bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Access and Processing of Familiar Idioms by Brain-Damaged and Normally Aging Adults
Authors: Tompkins Connie A. , Boada Richard , McGarry Kathrine
Published: July 2014

Idiom interpretation tasks are routinely used in the clinical evaluation of adults with brain damage, and idiom processing has received increasing attention in the psycholinguistic literature. Clinical evidence suggests that adults with unilateral right-hemisphere damage (RHD) are insensitive to nonliteral meanings conveyed by idiomatic expressions and other figurative forms. However, this portrayal is derived from their terminal responses to tasks that reflect multiple aspects of mental operations (off-line measures), obscuring the source of poor performance. This study used an on-line word-monitoring task to assess RHD, left-hemisphere-damaged, and normally aging adults' implicit knowledge of familiar idiomatic expressions. Brain-damaged subjects performed similarly to normal controls on this task, even though the clinical subjects fared poorly by comparison on an off-line idiom definition measure. These results suggest that adults with unilateral brain damage can activate and retrieve familiar idiomatic forms, and that their idiom-interpretation deficits most likely reflect impairment at some later stage of information processing. Further, error analysis of idiom-definition performance did not support the customary characterization of RHD adults as excessively literal responders The paper discusses clinical implications of the nature and use of idiom interpretation tasks.
Reported Use of Communication Strategies by SHHH Members
Authors: Tye-Murray Nancy , Purdy Suzanne C. , Woodworth George G.
Published: July 2014

Two hundred and twelve members of the Self Help for Hard of Hearing People (SHHH) organization completed a survey that evaluated their use of communication strategies Reported use of strategies was correlated with attitudinal variables and social-interaction indices. On average, subjects agreed most strongly with questionnaire items stating they would ask a talker to repeat a misperceived utterance. They agreed less strongly with items stating they would ask the talker to restructure or elaborate an utterance. Subjects agreed strongly that they would use the communication strategies with familiar talkers, and less strongly that they would use them with unfamiliar talkers. Subjects who appeared less likely to say nothing after misperceiving an utterance were more likely to disagree that they were frustrated with their speechreading skills, and they appeared less likely to avoid social Interactions. Subjects who ndicated a greater likelihood of using anticipatory strategies, such as reviewing potential vocabulary before an appointment, were on average more likely to avoid social interactions. They also agreed more strongly that poor speechreaders appear less intelligent
Residual Effects of Preschool Phonology Disorders in Grade School, Adolescence, and Adulthood
Authors: Lewis Barbara A. , Freebairn Lisa
Published: July 2014

This study used a cross-sectional design to examine the performance of people with a history of a preschool phonology disorder on measures of phonology, reading, and spelling at preschool age (
n
=20), grade school age (
n
=23), adolescence (
n
=17), and adulthood (
n
=17). Results showed that at each age group, subjects with a history of a disorder performed more poorly than control subjects matched for age, sex, and socioeconomic status in all domains. Comparisons across each successive age group revealed a higher performance on measures from preschool to grade school age, and a smaller but steady improvement from grade school age to adolescence to adulthood. Subjects with a history of other language problems, in addition to the phonology disorder overall, performed more poorly than subjects with a history of a preschool phonology disorder alone on the reading and spelling measures. These findings suggest that remnants of a preschool phonology disorder are detectable past grade school age and into adulthood.
Diagnosing Specific Language Impairment in Adults for the Purpose of Pedigree Analysis
Authors: Tomblin J. Bruce , Freese Paula R. , Records Nancy L.
Published: July 2014

Two sets of diagnostic measures were administered to a group of 35 adults with welldocumented histories of specific language impairment and to a control group of 35 normal language users. These measures involved the comprehension and production of words and sentences in formal and spontaneous speaking activities as well as measures of verbal memory and auditory temporal perceptual ability. One set of tasks was administered in a standard face-to-face setting and the other set was given over the telephone. Multivariate and univariate tests indicated that the adults with a history of specific language impairment performed more poorly on all tasks administered. A discriminant analysis of the two sets of measures indicated that four measures in each set identified language-impaired individuals with 97 & #x25; accuracy for the face-to-face battery and 95 & #x25; accuracy for the telephone battery. These results suggest that it should be possible to diagnose specific language impairment in the adult family members of children with specific language impairment and therefore permit accurate construction of pedigrees for specific language impairment.
The Clinical Utility of the P3 AERP in Children With Auditory Processing Disorders
Authors: Jirsa Robert E.
Published: July 2014

This study investigated whether the P3 AERP could be used to reflect behavioral changes resulting from therapeutic intervention in a group of children with central auditory processing disorders (CAPDs). Results showed a significant decrease in P3 latency, along with a significant increase in P3 amplitude, following a structured treatment program. No changes occurred in either the CAPD control group or in the normal control group. These results suggest that the P3 AERP latency and amplitude measures are sensitive to changes in clinical status following a treatment program.
Performance Over Time of Congenitally Deaf and Postlingually Deafened Children Using a Multichannel Cochlear Implant
Authors: Fryauf-Bertschy Holly , Tyler Richard S. , Kelsay Danielle M. , Gantz Bruce J.
Published: July 2014

The speech perception performance of 10 congenitally deaf and 3 postlingually deafened children who received the Cochlear Corporation multichannel cochlear implant was examined and compared. The children were tested preimplant and at 6-month intervals up to 2 years using the Monosyllable-Trochee-Spondee test (MTS), the Word Intelligibility by Picture Identification test (WIPI), and Phonetically Balanced Kindergarten (PB-K) or Northwestern University List 6 (NU-6) word lists. The postlingually deafened children exhibited significantly improved performance on open- and closed-set tests of word recognition after 6 months of implant use, a pattern similar to that of postlingually deafened adult implant users. In contrast, the congenitally deaf children did not exhibit measurably improved performance on speech perception tests until after 12 months or more of implant use. With as much as 18–24 months of use, however, some congenitally deaf children demonstrated limited open-set word recognition.
The Development and Cross-Validation of a Self-Report Inventory to Assess Pure-Tone Threshold Hearing Sensitivity
Authors: Coren Stanley , Hakstian A. Ralph
Published: July 2014

Previous attempts to assess hearing loss by means of self-report survey items have shown only low to moderate correlations with actual audiometric measures, probably because these attempts used items with high face validity rather than laboratory-tested validity. Beginning with a pool of 108 items used with 384 individuals, we developed a self-report inventory (see Appendix) suitable for group testing or survey administration, which appears to have high correlation with pure-tone hearing thresholds. The inventory was then cross-validated against laboratory audiometric measures in a separate sample of 422 subjects. The resulting 12-item Hearing Screening Inventory (HSI) was shown to be reliable with an internal consistency coefficient (alpha) of 0.89 and test-retest stability coefficient of 0.88. The correlation between pure-tone hearing thresholds in the better ear and the HSI scores for the combined samples was
r
= 0.81. The correct classification rate for the HSI was 92.1% for a low fence of 25-dB hearing level and 93.4% for a high fence of 55-dB hearing level. A conversion equation with estimated variability is also provided for point estimates of pure-tone hearing thresholds from the HSI scores. A copy of the inventory and scoring procedure is appended to this report.
Error Monitoring in People Who Stutter
Authors: Postma Albert , Kolk Herman
Published: July 2014

Several theories purport that people who stutter suffer a speech-auditory feedback defect. The disordered feedback creates the illusion that some kind of error has intruded into the speech flow. Stuttering then results from actions aimed to correct the suspected, but nonexistent, error. These auditory feedback defect theories thus predict deviant error detection performance in people who stutter during speech production. To test this prediction, subjects who stuttered and those who did not had to detect self-produced (phonemic) speech errors while speaking with normal auditory feedback and with the auditory feedback masked by white noise. The two groups did not differ significantly in error detection accuracy and speed, nor in false alarm scores. This opposes auditory feedback defect theories and suggests that the self-monitoring processes of people who stutter function normally. In a condition in which errors had to be detected in other-produced speech, i.e., while listening to a tape recording, subjects who stuttered did detect fewer errors. Whether this might signal some general phonological problem is discussed.
A 28-Year Follow-Up of Adults With a History of Moderate Phonological Disorder
Authors: Felsenfeld Susan , Broen Patricia A. , McGue Matt
Published: July 2014

The present investigation is a follow-up to a longitudinal speech and academic study involving approximately 400 normally developing children begun in 1960 by Mildred Templin. From this large data base, the present project invited the participation of two groups of subjects (now aged 32 to 34): (a) 24 adults with a documented history of moderately severe phonological disorder that persisted at least through the end of first grade (probands) and (b) 28 adults from the same birth cohort and schools who were known to have had at least average articulation skills over the same period (controls). Results of follow-up testing revealed that the proband adults performed significantly more poorly than the control adults on all of the administered measures of articulation, expressive language, and receptive language. Results obtained from a screening of nonverbal reasoning ability were equivocal. On a questionnaire measure of personality, both groups scored well within the normal range for the dimensions of extroversion and neuroticism when compared to the test’s normative sample. These results have been interpreted as suggesting that although many adults with a childhood history of delayed phonological development will continue to experience linguistic outcomes that are less favorable than those of controls, their performance in selected nonlanguage domains (e.g., nonverbal reasoning, personality) will be far more typical of the general population.
Relationships Between Speech Recognition Threshold, Average Hearing Level, and Speech Importance Noise Detection Threshold
Authors: Letowski Tomasz , Hergenreder Patti , Tang Houchin
Published: July 2014

The aim of this study was to determine (a) if the speech importance noise detection threshold (SINDT) could be used as an accurate estimator of speech recognition threshold (SRT), and (b) whether the SINDT correlates well with various measures of the pure-tone threshold average (PTA). Pure-tone threshold, SRT, and SINDT tests were administered to 94 adults with various degrees of hearing loss. The results demonstrated that SRT can be accurately predicted from SINDT and that these two are highly correlated (
r
= 0.97). Since a SINDT measurement takes less time than SRT determination, the SINDT test may be recommended as an alternative for SRT in some applications.
Effects of Vocal Task and Respiratory Phase on Prephonatory Chest Wall Movements
Authors: McFarland David H. , Smith Anne
Published: July 2014

A vocal reaction time paradigm was used to explore prephonatory respiratory kinematics. Movements of the rib cage and abdomen were recorded prior to production of utterances differing in length and intensity, and vocal responses were elicited in different phases and volumes of the quiet breathing cycle. A velocity threshold was used to distinguish prephonatory adjustments from the cyclical movements of the chest wall that are characteristic of quiet breathing. The results suggest that a variety of prephonatory kinematic events can occur prior to initiation of vocalization in response to a stimulus. Further, prephonatory movements appear to be adaptive in that they are influenced by the length of the utterance to be spoken and the respiratory volume at the time of voice initiation.
Effects of Configuration on the Paired-Associate Learning of Blissymbols by Preschool Children With Normal Cognitive Abilities
Authors: Fuller Donald R. , Lloyd Lyle L.
Published: July 2014

Translucency appears to be a potent variable in the learning of Blissymbols by preschool children with normal cognitive abilities. Complexity does not appear to influence learning for these individuals when there is a concurrent condition of high translucency. However, a condition of high complexity seems to enhance the learnability of Blissymbols having low translucency. For the present experiment, an attempt was made to determine if symbol configuration affects the learning of highly complex Blissymbols that bear little relationship to their referents. A paired-associate learning paradigm was used to present 30 Blissymbols to 20 cognitively normal preschool children. These symbols were evenly divided into superimposed and nonsuperimposed groups. Results indicated that the children learned more superimposed symbols than their nonsuperimposed counterparts. The implications of this finding for the teaching of Blissymbols are discussed.
Modulation Detection, Modulation Masking, and Speech Understanding in Noise in the Elderly
Authors: Takahashi Gail A. , Bacon Sid P.
Published: July 2014

Temporal processing of suprathreshold sounds was examined in a group of young normalhearing subjects (mean age of 26.0 years), and in three groups of older subjects (mean ages of 54.3, 64.8, and 72.2 years) with normal hearing or mild sensorineural hearing loss. Three experiments were performed. In the first experiment (modulation detection), subjects were asked to detect sinusoidal amplitude modulation (SAM) of a broadband noise, for modulation frequencies ranging from 2–1024 Hz. In the second experiment (modulation masking), the task was to detect a SAM signal (modulation frequency of 8 Hz) in the presence of a 100%-modulated SAM masker. Masker modulation frequency ranged from 2–64 Hz. In the final experiment, speech understanding was measured as a function of signal-to-noise ratio in both an unmodulated background noise and in a SAM background noise that had a modulation frequency of 8 Hz and a modulation depth of 100%. Except for a very modest correlation between age and modulation detection sensitivity at low modulation frequencies, there were no significant effects of age once the effect of hearing loss was taken into account. The results of the experiments suggest, however, that subjects with even a mild sensorineural hearing loss may have difficulty with a modulation masking task, and may not understand speech as well as normal-hearing subjects do in a modulated noise background.
Comparing Internal and External Standards in Voice Quality Judgments
Authors: Gerratt Bruce R. , Kreiman Jody , Antonanzas-Barroso Norma , Berke Gerald S.
Published: July 2014

A new descriptive framework for voice quality perception (Kreiman, Gerratt, Kempster, Erman, & Berke, 1993) states that when listeners rate a voice on some quality dimension (e.g., roughness), they compare the stimulus presented to an internal standard or scale. Hypothetically, substituting explicit, external standards for these unstable internal standards should improve listener reliability. Further, the framework suggests that internal standards for vocal qualities are inherently unstable, and may be influenced by factors other than the physical signal being judged. Among these factors, context effects may cause drift in listeners’ voice ratings by influencing the internal standard against which judgments are made. To test these hypotheses, we asked 12 clinicians to judge the roughness of 22 synthetic stimuli using two scales: a traditional 5-point equal-appearing interval (EAI) scale and a scale with explicit anchor stimuli for each scale point. The stimulus set included a relatively large number of normal and mildly rough voices. We predicted that this would produce an increase in the perceived roughness of moderately rough stimuli over time for the EAI ratings, but not for the explicitly anchored ratings. Ratings made using the anchored scale were significantly more reliable than those gathered using the unanchored paradigm. Further, as predicted, ratings on the unanchored EAI scale drifted significantly within a listening session in the direction expected, but ratings on the anchored scale did not. These results are consistent with our framework and suggest that explicitly anchored paradigms for voice quality evaluation might improve both research and clinical practice.
Relative Satisfaction for Frequency Responses Selected With a Simplex Procedure in Different Listening Conditions
Authors: Kuk Francis K. , Pape Nonalee M. C.
Published: July 2014

The purpose of this study was to compare everyday satisfaction with hearing aid frequency responses selected using a Simplex procedure and those selected using the National Acoustic Laboratories’ formula (NAL-R). Nineteen elderly subjects with impaired hearing selected their preferred frequency responses under six listening conditions. The conditions included syllable identification and discourse quality judgment in quiet, in moderate noise (65 dB SPL), and in loud noise (80 dB SPL) backgrounds. Subjects subsequently wore a multimemory hearing aid programmed with these frequency responses and compared their satisfaction with the various frequency responses in daily listening environments. Subjects showed differential preference across the available frequency responses. Subjects with sloping hearing losses did not show a difference in preference among the selected frequency responses, including that prescribed by NAL-R. On the other hand, subjects with a flat hearing loss showed a slight, but consistent, preference for frequency responses selected while listening to discourse passages in a moderate noise background. These observations suggest that the Simplex procedure may be useful for selecting preferred frequency responses for some hearing aid wearers.
The Effect of Otitis Media With Effusion on the Masking-Level Difference and the Auditory Brainstem Response
Authors: Hall Joseph W. , Grose John H.
Published: July 2014

This study investigated the masking-level difference (MLD) and auditory brainstem response (ABR) in a group of children with a history of otitis media with effusion (OME) and a control group of children with no known history of ear disease. All children had normal hearing at the time of testing. The main goal of the study was to determine whether there was an association between a reduced MLD in the OME children and an abnormal ABR (in terms of prolonged absolute or interwave intervals, or interaural differences in the ABR waveforms). The results indicated that the group of children having a history of OME had significantly reduced MLDs and had significantly prolonged waves III and V, and I–III and I–V interwave intervals. The correlations between MLD and delays in absolute wave or interwave intervals were not significant. However, some correlations between interaural asymmetries of the interwave intervals and the MLD were significant. The results suggest that the reduction in MLD found in children having a history of OME may be related to abnormal brainstem processing.
Verbal Analogical Reasoning in Children With Language-Learning Disabilities
Authors: Masterson Julie J. , Evans Lea Helen , Aloia Mark
Published: July 2014

This study was designed to explore the influences of both cognitive and linguistic abilities on verbal analogy completion. School-age children classified as language-learning disabled were administered five types of verbal analogies: synonyms, antonyms, linear order, category membership, and functional relationship. The performance of the children with language-learning disabilities was compared with one group of normally developing children matched for mental age and another group matched for language age. Results indicated that the group matched for mental age performed better than the other two groups on all types of analogies. Although they had significantly higher mental ages, the children with language-learning disabilities did no better than the language-matched group on any analogy type except antonyms.
A Cepstrum-Based Technique for Determining a Harmonics-to-Noise Ratio in Speech Signals
Authors: Krom Guus de
Published: July 2014

A new method to calculate a spectral harmonics-to-noise ratio (HNR) in speech signals is presented. The method involves discrimination between harmonic and noise energy in the magnitude spectrum by means of a comb-liftering operation in the cepstrum domain. Sensitivity of HNR to (a) additive noise and (b) jitter was tested with synthetic vowel-like signals, generated at 10 fundamental frequencies. All jitter and noise signals were analyzed at three window lengths in order to investigate the effect of the length of the analysis frame on the estimated HNR values. Results of a multiple linear regression analysis with noise or jitter, F
0
, and window length as predictors for HNR indicate a major effect of both noise and jitter on HNR, in that HNR decreases almost linearly with increasing noise levels or increasing jitter. The influence of F
0
and window length on HNR is small for the jittered signals, but HNR increases considerably with increasing F
0
or window length for the noise signals. We conclude that the method seems to be a valid technique for determining the amount of spectral noise, because it is almost linearly sensitive to both noise and jitter for a large part of the noise or jitter continuum. The strong negative relation between HNR and jitter illustrates that spectral noise measures cannot simply be taken as indicators of the actual amount of noise in the time signal. Instead, HNR integrates several aspects of the acoustic stability of the signal. As such, HNR may be a useful parameter in the analysis of voice quality, although it cannot be directly interpreted in terms of underlying glottal events or perceptual characteristics.
Communication Behaviors of Infants With Hearing Loss and Their Hearing Mothers
Authors: Spencer Patricia Elizabeth
Published: July 2014

This study documented communication behaviors of hearing mothers and infants with a hearing loss that had been identified before 9 months of age (Group HL). Their behaviors were compared with those of mothers and infants without hearing loss (Group H). Each group was composed of 18 dyads videotaped during mother-infant play with toys at 12- and 18-months. Group HL mothers produced more gestural and tactile communications (but similar numbers of vocal communications) compared to H mothers. In contrast with earlier reports, infants with and without hearing loss were similar in quantity of gestural and vocal expressive prelinguistic communication behaviors. Despite group similarities in quantity of prelinguistic communications, H infants as a group surpassed HL infants in expression of formal language by 18 months. There was considerable variation within each group in formal language expression, however, with performance of some HL infants matching that of H infants.
Temporal Analysis in Children
Authors: Grose John H. , Hall Joseph W. , Gibbs Carol
Published: July 2014

This study investigated the development of temporal resolution as a function of frequency region using a modified masking period pattern paradigm. This paradigm also allowed age-dependent comparisons of within-channel (temporal resolution) versus across-channel (comodulation masking release [CMR]) processing of temporal information to be made in the same listeners. The results indicated that temporal resolution improves with age. At low frequencies, this improvement continues beyond 10 years of age, whereas at high frequencies performance approaches adult levels by about age 6. Although it is reasonable to expect an association between CMR and temporal acuity, the measure of CMR did not show a significant age effect. The possibility was raised that the poorer temporal resolution of children may not reflect simply a deficiency in peripheral processing of temporal information.
The Covert Repair Hypothesis
Authors: Postma Albert , Kolk Herman
Published: July 2014

Self-repairing of speech errors demonstrates that speakers possess a monitoring device with which they verify the correctness of the speech flow. There is substantial evidence that this speech monitor not only comprises an auditory component (i.e., hearing one’s own speech), but also an internal part: inspection of the speech program prior to its motoric execution. Errors thus may be detected before they are actually articulated. In the covert repair hypothesis of disfluency, this internal error detection possibility has been extended with an internal correction counterpart. Basically, the covert repair hypothesis contends that disfluencies reflect the interfering side-effects of covert, prearticulatory repairing of speech programming errors on the ongoing speech. Internally detecting and correcting an error obstructs the concurrent articulation in such manner that a disfluent speech event will result. Further, it is shown how, by combining a small number of typical overt self-repair features such as interrupting after error detection, retracing in an utterance, and marking the correction with editing terms, one can parsimoniously account for the specific forms disfluencies are known to take. This reasoning is argued to apply to both normal and stuttered disfluency. With respect to the crucial question concerning what makes stuttering speakers so greatly disfluent, it is hypothesized that their abilities to generate error-free speech programs are disordered. Hence, abundant stuttering derives from the need to repeatedly repair one’s speech programs before their speech motor execution.
Phonologic Error Distributions in the Iowa-Nebraska Articulation Norms Project
Authors: Smit Ann Bosma
Published: July 2014

The errors on consonant singletons made by children in the Iowa-Nebraska Articulation Norms Project (Smit, Hand, Freilinger, Bernthal, & Bird, 1990) were tabulated by age range and frequency. The prominent error types can usually be described as phonological processes, but there are other common errors as well, especially distortions of liquids and fricatives. Moreover, some of the relevant phonological processes appear to be restricted in the range of consonants or word-positions to which they apply. A metric based on frequency of use is proposed for determining that an error type is or is not atypical. Changes in frequency of error types over the age range are examined to determine if certain atypical error types are likely to be developmental, that is, likely to self-correct as the child matures. Finally, the clinical applications of these data for evaluation and intervention are explored.
Clinical and Research Congruence in Identifying Children With Specific Language Impairment
Authors: Aram Dorothy M. , Morris Robin , Hall Nancy E.
Published: July 2014

This paper reports on the results of a large multicenter project designed to develop an empirically based classification of preschool children with language impairments. A clinically selected population of 252 children with specific language impairments (SLI) was used to evaluate the reliability, coverage, and usefulness of both standard clinical and research definitions of such children. Varying degrees of congruence were found between the clinically identified children with SLI and those identified as SLI using discrepancy, deficit, and standardized operational criteria. Such mismatch between the original clinical identification and more standardized operational criteria may be related to different clinical perspectives, professional training, and limited assessment measures. These results suggest that there is a significant gulf between the clinical diagnosis of children with specific language impairment and more standardized operational criteria. It is suggested that the global concept of a “specific language impairment” may not be a useful concept for either clinical or research activities.
Induction of a Visual Symbolic Rule in Children With Specific Language Impairment
Authors: Stone C. Addison , Connell Phil J.
Published: July 2014

In a design modeled after that of Connell and Stone (1992), two alternative instructional conditions (Modeling and Imitation) were used to teach a novel morpheme to a group of 21 children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) (ages 5:0 to 6:11) and to 25 age- and ability-matched peers and 21 language-matched younger peers. In contrast to the use of the auditory modality in the Connell and Stone study, in the present study, the morphemes were embodied in a visual symbol system. The objects and meanings conveyed by the symbols were identical to those used in the earlier study. The present results indicated that both the children with SLI and their age-matched peers showed a benefit to their morpheme production from the requirement to imitate the use of the morpheme during learning trials. These results were interpreted as indicating that the group-specific benefit from imitation instruction on the part of the children with SLI found by Connell and Stone with their auditory task is unique to morpheme learning in the auditory modality. As in the earlier study, the children with SLI also tended to learn less than their age-matched peers in all conditions, indicating a possible general deficiency with symbolic rule induction.
Acoustic Evidence for the Development of Gestural Coordination in the Speech of 2-Year-Olds
Authors: Goodell Elizabeth W. , Studdert-Kennedy Michael
Published: July 2014

Studies of child phonology have often assumed that young children first master a repertoire of phonemes and then build their lexicon by forming combinations of these abstract, contrastive units. However, evidence from children’s systematic errors suggests that children first build a repertoire of words as integral sequences of gestures and then gradually differentiate these sequences into their gestural and segmental components. Recently, experimental support for this position has been found in the acoustic records of the speech of 3-, 5-, and 7-year-old children, suggesting that even in older children some phonemes have not yet fully segregated as units of gestural organization and control. The present longitudinal study extends this work to younger children (22- and 32-month-olds). Results demonstrate clear differences in the duration and coordination of gestures between children and adults, and a clear shift toward the patterns of adult speakers during roughly the third year of life. Details of the child-adult differences and developmental changes vary from one aspect of an utterance to another.
Familiarity and Transparency in Idiom Explanation
Authors: Nippold Marilyn A. , Rudzinski Mishelle
Published: July 2014

Idioms differ widely in their degree of difficulty for children and adolescents. Two factors that might account for these differences, familiarity and transparency, were examined. Children and adolescents ages 11, 14, and 17 years (N= 150) were asked to explain in writing the meanings of 24 different idiomatic expressions, each presented in a brief story context. Results showed that performance on the task gradually improved as subject age increased and that high-familiarity idioms were generally easier to explain than moderate- or low-familiarity expressions. Easier idioms also tended to be more transparent. The results are consistent with the “language experience” view of figurative development and question the hypothesis that idioms are learned as giant lexical units.
Longitudinal Study of Hearing Aid Effectiveness. I
Authors: Bender Ruth A. , Niebuhr Diane P. , Getta Janet P. , Anderson Charles V.
Published: July 2014

This report is the first of two detailing a longitudinal follow-up of hearing aid users. Sixty-five subjects were followed for 12 months post-hearing aid fitting. Objective tests included insertion gain, the Speech Perception in Noise (SPIN) test (Kalikow, Stevens & Elliott, 1977; Bilger, Neutzel, Rabinowitz, & Rzeczkowski, 1984) and the Nonsense Syllable Test (NST) (Levitt & Resnick, 1978) presented in quiet and noise backgrounds. Initially each subject’s hearing aid was fit to the revised National Acoustic Laboratories prescriptive formula (NAL-R) (Byrne & Dillon, 1986) using insertion gain measures. Use gain, measured at 6 and 12 months post-fitting, indicated that subjects generally used those prescribed values, except for subjects in the steeply sloping configuration subgroup. The NST and SPIN tests were administered at the fitting and at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months post-fitting. No change in performance, or training effect, was found for the group or for factors of experience, degree of hearing loss, configuration of hearing loss, use time, or circuit type. Failure to demonstrate a training effect may be attributed, in part, to the fact that initial speech recognition testing was done with the hearing aid volume set at the prescribed values. None of the circuits used showed performance superiority, except when comparing scores for the NST obtained in a quiet background to those obtained in a background of speech-weighted noise. In that comparison, the users of adaptive filter circuits exhibited less deterioration of performance in a noise background.
Intelligibility of Selected Passages From the Speech Intelligibility Rating (SIR) Test
Authors: Beck William G. , Speaks Charles
Published: July 2014

Two experiments were conducted to examine the intelligibility of 12 of the 72 passages of connected discourse prepared by Cox and McDaniel (1984, 1989) in the development of the Speech Intelligibility Rating (SIR) test. Intelligibility was assessed with a method-of-adjustment procedure in the presence of two maskers. One was a multi-talker babble with a variable S/N ratio environment that yields intelligibility scores that are potentially level-dependent because of the almost inevitable difference in speech intensity from passage to passage. The second was a signal-correlated noise with a constant S/N ratio environment that provides scores that are essentially level-independent. Two homogeneous subsets of nine passages each were identified that yield equivalent intelligibility scores. The outcome underscores the value of incorporating a signal-correlated noise masker that yields scores that are relatively unaffected by small differences in signal level among passages.
Coexistence of Stuttering and Disordered Phonology in Young Children
Authors: Wolk Lesley , Edwards Mary Louise , Conture Edward G.
Published: July 2014

The purpose of the present study was to assess differences in stuttering, phonological, and diadochokinetic behaviors in young children who exhibit both stuttering and disordered phonology and children who exhibit only one of the disorders. Subjects were 21 male children (aged 4 to 6 years), representing three groups of seven children each: (a) stuttering and normal phonological abilities (
S+NP
), (b) stuttering and disordered phonology (
S+DP
), and (c) normal fluency and disordered phonology (
NF+DP
). Stuttering behavior was assessed during a 30-minute conversational speech task; phonological behavior was assessed during a 162 item picture-naming task; and diadochokinetic abilities were assessed during bi- and multisyllable productions. Results indicated that the S+DP group produced significantly more sound prolongations and significantly fewer iterations per whole-word repetition than the S+NP group. However, there were no differences between the two groups in other stuttering indices. Moreover, no differences were noted between the S+DP and NF+DP groups in phonological behavior. Diadochokinetic rates did not differ among the three groups. The possibility of two types of stuttering, one occurring with and one without disordered phonology, is discussed.
The Relationship Between Speech-Language Impairments and Reading Disabilities
Authors: Catts Hugh W.
Published: July 2014

A group of children with speech-language impairments was identified in kindergarten and given a battery of speech-language tests and measures of phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming. Subjects were followed in first and second grades and administered tests of written word recognition and reading comprehension. The children with speech-language impairments were found to perform less well on reading tests than a nonimpaired comparison group. Subjects’ performance on standardized measures of language ability in kindergarten was observed to be closely related to reading outcome, especially reading comprehension. Measures of phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming, on the other hand, were found to be the best predictors of written word recognition. The implications of these findings for the early identification and remediation of reading disabilities are discussed.
Symmetry of Mandibular Muscle Activity as an Index of Coordinative Strategy
Authors: Moore Christopher A.
Published: July 2014

Electromyographic activity of bilateral mandibular muscle pairs in humans was studied during several tasks: mastication, voluntary oscillation of the jaw, and speech production, as a replication and extension of an earlier investigation by Moore, Smith, and Ringel (1988). The synchrony of activity within and across these paired muscles (masseter, medial pterygoid, and the anterior belly of the digastric) was evaluated by statistical comparison of zero-lag crosscorrelation coefficients between all possible pairs. Paired comparisons were classified and combined according to anatomical and biomechanical properties into comparisons of homologous pairs (e.g., synchrony of activity in right masseter with left masseter), ipsilateral synergists (e.g., right masseter with right medial pterygoid), contralateral synergists (e.g., right masseter with left medial pterygoid), ipsilateral antagonists (e.g., right masseter with right digastric), and contralateral antagonists (e.g., right masseter with left digastric). Statistical comparison of the coactivation within muscle groups (across tasks) and across these muscle groups (within tasks) revealed significantly different groups of coactivated groups for each of the three tasks studied. The grouping of these muscles into coactivated groups always included homologous pairs among those most synchronously active. During mastication, homologous pairs and ipsilateral synergists were coactivated to a degree significantly greater than either of the antagonistic groups or the contralateral synergists. During voluntary oscillation of the jaw, coactive muscle groups were shown to be primarily the homologous pairs; synergists were coactivated to a significantly lesser degree, and antagonistic muscles were reciprocally active. During speech production, only homologous pairs emerged as a highly coactive group, although synergists and antagonistic pairs were coactive to a lesser degree. This finding was interpreted as a further indication of the coordinative plasticity among mandibular muscles, and as a demonstration of the vast differences in the apparent coordinative strategies for speech and nonspeech tasks. Speculation regarding the root of these differences is focused on the differences in kinematic and force-generating requirements of each task.
Oral Communication Skills of Children Who Are Hard of Hearing
Authors: Elfenbein Jill L. , Hardin-Jones Mary A. , Davis Julia M.
Published: July 2014

Forty children with mild to severe hearing losses were administered a battery of speech and language tasks. The children’s speech was characterized by misarticulation of affricates and fricatives, mild-moderate hoarseness, mild resonance problems, and good intelligibility. Their language samples included syntactic errors, primarily involving the use of bound morphemes and complex sentence structures. The children’s pragmatic errors consisted primarily of providing inadequate or ambiguous information to the listener. These results indicate a consistent pattern of oral communication behavior that reflects the reduction of acoustic input that they experience.
A Quantitative Histologic Study of the Normal Human Adult Soft Palate
Authors: Ettema Sandra L. , Kuehn David P.
Published: July 2014

This study was designed to re-examine the same soft palates studied qualitatively in a previous investigation (Kuehn and Kahane, 1990), using a true-color image analysis system. The quantified measures of the areas of specific tissue types are reported. The results indicate that: (a) tendinous tissue is prominent anteriorly and comprises about 10% of total tissue in that region, (b) the relative proportion of glandular and connective tissue is fairly uniform across the length of the soft palate, averaging 22% and 36% respectively, (c) muscle tissue shows a pattern of increasing then decreasing amount from anterior to posterior with a maximum proportion of 23% in the midportion of the soft palate, (d) adipose tissue comprises 22% of total tissue area in the anterior segment and 17% of total tissue area in the posterior segment of the soft palate, (e) other tissue, primarily epithelium and vascular tissue, was found to be fairly constant anteriorly and increased in relative proportion to almost 30% of the total tissue area at the uvular base. The functional implications of these findings are discussed.
Children’s Comprehension and Production of Derivational Suffixes
Authors: Windsor Jennifer
Published: July 2014

Relational knowledge of 21 derivational suffixes conveying six different meanings was investigated with 120 children from 3rd to 8th grade, and with 40 adults. The results obtained from a nonsense-word paradigm indicated that suffixes were comprehended with greater accuracy than they were produced, particularly by the children. Children in the 5th through 8th grades were more accurate than children in the 3rd and 4th grades in both suffix comprehension and production. Children and adults demonstrated greatest accuracy in both comprehension and production with the meaning “without X” (conveyed by the suffix
less
). Overall, they showed low comprehension accuracy with a diminutive suffix,
ette
, and the suffix
ful
, meaning “character of X.” They showed low production accuracy with “can be Xed”
(able)
. Productive suffixes were produced more frequently than less productive suffixes to convey a given meaning.
Relationships Between Intra-Speaker Variation in Aerodynamic Measures of Voice Production and Variation in SPL Across Repeated Recordings
Authors: Holmberg Eva B. , Hillman Robert E. , Perkell Joseph S. , Gress Carla
Published: July 2014

Intra-speaker variation in aerodynamic and acoustic measures of voice production across repeated recordings was studied in relation to cross-recording variation in SPL for three normal female and three normal male speakers. Group data for 15 females and 15 males served as the statistical reference. The speech material consisted of syllable strings in soft, normal, and loud voice. Measures were made of (a) parameters characterizing the inverse filtered oral airflow waveform, (b) the inferred average transglottal air pressure and glottal airflow, and (c) SPL. The results showed that intra-speaker parameter variation across recordings was generally less than 2 standard deviations relative to group mean values. In terms of relation to variation in SPL, the measures could be divided into two main groups: (a) For air pressure, AC flow, and maximum flow declination rate, both intra-speaker variation across recordings and inter-speaker (group) variation was related systematically to variation of SPL. For these measures, it is suggested that variation across recordings was due in part to SPL differences, which can be adjusted for statistically, thus facilitating comparisons between absolute values. (b) For other measures, neither intra-speaker variation across recordings nor inter-speaker group variation was systematically related to SPL. However, some of these latter measures changed with SPL in an orderly fashion across soft, normal, and loud voice for individual speakers. The results are discussed in terms of the clinical use of these measures in studies of voice disorders.
Intelligibility and the Acoustic Characteristics of Speech in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
Authors: Mulligan Moira , Carpenter Joseph , Riddel Joanne , Delaney Maureen Kenny , Badger Gary , Krusinski Patricia , Tandan Rup
Published: July 2014

The purpose of this study was to analyze the changes in specific speech parameters in 14 patients, 7 dysarthric and 7 non-dysarthric, with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), over a 6-month period. Measurements of single word intelligibility, F2 formant trajectories (extent, duration and rate) and diadochokinetic rate showed decreased performance in dysarthric patients as compared to non-dysarthric patients at baseline. F2 transition rates of less than 4 Hz/msec were seen only in dysarthric ALS patients. A relationship between the F2 transition rate and single word intelligibility was noted for patients with moderate to high intelligibility, but at lower levels of intelligibility the F2 rate reached a plateau despite continued decline in intelligibility. Our results support the need for frequent evaluation of dysarthric ALS patients to better understand the relationship between intelligibility and the acoustic parameters of speech.
Word Familiarity, Syllabic Stress Pattern, and Stuttering
Authors: Hubbard Carol P. , Prins David
Published: July 2014

The correspondence of stuttering and linguistic characteristics of utterances has led to speculations that a source factor for stutter events is a speaker’s inadequate formulation of the speech code. In this study, the effects of word frequency and syllabic stress pattern on stuttering frequency were evaluated using specially designed sentences read orally by 10 adult stutterers and 10 adult nonstutterers. Results revealed statistically significant differences in stuttering frequency between sentences with low and high frequency words, but not between sentences with regular and irregular syllabic stress patterns. The significant rank order correlation between stutterers’ word recognition vocabulary scores and amount of stuttering on sentences with high versus low frequency words affirmed that word
familiarity
, not simply word
prominence
, is an important factor contributing to the word frequency effect. The outcomes are discussed in relation to current psycholinguistic theories of stuttering, proposing that word access and phonological encoding difficulties could be a source factor that underlies the occurrence of stutter events.