don’t know" responses). The difference in proportions of semantic and phonological substitutions constitutes developmental evidence for lemma and lexeme distinctions as proposed in adult-based models of lexical storage. Furthermore, the predominance of errors that bore semantic relations to their targets produced by both ND and WF groups suggests an early and robust organization of lexical storage into a network of related information. Despite similarities between the two subject groups, the word-finding deficits of the WF group were manifested in two ways. First, compared to the ND group, the WF group demonstrated significantly higher rates of naming errors on all three tasks; second, they demonstrated significantly different proportions of error types on two of the three tasks. Specifically, the WF group produced a lower proportion of related errors on the TWF-V and a lower proportion of semantic errors on the story-retell task. One clinical implication of these findings concerns measurement of treatment outcomes. A reduction in the number of errors as well as a shift in the error profile towards higher proportions of related errors, especially semantic errors, may indicate progress in word-finding development.
Brain Morphology in Children With Specific Language Impairment
Authors: Gauger Laurie M. , Lombardino Linda J. , Leonard Christiana M.
Published: July 2014

The planum temporale and pars triangularis have been found to be larger in the left hemisphere than the right in individuals with normal language skills. Brain morphology studies of individuals with developmental language disorders report reversed asymmetry or symmetry of the planum, although the bulk of this research has been completed on adults with dyslexia. Pars triangularis has not been studied in the developmental language impaired population. In this study, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used for quantitative comparisons of the planum temporale (Wernicke’s area) and pars triangularis (Broca’s area) in children with specific language impairment (SLI) and children with normal language skills. The subjects were 11 children with SLI and 19 age- and sex-matched controls between 5.6 and 13.0 years old. Each subject received a neurolinguistic battery of tests and a high resolution volumetric MRI scan. Major results were that (a) pars triangularis was significantly smaller in the left hemisphere of children with SLI, and (b) children with SLI were more likely to have rightward asymmetry of language structures. Furthermore, anomalous morphology in these language areas correlated with depressed language ability. These findings support the hypothesis that language impairment is a consequence of an underlying neurobiological defect in areas of the brain known to subserve language.
P300 Event-Related Potentials in Stutterers and Nonstutterers
Authors: Morgan Michael D. , Cranford Jerry L. , Burk Kenneth
Published: July 2014

This study investigated possible differences between adult stutterers and nonstutterers in the P300 event-related potential. Responses to tonal stimuli were recorded from electrodes placed over the left (C3) and right (C4) hemispheres. The two groups exhibited different patterns of interhemispheric activity. Although all 8 participants in the fluent group exhibited P300s that were higher in amplitude over the right hemisphere, 5 of the 8 disfluent participants had higher amplitude activity over the left hemisphere. These results provide evidence that stutterers and nonstutterers may exhibit differences between hemispheres in the processing of some types of nonlinguistic (tonal) stimuli.