bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Auditory Perception of Sequenced Words in Apraxia of Speech
Authors: Aten James L. , Johns Donnell F. , Darley Frederic L.
Published: July 2014

In a test of auditory perception of phonemes, 10 patients with apraxia of speech were compared with 10 matched normal control subjects on a task of pointing to pictures designated by sequences of auditory word stimuli. The test items were 190 sequences of two and three words with minimal variation of initial consonant, final consonant, medial vowel, or multiple phonemes.

The apraxic patients made significantly more perceptual errors as a group, but varied considerably in their level of performance. The achievement of some patients was within the range established by the control subjects; that of others was unequivocally inferior. The major deficit in the apraxic group appeared to be impairment of ability to retain the second- and third-syllable consonant elements in three-word sequences.

Apraxia of speech can occur in relatively pure form in the absence of auditory perceptual impairment. It can also occur in conjunction with reduced auditory retention span, which impairs the perception of sequences of words which are minimally varied phonemically.
Problems in Identifying an Acoustically Evoked Potential to a Single Stimulus
Authors: Derbyshire Arthur J. , Osenar Stan B. , Hamilton Lee R. , Joseph Maurice E.
Published: July 2014

The identification of evoked scalp potentials in man to a single acoustic stimulus such as a word becomes possible by combining several techniques. Either multiple EEG derivations from one subject or single derivations from several subjects, can be summed algebraically to yield a tracing with a significant increase (by a factor of 2 or more) in the size of the response relative to the background. A specific template has been found which, when cross correlated with the EEG, yields 2 dimensional (correlation and time) description of when the response occurs.
Within Average Variability of the Acoustically Evoked Response
Authors: Keating Lawrence W. , Ruhm Howard B.
Published: July 2014

This study explored the effects of various tasks, designed to alter the degree of “attention to stimuli” on the variability of the EEG activity which gives rise to the average acoustically evoked response. Evoked responses to 50 dB SL clicks were recorded from the vertex of eight male subjects under four conditions (1) quiet, (2) .counting, (3) discriminating, and (4) reading. Results showed the quiet condition to yield the greatest variability while reading exhibited the least.
Phonetic Ability in Stuttering
Authors: Wingate M. E.
Published: July 2014

A group of 25 male stutterers was found to be inferior to a matched control group on two tests of phonetic manipulation. The results are consistent with findings reported previously by the author, and interrelate with earlier research which suggests that some inadequacy in sound-making skills is an important aspect of stuttering.
Delayed Speech Feedback and Age
Authors: Smith Karl U. , Tierney Dennis
Published: July 2014

The effects of delayed speech feedback on errors and rate of reading in persons of different age were measured by an audiotape technique of producing side-tone ' delay. The age ranges studied were 0–8, 22–38, and 42–68. There were 18 subjects in each age range. A differential effect of the delay on the speech of the subjects of the three age ranges was found, with the older persons showing somewhat more marked disturbances of speech. The differences between age groups occurred primarily in the effects of the delay on frequency of errors and not on rate of speaking. This suggests that it was primarily the articulatory components of speech that were affected by feedback time distortion and by age.
Frequency Transposition in the Teaching of Speech to Deaf Children
Authors: Ling Daniel , Maretic Hermina
Published: July 2014

Conventional (linear) amplification supplemented with frequency transposition was compared with conventional amplification alone in teaching speech to 18 severely deaf children, aged 7–11 years. Subjects were each given ten hours training in the articulation of 64 CV syllables. Six were trained with conventional amplification to both ears (CL + CR), six with conventional amplification to the left ear and transposition to the right (CL+TR), and the remaining six under the reverse condition, (CR + TL). All subjects made significant gains in correctly reproducing both consonants and vowels under all three conditions of amplification, not simply the one employed in training. Vowels were more frequently confused under the two transposition conditions. Results indicated a significant left-ear preference for vowels. Similar confusions of consonant features occurred under each amplification condition. Conventional amplification supplemented with transposition was not found to be superior to conventional amplification alone as an aid in articulation training.
Induced Biophysical Artifacts in Averaged Electroencephalic Response (AER) Audiometry
Authors: Moore Ernest J. , Reneau John P.
Published: July 2014

Induced biophysical artifacts (myogenic responses) were obtained from six subjects during a test procedure similar to that used for recording the late components of the averaged electroencephalic response (AER) to auditory stimuli. The responses obtained were unlike the characteristic uncontaminated AER to sound with regard to latency and amplitude, determined prior to obtaining the induced biophysical response. However, the variety of voluntary biophysical activities (jaw clenching, eye-blinks, forehead movement) performed while recording the AER to sound tended to obscure the characteristic response. Some possible methods for reducing or eliminating induced biophysical artifacts during AER audiometry are presented.
Quality Judgments of Hearing Aid Transduced Speech
Authors: Witter H. L. , Goldstein D. P.
Published: July 2014

Frequency range, harmonic distortion, intermodulation distortion, and transient response measurements were made on five aids which manifested varying amounts of each property. Effects of these properties upon judgments of quality were studied to determine which property was most predictive of quality judgments and whether or not voice interacts with electroacoustic properties. The speech of male and female talkers was recorded through these aids, and paired comparison judgments were made by 30 normal-hearing listeners. Transient response was the best predictor of listener judgments, and voice may be a factor in the quality judgment task.
Auditory Detection of Spondaic Words in Wide-Band Noise by Adults with Normal Hearing and by Children with Profound Hearing Losses
Authors: Erber Norman P.
Published: July 2014

Auditory detection of spondaic words in wide-band noise was measured both for normal-hearing adults and for profoundly deaf children. For the normals, a close relation was found between the speech-to-noise (S/N) ratio required to raise detection for speech above the 50% (i.e. chance) level and the S/N ratio necessary to improve lipreading of similar materials (data from a previous study). This result suggested that the mere detection of speech patterns may provide sufficient information to supplement lipreading.

The deaf subjects required about 9 dB greater S/N ratio for 75% correct detection of words than did those with normal hearing. Subjects with moderate-to-severe hearing losses required intermediate S/N values. This finding implied that maximum communication effectiveness may occur for hearing-impaired children only at higher S/N ratios than that required by normal-hearing persons.

Supplementary data indicated a similarity between the S/N ratios required for detection by the ears of profoundly deaf children and by the hands of normal-hearing adults. A monaurally deaf adult subject reported introspectively that she perceived the acoustic stimuli through her deaf ear as vibratory in nature.
A Study of Talker Sex Recognition of Esophageal Voices
Authors: Weinberg Bernd , Bennett Suzanne
Published: July 2014

This study investigated the ability of listeners to identify the sex of esophageal talkers on the basis of voice recordings. Recognition data are provided for 15 female and 18 male esophageal talkers. In general, the results support the hypothesis that naive listeners can reliably and accurately identify the sex of esophageal talkers from voice samples.
Severity of Nasality in Three Selected Speech Tasks
Authors: Carney Patrick J. , Sherman Dorothy
Published: July 2014

This study was designed to evaluate the relative effects of three speech tasks upon the perception of nasality for 10 nasal speakers without cleft palate (Group I) and 10 nasal speakers with cleft palate (Group II). The three speech tasks consisted of the production of (a) five isolated vowels, (b) the same five vowels in consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) syllables, and (c) the same five CVC syllables in a connected speech passage. The psychological scaling procedure of equal-appearing intervals was used to assess the severity of nasality. The results indicate that for both groups of nasal speakers, CVC syllables removed from a connected speech passage are judged to be less nasal than either isolated vowels or isolated CVC syllables. For nasal speakers with cleft palate, the relationships of nasality in a connected speech passage to nasality in each of five vowels produced in isolation, to each of five CVC syllables produced in isolation, and to each of the same five CVC syllables produced in a connected speech passage are low. These same relationships do not, in general, exist for nasal speakers without cleft palate.
Examination of the Cros Type Hearing Aid
Authors: Lotterman Stephen H. , Kasten Roger N.
Published: July 2014

This study was designed to examine the CROS type hearing aid under a number of listening conditions, both advantageous and disadvantageous, in order to determine whether the relative merits of the instrument could be demonstrated in the laboratory. CNC word lists were presented against a background of cafeteria noise to evaluate the performance of 20 unilaterally impaired subjects under five unaided and five aided listening conditions. Speech intelligibility scores obtained under the experimental conditions were converted to deterioration scores relative to better ear discrimination in quiet. Deterioration of unaided speech scores ranged from 14% under the most favorable listening condition to 58% under the least favorable condition. Deterioration of aided scores ranged from a low of 20% to a high of 39%. The results suggest that while the CROS hearing aid enhances intelligibility under favorable use conditions, it degrades speech intelligibility in some demanding situations.
Cortical Excitability, Perseveration, and Stuttering
Authors: Sayles Daniel G.
Published: July 2014

Twenty-three male stutterers were compared with 25 male nonstutterers on measures of speech behavior, perseveration, and neurologic function. Flicker fusion threshold was determined as the single measure of perseveration, and multiple oral readings of a 218-word passage were recorded. Stuttering frequency for all subjects was computed from the tapes and, for the stuttering subjects, measures of adaptation and consistency were derived. Routine resting EEG records were obtained, and recording was continued during sleep, hyperventilation, intermittent photic stimulation, and two episodes of oral reading, one before and one immediately after hyperventilation.

Abnormal or borderline EEGs were observed in 48% of the stutterers, as compared with 12% of the nonstutterers. Stutterers also exhibited a significantly greater cortical sensitivity to hyperventilation, regardless of age. This was true even of those with normal EEGs. Hyperventilation also appeared to reduce stuttering frequency among stutterers with anomalous EEGs.

With respect to stuttering frequency, adaptation, and consistency, stutterers with anomalous EEGs did not differ significantly from those with normal EEGs. Mean flicker fusion threshold was significantly lower in the stuttering group. Stutterers with anomalous EEGs had higher fusion thresholds than those with normal EEGs. Flicker fusion threshold appeared to be unrelated to stuttering frequency, adaptation, and consistency.
Frequency of Stuttering Following Repeated Unison Readings
Authors: Frank Art , Bloodstein Oliver
Published: July 2014

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the decrease in stuttering which usually accompanies repeated oral readings of a passage (adaptation effect) requires the occurrence of stuttering, as is implied by almost all theories which have been advanced to explain the effect. Fifteen stutterers performed five relatively fluent readings of a 200-word passage in unison with an experimenter and a sixth reading independently. The amount of stuttering in the sixth reading was found to be essentially the same as in the sixth reading of an ordinary adaptation series by the same subjects. The inference was drawn that the adaptation effect is primarily adaptation to oral reading as such rather than to stuttering. It was suggested that the adaptation phenomenon results from rehearsal of the motor plan.
Evaluation of Modified Rhyme Test Results from Impaired- and Normal-Hearing Listeners
Authors: Elkins Earleen F.
Published: July 2014

Four lists of the Modified Rhyme Test (MRT) were administered to 9 normal-hearing and 50 impaired-hearing subjects. The stimuli were spoken by a male speaker with test conditions designed to yield 96, 83, 75, and 96% correct responses by normal listeners. Normal subjects performed within the expected normal limits. Impaired-hearing subjects had significantly lower scores and did not show the proportional decrease for the most difficult condition. The performance of subjects grouped by degree of hearing loss showed that increasing noise did not affect MRT scores differentially, nor did MRT scores decrease significantly with increasing speech reception thresholds (SRTs). When a slight amount of noise accompanied the MRT, a significant relationship was shown with clinically obtained W-22 scores. Correlational analysis among five measures of speech-discrimination ability and six measures of threshold sensitivity supported other studies with regard to the frequency region important for the perception of monosyllabic stimuli at suprathreshold levels.
Reports of Parental Attitudes by Stuttering and by Nonstuttering Children
Authors: Yairi Ehud , Williams Dean E.
Published: July 2014

Thirty-four male stutterers (17 mild and 17 moderate-severe) and 34 nonstutterers, all in the sixth and seventh grades of school, completed the Children’s Report of Parent Behavior Inventory (CRPBI) for both parents. The stutterers tended to view their parents as behaving with less control and hostility and with more love and autonomy than did the nonstutterers. The degree of severity of stuttering was not an influential factor on the reported parental behavior.
Programmed Instruction of Hearing-Impaired Children in the Auditory Discrimination of Vowels
Authors: Doehring Donald G. , Ling Daniel
Published: July 2014

Programmed instruction in auditory vowel discrimination was given to eight children, five-to-eleven years old, with severe hearing impairment. All children showed steady increases in the rate of learning over four series of discriminations and in later training on the original series. However, there was no transfer of the learned vowel discriminations to a word-recognition task incorporating some of the same words used in training. The need to develop instructional programs for teaching children to acquire and generalize verbal discrimination skills is discussed.
Dichotic Listening in Hearing-Impaired Children
Authors: Ling Agnes H.
Published: July 2014

Ear asymmetry for dichotic digits was used in an attempt to estimate speech laterality in 19 children with impaired hearing and 19 with normal hearing. Sequences of digits were also presented monaurally. The normal-hearing group was significantly superior to the hearing-impaired in the recall of both monaural and dichotic digits. No ear advantage was observed for either group on the monaural test. Right-ear dichotic scores were significantly superior for the normal-hearing group, but intersubject variability resulted in a nonsignificant right-ear trend for the hearing-impaired group, with individuals showing marked right- or left-ear advantage. No correlation was found between degree of ear asymmetry on the dichotic test and vocabulary scores for hearing-impaired subjects. Both members of a dichotic pair were rarely reported by hearing-impaired subjects, with one digit apparently masking or suppressing the other. It was concluded that speech lateralization could not safely be inferred from dichotic digit scores of hearing-impaired children.
The Effects of Motor and Sensory Disruptions on Speech: A Description of Articulation
Authors: Scott Cheryl M. , Ringel R. L.
Published: July 2014

Eleven spondee words produced by six dysarthric and two sensory-deprived speakers were phonetically transcribed in order to determine whether motor and sensory dysfunctions result in distinctive articulatory patterns. In general, the types of articulatory deviations produced by dysarthric speakers were different from those produced by speakers deprived of oral sensation. Stop and fricative error patterns in particular appear to differentiate the two groups of speakers. The results serve to emphasize die unique contribution of information from peripheral oral receptors in the control of ongoing speech.
Personality, Stuttering Severity, and Age
Authors: Prins David
Published: July 2014

Sixty-six male stutterers between the ages of 8 and 21 years were given the California Test of Personality and evaluated for stuttering severity during oral reading and spontaneous speech. Twenty-three subjects with other communicative disorders served as a control group. Simple and multiple correlation coefficients were computed among scores of personality, speech, and age. There were no significant correlations to indicate a relationship between personality maladjustment and increased age or stuttering severity. In the experimental group an interesting disparity was found between Social Standards (60th percentile) and Social Skills (30th percentile). Contrary to usual assumptions, however, signs of maladjustment were more prevalent among subjects with disorders of speech other than stuttering.
Ease of Articulation
Authors: Locke John L.
Published: July 2014

Two tasks required adults to estimate the muscular ease of articulating word-initial consonant phonemes. Ease ratings were positively correlated with Templin’s data (1957) on three-year-old children’s degree of mastery of these same phonemes. Three-year-olds' phoneme perception data (Koenigsknecht) were not correlated with phoneme production, lending mild support to a motor ease hypothesis of phonological development. Children’s articulatory substitutions (Snow, 1963) also were found to be explainable on the basis of ease of articulation, with substituted phonemes receiving “easier” ratings than the target phonemes for which they were substituted. Adult ease ratings and children’s articulatory mastery of manner, place, and voicing features generally were in fairly close agreement. The significance of these findings is discussed, as well as certain problems presented by the use of adult ease ratings and data from disparate sources and populations.
Generality of Disfluency Data Collected from Preschoolers
Authors: Silverman Ellen-Marie
Published: July 2014

Tape-recorded speech samples were collected from 10 four-year-old boys, both in their preschool classroom and in a structured interview on each of three days spaced one week apart. The frequency and duration of disfluency were computed for each sample. While the distribution of disfluency types and duration (extent) of disfluency were comparable in the two situations, considerably more disfluency was observed in the structured interview. The magnitude of the systematic situational difference in disfluency frequency suggests that it is risky to assume that a sample of disfluency elicited in a structured interview is representative of the behavior in other, more natural situations.
Differential Effectiveness of Six Information-Input Procedures Utilized to Teach Unfamiliar Sounds in Isolation
Authors: Wingo John W. , Hoshiko Michael
Published: July 2014

Six procedures incorporating imitative, tactile, and descriptive input were used to teach six unfamiliar sounds in isolation. Comprehensive anatomical production sites, varied types of articulator production, and the overlaid presence or absence of vocal fold vibration were characteristics systematically included in the unfamiliar sounds. Each of the 36 subjects was taught one unfamiliar sound by each input procedure. Inputs incorporating imitative information produced the most short-range learning. Tactile information inputs appeared to be least effective. Inputs carrying two types of information were more effective than singular techniques for teaching the sounds as a group. Voiced sounds were easier to teach than voiceless sounds. No input type proved to be differentially more effective for sounds produced in relatively inaccessible areas of the posterior oral cavity. Although non-English sounds were necessarily utilized in this study, it is hypothesized that conclusions drawn from these results may be adaptable for articulation therapy procedures for English phonemes.
An Evaluation of the Efficiency of the Verbal Auditory Screening for Children (VASC)
Authors: Ritchie Betty Caraway , Merklein Richard A.
Published: July 2014

The efficiency of the Verbal Auditory Screening for Children (VASC) compared to a pure-tone threshold test as a technique to identify hearing impairment among preschool children was investigated with 162 subjects. The VASC-1 test correctly identified 84.6% of the total subjects. Of the 41 subjects failed by the pure-tone threshold test, 48.8% were missed by the VASC-1. An analysis of the average hearing threshold loss for 500–2000 Hz or the ears misclassified by the VASC-1 revealed 83.3% ranged from 0 to 13 dB. The VASC-1 and the verbal portion of the VASC-2 appear to be fairly equivalent forms.
A Comparative Analysis of the ITPA and PPVT Performance of Young Stutterers
Authors: Williams Ann M. , Marks Colleen J.
Published: July 2014

The ITPA and PPVT were administered to 28 stutterers who ranged in age from five years, three months, to nine years, six months. ITPA results suggested a tendency toward relative weakness at the automatic level, with a specific deficit in auditory-vocal sequencing ability. Correlation of PPVT and ITPA scores suggested that the Peabody may not be a valid measure of receptive auditory comprehension.
Effects of Body Position on the Auditory System
Authors: Macrae J. H.
Published: July 2014

Effects of body position on auditory threshold acuity, the acoustic impedance at the tympanic membrane, and the middle ear muscle reflexes were investigated at 150, 250, and 500 Hz. Relative to the values obtained in the seated upright position, threshold acuity was reduced, the resistive and reactive components of the acoustic impedance were greater, and the effects of stapedius and tensor tympani muscle contractions on the compliance at the tympanic membrane were reduced in the inverted (upside-down) position. The increase in acoustic impedance, which is probably due to an increase in the hydrostatic pressure of the labyrinthine fluids, accounted for only about half the decrease in threshold acuity.
A Further Analysis of Fluency within Stuttered Speech
Authors: Few Linda R. , Lingwall James B.
Published: July 2014

This study involved an analysis of some of the characteristics of fluent speech produced by 14 adult stutterers. Measures included listener judgments of speaking rate and listener identifications of stutterers and a comparison group of nonstutterers based on selected 10-second fluent speech samples. In addition, cumulative pause time and articulation rates for the subjects were examined. Statistically, none of the measures distinguished the stutterers from the nonstutterers at the 0.05 level. These data lend support to the assumption that stuttering behavior is confined to intermittent and apparently discrete response boundaries.
Velopharyngeal Anatomy
Authors: Dickson David Ross , Dickson Wilma Maue
Published: July 2014

The velopharyngeal area was studied in seven adult and six fetal heads by gross microscopic dissection, and in one additional fetal head by histologic sectioning and staining. In all cases except one, fibers of the superior constrictor muscle were found to insert into the velum. The salpingopharyngeus muscle was absent bilaterally in six of the 14 heads and was sparse in those heads where it was present. The tensor palatini muscle attached to the lateral membranous wall of the eustachian tube in all cases. The levator palatini muscle always lay lateral to the torus tubarius and inserted into the velum over a broad area extending from the region of the anterior aponeurosis to near the uvula. Speculations regarding muscle function in velopharyngeal closure are presented.
The Perceptual Level Functioning of Dysphasic Children: A Follow-Up Study
Authors: Weiner Paul S.
Published: July 2014

As part of the second stage of a longitudinal investigation of the language and language-related behavior of dysphasic children, seven experimental and seven normal control subjects were retestecf The battery of tests related to auditory-perceptual, auditory-vocal, and oral-motor functioning and also to visual-perceptual and visual-motor functioning. A measure of grammar comprehension was included. The major results were very consistent with those of the first year. The dysphasic children continued to be deficient in auditory-vocal and oral-motor functioning and in language comprehension. In contrast, they were the equals of the normal control subjects in visual-perceptual and visual-motor functioning. Various hypotheses which have been advanced to explain the language difficulties of aphasic and dysphasic children were reviewed in the light of the present findings. Further study is clearly needed before an adequate theoretical formulation is possible.
Effects of Task Difficulty on Naming Performance of Aphasic Subjects
Authors: Brookshire Robert H.
Published: July 2014

Nine aphasic patients participated in a picture-naming task in which sets of predetermined easy-to-name pictures were alternated with sets of predetermined difficult-to-name pictures. Results indicated that exposure to difficult-to-name items interfered with subject’s ability to name subsequent easy-to-name items. The inverse was also true; that is, exposure to easy-to-name items facilitated naming of subsequent difficult-to-name items. A six-point system was used to score subjects' responses; it proved to be more sensitive than a two-point ‘correct-incorrect’ scale. Analysis of subjects' responses suggested that increments in correct naming appear in all-or-none fashion, rather than as a progression through stages of gradually increasing accuracy.
Intelligibility of Connected Discourse
Authors: Speaks Charles , Parker Barbara , Harris Christine , Kuhl Patricia
Published: July 2014

An approach to measuring the intelligibility of free-running connected discourse that contrasts with the quasi-statistical methods generally used with nonsense syllables, words, or sentences is described. With this approach, intelligibility is viewed as a decision by the listener that specifies how well the message was understood. The goal of testing, therefore, is to quantify the listener’s response with meaningful indices of performance. The various speech-Bekesy procedures are sensitive to a listener decision, but they fail to specify how the criterion of intelligibility was interpreted by the listener and have the additional disadvantage of specifying intelligibility as a threshold level in decibels rather than as a magnitude of intelligibility in percent. Experiments are reported in which systematic modifications were made to the speech-Bekesy procedures. The two major methods are “tracking to constant percentage criteria of intelligibility” and “estimation of intelligibility.” The results specify intelligibility of connected discourse by a performance-intensity function. The data are stable across alternative testing methods and compare favorably with sentence-repetition scores.
Assessment and Modification of Verbal Imitation with Low-Functioning Retarded Children
Authors: Bricker William A. , Bricker Diane D.
Published: July 2014

An institutionalized population of 30 children was given a speech sound imitation test composed of 25 consonant-vowel combinations. Results of this assessment indicated that although the retarded children made more errors than preschool children, the pattern of errors was similar. The most frequent type of error made by low-functioning children as well as normal preschoolers was in place of articulation. Subsequently, 10 low-functioning children were divided into component and speech-sound training groups. The difference in these procedures was the units of behavior that served as the training stimuli. The results indicated that the speech-sound group emitted fewer errors than the component group on the posttest.
Disfluencies in Child-Child and Child-Mother Speaking Situations
Authors: Martin Richard R. , Haroldson Samuel K. , Kuhl Patricia
Published: July 2014

Disfluencies of 20 children, ages 3.5 to 5 years, were counted in two situations. In each session a child spoke with his mother for 10 minutes, a second child spoke with his mother for 10 minutes, and then the two children spoke with each other for 10 minutes. A total of five such sessions was conducted for each child. The percent of disfluent words produced by the children when they talked with another child was not significantly different from the percent when they talked with their mothers. The percent of disfluent words for the group did not differ significantly across sessions. The number of words emitted by the children as a group when they talked with other children did not differ significantly from the number of words emitted when they talked with their mothers.
A Comparison of Four Feature Systems Using Data from Three Psychophysical Methods
Authors: Singh Sadanand , Becker Gordon M.
Published: July 2014

Four feature systems (Miller-Nicely, Singh-Black, Wickelgren, and Chomsky-Halle) were compared under three different perceptual tasks involving the ability of subjects to auditorily discriminate pairs and triads of 22 prevocalic English consonants. More than 1000 listeners participated in these experiments. The features in each system were weighted using multiple regression techniques. The weights differed from one data collection method to another for the same feature system, and from one system to another for the same data collection method. The 11-feature Chomsky-Halle system showed the highest multiple correlation for two of the three data collection methods. However, when weights obtained from one method were used to predict the data from another method, the Chomsky-Halle system was best on only one of the three sets of data. The results raised some questions regarding the generality of the systems, the appropriateness of the features, or the appropriateness of the analysis technique.
The Effects of Physiological Noise on the Auditory Threshold
Authors: Moulin Linda K.
Published: July 2014

Psychometric function slopes and false positive rates were obtained from two groups of 10 subjects each: a normal group observed both with and without external auditory canal occlusion, and a group of subjects with otosclerotic hearing losses. The measures were obtained at 80, 125, and 1000 Hz. Analysis of subject responses revealed that steeper psychometric function slopes and fewer false positive responses were observed in the otosclerotic group as compared with the normal group. Interpretation of results supports a model of auditory functioning in which a substantial amount of physiological noise originates in the middle ear and creates confusion, uncertainty, and variability during threshold determination for normal listeners. This variability, reflected in a flattening of the psychometric function slope and an increase in occurrence of false positive responses, is not seen in subjects with otosclerosis, presumably because of attenuation of physiological noise arising in the middle ear.
Stuttering Consistency in Varied Contexts
Authors: Hamre C. E. , Wingate M. E.
Published: July 2014

The “consistency effect” has been proffered as evidence that stuttering is basically a response to fear-producing stimuli inherent in certain words. To assess consistency in relatively spontaneous speech, each of 16 stutterers gave continuous word associations from which 18 stuttered (experimental) and 18 nonstuttered (control) words matched for length, initial phoneme, and familiarity were selected for each subject. Subjects then produced each of the 36 words in three sentences and read them as a list. The hypothesis to be tested was that significantly more experimental than control words would be restuttered. Grouped totals suggest support for the hypothesis, but inspection of the data reveal that the performance of only a few subjects provided the margin of difference. Moreover, other factors also appear influential in determining the recurrence of stuttering. These results suggest that the term consistency as presently used is misleading, hypotheses concerning stuttering based on the notion of a consistency effect are not tenable, and an account of the loci of repeated occurrences of stuttering must penetrate beyond the word level.
A Comparison of Acoustic Reflex and Loudness Growth in Normal and Pathological Ears
Authors: Beedle Randall K. , Harford Earl R.
Published: July 2014

This study compares acoustic reflex growth and loudness growth at 500, 1000, and 2000 Hz. Two groups of 10 subjects each were tested: a group with normal hearing, and a group with a unilateral hearing loss resulting from endolymphatic hydrops and demonstrating loudness recruitment. Acoustic reflexes were recorded graphically at successive 2-dB increments from the reflex threshold to a sensation level of 16 dB, employing an ascending and a descending approach. Alternate binaural loudness balances were performed at three sensation levels relative to the acoustic reflex threshold. Results indicate that the slope of the acoustic reflex growth function is much greater and more rapid for the normal ears than for either ear of the subjects with unilateral hydrops. Also, the acoustic reflex growth is essentially the same for the impaired ears and the good ears of the subjects with a unilateral hearing loss. On the basis of these results, it appears that the relationship presumed to exist between loudness experience and the acoustic reflex must be questioned.
Effect of Alcohol on the Early and Late Components of the Averaged Electroencephalic Response to Clicks
Authors: McRandle Carol , Goldstein Robert
Published: July 2014

Early and late components of the averaged electroencephalic response to clicks were studied for eight adult subjects prior to and at regular intervals after ingestion of two ounces of 100 proof bourbon. Latencies of the early and late components did not change over the five to seven hours after alcohol ingestion. No significant changes were noted in the peak-to-peak amplitudes of the early components, while a slight trend toward increased amplitude over time was observed for P
2
-N
2
of the late components.
An Interpretation of Jaw Acceleration during Speech as a Muscle Forcing Function
Authors: Abbs James H. , Netsell Ronald
Published: July 2014

Recordings of jaw acceleration (J
x
/t
2
) were obtained in an attempt to provide some information on the nature of the jaw muscle forcing function during speech. The impetus for this approximation was provided by Newton’s second law of motion. The speech wave, intraoral air pressure (P
o
), jaw displacement (J
x
), and jaw velocity (J
x
/t) were simultaneously recorded with J
x
/t
2
to facilitate inferences to net muscle force. Based on the rationale and preliminary data presented here, this interpretation appears to represent a powerful explanatory tool for speech physiology research.
Spontaneous Recovery of Nonstutterers' Disfluency Following Adaptation
Authors: Silverman Franklin H. , Bloom Sister Charleen Marie
Published: July 2014

Each of 18 sixth-grade nonstutterers and each of 20 adult nonstutterers read a passage five times consecutively at the same hour on two successive days. The mean frequency of disfluency during each reading of the passage was determined for the subjects in each study. While the subjects in both studies exhibited the adaptation effect the first day, in neither study did they evince spontaneous recovery the second day comparable to that reported for stutterers. Several implications are discussed.
Auditory Perception of Rhyming in Kindergarten Children
Authors: Knafle June D.
Published: July 2014

One hundred and eighty-nine kindergarten children were given a CVCC rhyming test which included four slightly different types of auditory differentiation. They obtained a greater number of correct scores on categories that provided maximum contrasts of final consonant sounds than they did on categories that provided less than maximum contrasts of final consonant sounds. For both sexes, significant differences were found between the categories; although the sex differences were not significant, girls made more correct rhyming responses than boys on the most difficult category.
“Same” and “Different” Concepts and Children’s Performance on Speech Sound Discrimination
Authors: Beving Barbara , Eblen Roy E.
Published: July 2014

Thirty children four to eight years of age were tested with two speech-sound discrimination tasks. In one, they were asked to identify a pair of nonsense syllables as “same” or “different,” and in the other they were asked to repeat the syllable pair. The youngest children (mean age four years, seven months) scored better on the imitation task than on the “same-different” task, while the other groups (mean ages six years, seven months and eight years, six months) did not differ in their ability to perform either task. The youngest group differed from the two older groups in their score on the same-different task but not on the imitation task. Thus, the preschoolage subjects were thought to be unable to make the cognitive judgment “same” or “different,” although they were able to discriminate as well as the older children.
Clustering: A Characteristic of Preschoolers' Speech Disfluency
Authors: Silverman Ellen-Marie
Published: July 2014

Instances of speech disfluency produced by 10 four-year-old nonstuttering boys during spontaneous speech were analyzed to determine whether runs or clusters (instances of disfluency on the same word and/or consecutive words) occurred more often than expected by coincidence or chance. Chance frequencies were generated by the Monte Carlo Method. All 10 children produced more instances of disfluency in runs than expected by chance. Attributes of the runs are described. The possibility of using this phenomenon to differentiate young stutterers from their peers is discussed.
Use of Revision by Elementary-School Stutterers and Nonstutterers during Oral Reading
Authors: Silverman Franklin H. , Williams Dean E.
Published: July 2014

This paper describes a dimension of the stuttering problem of elementary-school children—less frequent revision of reading errors than their nonstuttering peers.
The Standardization of Tests: Criteria and Criticisms
Authors: Weiner Paul S. , Hoock William C.
Published: July 2014

With the great increase in the use of standardized tests in the field of speech pathology it seems worthwhile to present information on the process of standardizing tests. This paper presents the procedures involved in one aspect of the process, the establishment of norms. The procedures described are the following: (1) the choice of variables which affect scores on the behavior being tested and the selection of reference groups which embody these variables, (2) the determination of an adequate sample size, (3) the use of a randomization process in choosing the sample, (4) testing within a limited time span, and (5) statistical treatment of the resulting data. To illustrate these procedures and their use as criteria for judging the adequacy of the standardization of specific tests, three instruments which are commonly used in speech clinics are critically discussed.
Children’s Phonetic Learning in the Laboratory: Judgmental or Real?
Authors: Locke John L. , Bookshester Joyce
Published: July 2014

To determine whether an “expectation-of-learning” effect was operative in judging a child’s phonetic imitation, two techniques for scoring were used to evaluate sequentially one child’s phonetic imitations. A tape of this child attempting, in 20 trials, to imitate a novel syllable [′e ⊣
Ʒ
ə] was played forward (Trials 1 to 20) to six judges. Of these six, one group of three judges used a seven-point rating scale to evaluate the adequacy of the child’s imitation of the syllable, while the other three used a phonemic-classification system. A reverse tape (Trials 20 to 1) also was evaluated similarly by two different groups of three judges. Judges assigned lower scores to “early” rather than “late” responses only if initial responses were heard first. The phonetic learning of the child in this experiment was real, but judgmental bias radically enhanced it in forward-order and nearly destroyed it in reverse-order listening.
The Effect of Reduced Reading Rate on Stuttering Frequency
Authors: Adams Martin R. , Lewis Jeffrey I. , Besozzi Thomas E.
Published: July 2014

This study evaluated how a decrease in reading rate would affect stuttering frequency. Eighteen stutterers read the same passage aloud in two conditions. Habitual reading rates and styles were required in the control condition. In the experimental condition, reading rates were significantly reduced by allowing subjects to see and read one word per second. When reading rates were manipulated in this way, significantly less stuttering occurred. Note was taken of the fact that, in the experimental condition, stutterers had to use a speech pattern that minimized the normal requirements of rapid coordination and transition across word boundaries. If stuttering is a phonetic transition defect, then the aforementioned pattern, which calls for less coordination and transition, should promote fluency. From this reasoning, it follows that the decrease in stuttering noted was as much dependent upon the manner of reading demanded of subjects as the reading rate forced upon them.
Computerized Pure-Tone Audiometric Procedures
Authors: Wood Thomas J. , Wittich Walter W. , Mahaffey Robert B.
Published: July 2014

The purpose of this study was to develop a computer program and the necessary interfacing systems which would enable a PDP/8-I digital computer to (1) control all aspects of administering pure-tone air- and bone-conduction stimuli; (2) recognize the need for masking based on unmasked auditory thresholds, determine the appropriate level of masking, and regulate the presentation of the masker to the nontest ear; (3) analyze the subject’s responses to the above procedures in terms of threshold-determination criteria; and (4) present the obtained thresholds in audiogram format at the conclusion of the computerized testing procedure. The threshold accuracy of this automated design was evaluated in terms of Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients and average deviations of differences obtained between thresholds determined by a clinical audiologist and computer-determined threshold values when each performed these audiometric test procedures on the same hypacusic subjects. The results of this study indicate that the computerized procedures used to determine pure-tone air- and bone-conduction thresholds are, in terms of the patients tested, a clinically feasible means of assessing these auditory functions.
Averaged Encephalic Response of Aphasics to Linguistic and Nonlinguistic Auditory Stimuli
Authors: Greenberg Herbert J. , Metting Pamela J.
Published: July 2014

This study investigated the averaged encephalic responses (AER) of aphasics to words and to white noise stimuli matched to the amplitude of each word. Subjects were classified according to the Functional Communication Profile. Fifty presentations of each of the stimuli were presented to the right and left ears of aphasics while they were completing a simple recognition task. Electroencephalographic (EEG) activity was recorded from bipolar electrodes at right and left hemisphere placements (T
5
-F
3
; T
6
-F
4
). Differences were found in the component latencies between hemispheres, but further analysis showed that this was present only in those subjects who had severe communication difficulties. There were no significant AER differences between the stimuli, but the AERs obtained were inconsistent. The differences found could be a reflection of the damage to the left hemisphere which is outwardly affecting the aphasic’s communicative behavior.
The Conceptual Reality of Selected Distinctive Features
Authors: LaRiviere Conrad , Winitz Harris , Reeds James , Herriman Eve
Published: July 2014

An experiment was conducted in which a large group of subjects was asked to categorize speech stimuli. In each subexperiment, two groups of 10 subjects categorized, with immediate feedback, 90 stimuli consisting of six monosyllables arranged in 15 randomized blocks. One group, the feature-contrast group, could solve the categorization task on the basis of a feature contrast or rote memory. The second group, a control group, could operate only on the basis of rote memory. Data are presented for the following features: ± vocalic, ± voice, ± nasal, ± continuant, and ± strident. Results indicate that the nasal, strident, and vocalic features have conceptual reality, that pairing a conceptually real feature with a nonoonceptually real feature does not improve performance, and that the data are not easily related to many existing notions or data concerning distinctive-feature theory.
Spectral and Temporal Parameters of Contralateral Signals Altering Temporary Threshold Shift
Authors: Karlovich Raymond S. , Wiley Terry L.
Published: July 2014

The test ear of each of nine normal-hearing subjects was exposed for three minutes to a 1000-Hz tone at 110 dB SPL. Either a 4000-Hz tone at 105 dB SPL or a broad-band noise at 100 dB SPL was presented to the contralateral ear during exposure. Four different temporal patterns were used for each contralateral signal: (1) continuous, (2) 18 seconds on/18 seconds off, (3) 1.8 seconds on/1.8 seconds off, and (4) 0.18 seconds on/0.18 seconds off. A control condition, consisting of the absence of contralateral stimulation, also was used. Pre- and postexposure thresholds for the test ear were tracked at a signal one-half octave above the exposure frequency. Resultant data indicated that reduction in temporary threshold shift was greatest for conditions involving rapidly pulsed (1.8 and 0.18 seconds on-off) contralateral signals. We hypothesized that these data were reflective of the dynamic properties of the acoustic reflex. Specifically, we posited that the acoustic reflex manifests less adaptation in response to rapid signal-repetition rates and relatively more adaptation to sustained or slowly pulsed signals.
Distinctive Phonetic Features as Relevant and Irrelevant Stimulus Dimensions in Speech-Sound Discrimination Learning
Authors: Ritterman Stuart I. , Freeman Nancy C.
Published: July 2014

Thirty-two college students were required to learn the relevant dimension in each of two randomized lists of auditorily presented stimuli. The stimuli consisted of seven pairs of CV nonsense syllables differing by two relevant dimension units and from zero to seven irrelevant dimension units. Stimulus dimensions were determined according to Saporta’s units of difference. No significant differences in performance as a function of number of the irrelevant dimensions nor characteristics of the relevant dimension were observed.