bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Use of Circumaural Earphones in Audiometry
Authors: Harris J. Donald
Published: July 2014

Four circumaural muffs were compared with the phone/cushion device now standard for audiometry, the Willson “Sound-Barrier,” the Maico “Auraldome,” and 2 versions of the Tracor “Otocup.” Psychoacoustic loudness balancing by normal subjects was performed, and physical measurements by probe-tube microphone and by flat-plate coupler. Neither physical method was related closely enough at 4 kHz and up to the fundamental loudness balancing to serve as an independent calibration system for all circumaural muffs. Need was expressed for a standard artificial head incorporating flexible pinnae and a fixed probe microphone. At present, circumaural devices can reasonably be used from 0.5–3 kHz, but at 4 kHz and up any audiometry should be considered only a screening procedure, with individual recheck using the standard device in an acceptable workspace to examine all ears which do not exceed by 15 dB any criterion set by the demands of the situation.
Syntax of Preschool Fluent and Disfluent Speech: A Transformational Analysis
Authors: Muma John R.
Published: July 2014

Speech samples were obtained from 13 highly fluent and 13 highly disfluent four-year-old children who were comparable as to sex, intelligence, socioeconomic status, race, and educational history. The syntactic analysis dealt with kernel and matrix sentence frame types and transformational usage. The fluent group used significantly more double-base transformations than the disfluent group, but the two groups were comparable on the distribution of usage for sentence frame types. This evidence indicates that a non-loci explanation of disfluency should be cast in terms of the nature of transformational operations in grammatical performance.
Auditory and Audiovisual Reception of Words in Low-Frequency Noise by Children with Normal Hearing and by Children with Impaired Hearing
Authors: Erber Norman P.
Published: July 2014

Common words (monosyllables, trochees, spondees) were presented in low-frequency noise to children who attempted to detect their acoustic patterns or to recognize them under a range of acoustic speech-to-noise (S/N) ratios. Both profoundly deaf (−10 dB) and severely hearing-impaired children (−17 dB) required higher S/N ratios for auditory detection of words than did children with normal hearing (−23 dB). The normals (92%) were superior to the severely hearing-impaired group (57%) in auditory recognition of words in noise, while the deaf group (3%) were unable to recognize words by ear alone. The deaf group were poor even at classifying the stimulus words by stress pattern. Provision of acoustic cues increased the audio-visual (AV) scores of normal-hearing and severely hearing-impaired subjects 54% and 33% respectively above lipreading alone, but it improved the lipreading performance of profoundly deaf subjects only 9%. Improvement in AV recognition depended for all groups upon their detection of acoustic cues for speech. The profoundly deaf children achieved their maximum AV scores only at a higher S/N ratio (+5 dB) than that for the severely hearing-impaired group (0 dB), who in turn required a higher S/N ratio for maximum AV recognition than did the normals (−10 dB).
The Effect of Examiner Social Behavior on Children’s Articulation Test Performance
Authors: Shriberg Lawrence D.
Published: July 2014

Forty-eight first- and second-grade children with /r/ or /s/ errors met with an articulation examiner once a week for three consecutive weeks. During each session, the investigator role-played social behaviors of a supportive examiner (S) or a non-supportive examiner (N) (Relationship Segment) and then administered a Vocal Imitation Task and an imitative Articulation Task (Testing Segment). Subjects were divided into four groups balanced by sex, error sound, grade, and therapy experience. The sequence of experimental conditions for each group was Group 1 (SSS); Group 2 (NNN); Group 3 (SNS); and Group 4 (NSN). Two questions were posed: Do supportive versus nonsupportive examiner social behaviors affect articulation performance? Do differences in examiner social behaviors affect children’s test-retest reliability? No main or interaction effects for the type of examiner behaviors were obtained on either dependent variable. Comparison of the Pearson correlation coefficients for each group indicated that Group 1 obtained the highest temporal reliability, 0.92, while Groups 2, 3, and 4 obtained average coefficients of 0.67, 0.76, and 0.62, respectively. Clinical and theoretical implications of these data point to the value of using intensive designs for further study of interpersonal variables in the clinical process.
Object-Naming Latency in Stuttering and Nonstuttering Children
Authors: Boysen Allen E. , Cullinan Walter L.
Published: July 2014

Twenty nonstuttering and eight stuttering male children provided naming responses to 34 pictures of simple objects, selected to represent a range from highest to lowest frequency of occurrence in the English language. The time taken to name objects was found to be negatively correlated with the logarithm
10
of the frequency of occurrence of the names in the language. No evidence was found to indicate that stuttering children have longer object-naming latencies than nonstuttering children.
Early Components of the Averaged Electroencephalic Response to Constant Level Clicks During All-Night Sleep
Authors: Mendel Maurice I. , Goldstein Robert
Published: July 2014

Electrical activity was recorded from adult subjects during four consecutive nights of natural sleep. Ongoing EEG activity was recorded from an electrode on the vertex referred to electrodes on the right and left mastoids. An electrode placed near the outer canthus of each eye was referred to the left mastoid and used to record eye movements (EOG). The early components of the averaged electroencephalic response (AER) were examined during the third and fourth nights, with 50 dB SL clicks at a rate of 9.6/sec presented continuously from a loudspeaker during the entire night. Each average consisted of 1024 responses. Sleep stages were subsequently scored from the EEG and EOG, and AERs were selected for analysis based on predetermined sampling rules. The response during sleep differs only slightly in latency from that found in waking subjects. Latencies of the major peaks remain constant regardless of stage of sleep. Amplitude generally varies with stage of sleep: the deeper the stage of sleep, the smaller the amplitude. REM sleep does not interfere with responsivity and, in fact, may enhance clarity of response. In addition, overall response patterns from stages of sleep compared early in the night to those from the early morning show no evidence of long-term habituation during the course of the night.
The Nature of the Glottal Tone: A Clinical Case Report
Authors: Minifie Fred D. , Kim Byoung Wook , Ewanowski Stanley J.
Published: July 2014

Extensive acoustical measurements were made to describe variations in the glottal tones produced by a patient who had undergone a complete mandibulectomy and surgical resection of the neck musculature, leaving the larynx functional, but exposed. The data indicate the patient was able to vary fundamental frequency and intensity within grossly normal limits. Changes in the glottal spectrum were similar to values predicted from laryngeal analog data.
Oral Vibrotactile Sensation: An Evaluation of Normal and Defective Speakers
Authors: Fucci Donald
Published: July 2014

This investigation was concerned with testing for threshold responses to oral and nonoral region vibrotactile stimulation between a group of normal-speaking adults and a group with “functional” articulation speech defects. The findings were interpreted to mean that there was a consistent difference between groups with respect to oral vibrotactile sensitivity, but not with respect to nonoral vibrotactile sensitivity. The speech-defective group demonstrated less sensitive oral vibrotactile thresholds than those obtained from the normal-speaking group.
Behavioral Dimensions of Stuttered Speech
Authors: Prins David , Lohr Frances
Published: July 2014

Nineteen stutterers provided samples of speech and reading from which scores representing 46 visible-audible phenomena were correlated. An analysis of the correlations revealed 10 factors which accounted for 83% of the variance. Six of the factors identified dimensions of stuttering similar to those described in the literature, but not previously derived empirically: overall stuttering severity, type of audible disfluency, adaptation, unilateral deviations, tension, and stuttering differences between spontaneous speech and reading. Applications are suggested to two-factor learning theory and to the classification of stutterers.
Perception of Vowel Phonemes in Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada, and Buffalo, New York: An Application of Synthetic Vowel Categorization Tests to Dialectology
Authors: Willis Clodius
Published: July 2014

The question of correlation between dialect and perception (that is, categorization) of synthetic vowels by speakers of different dialects of English was investigated experimentally for speakers from Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada, and Buffalo, New York. Eighty-eight high-school-age subjects were administered three tests in which they were asked to associate synthetic vowel sounds with English words. The results of these tests were compared with previously established phonetic features of the subjects' dialects. A correlation was found (1) between categorization of the opposition /ε/-/æ/ (bet/bat) and dialectal difference in pronunciation of the phoneme /æ/, (2) between categorization of the opposition /æ/-/α/ (hat/hot), and dialectal difference in pronunciation of the phoneme /α/. A third pair of oppositions, /e/-/i/ (bait/beet) and /o/-/u/ (boat/boot), showed problematic results which are discussed. It is concluded that the use of synthetic vowel perception tests in dialectology allows rapid and objective collection of data relevant to phonetic features of spoken dialects, and can assist in clarifying the phonetic nature of differences among dialects.
A Problem of Language Disorder: Length Versus Structure
Authors: Menyuk Paula , Looney Patricia L.
Published: July 2014

The effects of sentence length and structure on the accuracy of sentence repetition by 13 normal-speaking and 13 language-disordered children were compared. The sentences were from three to five words long and were primarily imperative, active-declarative, negative, and question sentences. All types of three-word sentences were repeated accurately by a greater percentage of language-disordered children than were four- and five-word sentences, but the percentages of children accurately repeating these four- and five-word sentences did not differ significantly. Imperative and active-declarative sentences were repeated accurately by a greater percentage of language-disordered children and with fewer errors than were negative and question sentences. Length and structure had no significant effect on the accuracy of sentence repetition by normal-speaking children. Levels of repetition accuracy varied in the deviant-speaking population, and this appears to have important implications for therapeutic programming.
An Approach to the Evaluation of Stuttering Therapy
Authors: Andrews Gavin , Ingham Roger J.
Published: July 2014

This paper describes a procedure for evaluating the outcome of treatment for stuttering therapy. The usefulness of the procedure will be illustrated in the assessment of a therapy program which the authors conducted. Three issues associated with treatment outcome evaluation are considered. First, repeated measures of frequency of stuttering and rate of speech are regarded as minimal requirements. Self-report questionnaires appear to provide additional relevant information. Second, it appears important to demonstrate, in treatment, that improvements in fluency are not simply “laboratory-bound.” Third, attention is drawn to the need for repeated posttreatment evaluation of speech behavior in general, and to the advantage of covert posttreatment assessment in particular.
Articulatory Effectiveness, Stimulability, and Children’s Performances on Perceptual and Memory Tasks
Authors: Sommers Ronald K. , Cox Shannon , West Cynthia
Published: July 2014

The performances of 70 children, 35 from kindergarten and 35 from first grade, were studied on four auditory measures and one oral sensory discrimination task. Each group of 35 children included seven subjects with superior articulation, seven with deviant articulation and poor speech sound stimulability, seven with deviant articulation and good stimulability, seven with articulation defects and poor stimulability, and seven with articulation defects and good stimulability. Performances on a speech sound stimulability task were not found to be related to performances on any of the auditory measures and only slightly to the oral sensory task. Superior articulators had significantly better scores than the deviant and defectives on the oral sensory discrimination task, but scores on the auditory tasks were not significantly different. Comparison of the performances of /s/ and /r/ defectives revealed the latter group to be inferior on some auditory tasks compared with the superior articulators. Some relationships were found between subject performances on certain auditory tasks.
Response of Infants and Young Children as a Function of Auditory Stimuli and Test Methods
Authors: Thompson Marie , Thompson Gary
Published: July 2014

Responses of infants and young children with normal hearing were assessed using five auditory stimuli at different hearing levels. The stimuli included broad-band and high-pass filtered signals and a 3-k Hz pure tone. The infants were tested with a behavioral observation test method. The young children were tested by either COR or play-audiometric test methods. The infants' responses varied as a function of the stimulus used. For this group, the 3-k Hz tone clearly produced fewer responses than did the other stimuli. This result is important for the assessment of high-frequency hearing loss in infants and young children. Differences between stimuli were not apparent for young children, although a comparison of test methods showed that play-audiometry resulted in more responses than COR audiometry, regardless of the stimulus used.
An Experimental Treatment with Two Preschool Stuttering Children
Authors: Martin Richard R. , Kuhl Patricia , Haroldson Samuel
Published: July 2014

An experimental treatment was conducted with two stuttering children. Each child conversed with a “talking” puppet for a number of 20-minute sessions. Baserates of stuttering frequency were established. Treatment consisted of a “time-out” procedure during which the puppet was not visible and did not talk with the child for 10 seconds contingent on each stuttering. Generalization, carry-over, and follow-up sessions were conducted.

The stuttering frequencies of both children reduced essentially to zero during the treatment sessions, and remained at that low frequency throughout generalization, carry-over, and follow-up sessions.
Disfluencies of Young Children in Two Speaking Situations
Authors: Martin Richard R. , Haroldson Samuel K. , Kuhl Patricia
Published: July 2014

Ten normal-speaking children, ages 3.5 to 4.5, conversed with a “talking” puppet and with an adult female for 10 20-minute sessions. For 10 minutes of each session the child conversed with the puppet (no person present); for the remaining 10 minutes the child conversed with an adult. Counts were made of the number of disfluencies emitted by the children, the number of words spoken by the children, the number of words spoken by the adult, and the number of words spoken by the puppet. The experiment yielded the following results: (1) the number of words produced by the children was stable across the 10 sessions; (2) within each session, the children produced more words with the puppet than with the adult; (3) the percent of words produced disfluently was stable across all 10 sessions; and (4) there was no statistically significant difference in percent disfluencies by the children between the adult and puppet conditions.
Articulation Judgments: Some Perceptual Considerations
Authors: Shriberg Lawrence D.
Published: July 2014

Five experienced articulation judges scored the tape-recorded responses of four children with articulatorily deviant /r/s under two response arrangement conditions. The tape conditions contrasted intact list scoring with a dubbed arrangement to investigate perceptual bias. The “intact” tape condition presented allophones of the target phoneme which varied from item to item, as the responses were originally obtained; the “dubbed” tape condition rearranged these responses so that responses to similar stimuli occurred successively. The /r/ phoneme data indicated significant interactions among the tape conditions, allophone error-type, and severity of error. Implications for reliability training and sampling are discussed.
Effects of Communication Failure on Speaker and Listener Behavior
Authors: Longhurst Thomas M. , Siegel Gerald M.
Published: July 2014

Thirty pairs of college students communicated over a microphone-earphone link to solve problems that required them to exchange information about ambiguous line drawings. Speakers described designs for visually separated listeners who attempted to choose matching stimuli from arrays. The listeners' choices and changes in the speakers' descriptions over a series of trials were studied as a function of variations in an experimentally induced communication failure (distortion of the speakers' descriptions). Tape recordings were made of the speakers' descriptions and verbatim protocols were constructed. Analysis of the tape recordings and protocols revealed that speakers modified their verbal behavior significantly when listeners made errors. Speakers used three main strategies to cope with the distortion: (1) they gave longer descriptions, (2) they talked slower, and (3) they used more redundant speech.
Kinematics of the Chest Wall during Speech Production: Volume Displacements of the Rib Cage, Abdomen, and Lung
Authors: Hixon Thomas J. , Goldman Michael D. , Mead Jere
Published: July 2014

The chest wall has been treated as a two-part kinematic system comprised of the rib cage and diaphragm-abdomen in parallel, and wherein the volume displaced by each part is linearly related to the motions of points within it. Using measurements of changes in anteroposterior diameters of the rib cage and abdomen, we studied subjects in upright and supine postures during several respiratory maneuvers and utterance tasks. Results are charted in relative motion diagrams (rib cage vs abdomen), which include the relaxed configuration of the chest wall and departures therefrom during utterances. For conversation, reading, and singing, lung volume events were restricted to the midvolume range and were dependent upon body posture and utterance loudness. Relative volume contributions of the two parts differed for subjects and utterances and ranged from all rib cage displacement to all abdominal displacement. During utterances, the chest wall was distorted from its relaxed configuration, and differently so in the two postures studied. Potential mechanisms responsible for these distortions are discussed. We conclude that the distortions observed constitute a “volume platform” or posturing of the chest wall, off of which the speaker produces speech but does not significantly further distort the system in providing the changes in driving pressure required for typical utterances.
Orosensory Perception, Speech Production, and Deafness
Authors: Bishop Milo E. , Ringel Robert L. , House Arthur S.
Published: July 2014

The oral form-discrimination abilities of 18 orally educated and oriented deaf high school subjects were determined and compared to those of manually educated and oriented deaf subjects and normal-hearing subjects. The similarities and differences among the responses of the three groups were discussed and then compared to responses elicited from subjects with functional disorders of articulation. In general, the discrimination scores separated the manual deaf from the other two groups, particularly when differences in form shapes were involved in the test. The implications of the results for theories relating orosensory-discrimination abilities are discussed. It is postulated that, while a failure in oroperceptual functioning may lead to disorders of articulation, a failure to use the oral mechanism for speech activities, even in persons with normal orosensory capabilities, may result in poor performance on oroperceptual tasks.
Decay of Temporary Threshold Shift in Noise
Authors: Mills John H. , Talo Seija A. , Gordon Gloria S.
Published: July 2014

Groups of monaural chinchillas trained in behavioral audiometry were exposed in a diffuse sound field to an octave-band noise centered at 4.0 k Hz. The growth of temporary threshold shift (TTS) at 5.7 k Hz from zero to an asymptote (TTS
∞
) required about 24 hours, and the growth of TTS at 5.7 k Hz from an asymptote to a higher asymptote, about 12–24 hours. TTS
∞
can be described by the equation TTS
∞
= 1.6(SPL-A) where A = 47. These results are consistent with those previously reported in this journal by Carder and Miller and Mills and Talo. Whereas the decay of TTS
∞
to zero required about three days, the decay of TTS
∞
to a lower TTS
∞
required about three to seven days. The decay of TTS
∞
in noise, therefore, appears to require slightly more time than the decay of TTS
∞
in the quiet. However, for a given level of noise, the magnitude of TTS
∞
is the same regardless of whether the TTS asymptote is approached from zero, from a lower asymptote, or from a higher asymptote.
Labial and Mandibular Dynamics during the Production of Bilabial Consonants: Preliminary Observations
Authors: Sussman Harvey M. , MacNeilage Peter F. , Hanson Robert J.
Published: July 2014

Simultaneous recordings of upper lip, lower lip, and jaw movements concomitant with intramuscular electromyography were obtained from five subjects during the production of VCV tokens where V = /i/, /ε/, and /æ/ and C = /p/, /b/, and /m/. The temporal sequencing of muscle activity from major elevators and depressors of the lips and jaw was determined and incorporated into a preliminary description of the motor control of the bilabial gesture. Magnitudes of articulator displacement and velocity and electromyographic data revealed a trend among the bilabial consonants so that the voiceless stop /p/ was produced with the highest level of preocclusion activity, and the nasal consonant /m/, with the highest level of postocclusion activity. Production of the three stop cognates involved a complementary contribution of aerodynamic and neuromuscular forces in the achievement of the necessary upper articulatory maneuvers. A left-to-right coarticulation effect for jaw depression whereby the EMG level related to V
2
was reduced as V
1
lowered was shown to span the medial stop consonant. A right-to-left coarticulation effect was observed in one speaker whereby jaw elevation was inversely related to the openness of V
2
. Such an anticipatory maneuver was contradictory to more immediate phonetic goals and necessitated neuromuscular compensatory adjustments of the lower lip.
The Effects of Stuttering on Systolic Blood Pressure
Authors: Dabul Barbara , Perkins William H.
Published: July 2014

Contrary to most hypotheses that suttering and anxiety are positively correlated, some evidence suggests that stuttering reduces stress. This investigation was undertaken to determine the effects of stuttering on level of systolic blood pressure. Sixteen adult male stutterers were measured before and after stress (electroshock) in each of five treatments: high stuttering, low stuttering, chewing, finger tapping, and time. Systolic blood pressure for the high-stuttering level was significantly lower for 15 of the 16 subjects than were the values for low stuttering, chewing, finger tapping, and time. These results indicate that stuttering can reduce stress-elevated systolic blood pressure.
Aphasic Comprehension of Time Spacing
Authors: Sheehan Joseph G. , Aseltine Suzanne , Edwards Allan E.
Published: July 2014

Receptive difficulty is known to be of crucial significance in the disorder of aphasia. Auditory comprehension difficulty has been related to an inability to perceive the temporal sequence of aural stimuli. This experiment tested the hypothesis that aphasics might be aided in comprehending speech sounds by a method called interpolated silences. Thirty aphasic veterans were tested on the Sklar Aphasia Scale. Fifteen over 50 were then compared with 15 under 50 on selections from the Sequential Tests of Educational Progress listening test under three conditions: normal enunciation, interpolated silences, and accumulated time. Interpolated silence surrounded every phoneme with 150 msec of silence. The accumulated time condition inserted the same amount of silences, but after each word. Each condition was put on video tape imaging the experimenter’s head and shoulders with lip synchronizing. Each subject served under all three conditions in counterbalanced sequences. With the younger group, interpolated silences resulted in improved performance, but the improvement was not noted in the older group. Though the younger and older groups differed somewhat in their degrees of deficit, the factor of age emerged from this study as being of great significance in evaluating the aphasic’s probable responsiveness to interpolated silences.
Pure-Tone Thresholds and Word-Recognition Abilities of Hearing-Impaired Children
Authors: Erber Norman P.
Published: July 2014

A recorded list of 25 spondaic words was administered monaurally through earphones to 72 hearing-impaired children to evaluate their comprehension of “easy” speech material. The subjects ranged in age from eight to 16 years, and their average pure-tone thresholds (500-1000-2000 Hz) ranged in level from 52 to 127 dB (ANSI, 1969). Most spondee-recognition scores either were high (70 to 100* correct) or low (0 to 30% correct). The degree of overlap in thresholds between the high-scoring and the low-scoring groups differed as a function of the method used to describe the audiogram. The pure-tone average of 500-1000-2000 Hz was a good, but not perfect, predictor of spondee-recognition ability. In general, children with average pure-tone thresholds better than about 85 dB HTL (ANSI, 1969) scored high, and those with thresholds poorer than about 100 dB scored low. Spondee-recognition scores, however, could not be predicted with accuracy for children whose audiograms fell between 85 and 100 dB HTL.
Auditory-Motor Formant Tracking: A Study of Speech Imitation
Authors: Kent R. D.
Published: July 2014

Auditory-motor formant tracking, or the vocal reproduction of formant patterns, is one aspect of speech imitation skill. The study reported here assessed the ability of four adult speakers to imitate synthesized vocalic stimuli. These stimuli took the form of two steady-state segments joined by a transitional segment. The first steady-state segment corresponded to one of eight American English vowels, and the second, to one of 14 vowels that were not expected to have a prominent phonemic identity in the language. Spectrographic analyses of the imitative responses allowed comparisons of the formant structure for the synthesized stimuli and the corresponding human reproductions. Analyses of the spectrograms revealed that the directions of movement for the first two formants were almost always reproduced accurately, but the extent of movement frequently was overshot. These responses were judged to be consistent with a contrast effect in speech perception, a phenomenon previously discovered in experiments on vowel identification. The variability of formant reproduction for a given vowel was predicted at least roughly by the ambiguity of the stimulus in a preliminary identification experiment. These results suggest that the responses in an imitation task are intermediate in dimensionality to the responses in discrimination and identification tasks.
Predicting Audiovisual Consonant Recognition Performance of Hearing-Impaired Adults
Authors: Walden Brian E. , Prosek Robert A. , Worthington Don W.
Published: July 2014

The redundancy between the auditory and visual recognition of consonants was studied in 100 hearing-impaired subjects who demonstrated a wide range of speech-discrimination abilities. Twenty English consonants, recorded in CV combination with the vowel /a/, were presented to the subjects for auditory, visual, and audiovisual identification. There was relatively little variation among subjects in the visual recognition of consonants. A measure of the expected degree of redundancy between an observer’s auditory and visual confusions among consonants was used in an effort to predict audiovisual consonant recognition ability. This redundancy measure was based on an information analysis of an observer’s auditory confusions among consonants and expressed the degree to which his auditory confusions fell within categories of visually homophenous consonants. The measure was found to have moderate predictive value in estimating an observer’s audiovisual consonant recognition score. These results suggest that the degree of redundancy between an observer’s auditory and visual confusions of speech elements is a determinant in the benefit that visual cues offer to that observer.
Effects of Low-Pass Filtering on the Rate of Learning and Retrieval from Memory of Speech-Like Stimuli
Authors: Novak Robert , Davis Julia
Published: July 2014

Ten pairs of auditory-visual stimuli were utilized in a paired-associate learning task and a retrieval from auditory memory task presented to two groups of normal-hearing subjects. One group heard unfiltered auditory stimuli and the other group heard the same stimuli under low-pass filtering conditions. The number of trials required to learn the pairs was the measure for the learning task. The number of items recalled after presentation of strings of the auditory stimuli, ranging in length from two to nine items, was the measure of auditory retrieval. Comparison of performance between the two groups indicated that the group that heard filtered auditory stimuli required a significantly greater number of trials to learn the pairs to specifications, and performed significantly poorer in recall of five-item strings of stimuli than the group that heard unfiltered auditory stimuli. There was no difference between the two groups' performance in recall of two-, seven-, and nine-item strings. The effects of filtering are discussed with regard to their implications for understanding certain deficits associated with hearing loss.
A Neuropsychological Investigation of “Functional Disorders of Speech Articulation”
Authors: Frisch Giora R. , Handler Leonard
Published: July 2014

This study investigated the neurological competence of children diagnosed as having “functional articulatory disorders.” The Reitan-Indiana Neuropsychological Test Battery was administered to 10 children who had errors of omission, 10 who had substitutions, and 10 who were matched controls. Of the 28 subtest scores, 11 showed significant differences between those children with speech problems and controls. The scores for the omission group were significantly poorer than those for the other two groups. Two judges, familiar with interpretation of the battery, rated nine of the 10 omission subjects, seven of the 10 substitution subjects, and one of the 10 control subjects as brain damaged. The evidence seemed to point to the left hemisphere as a possible location of the cerebral damage. The subjects demonstrated greatest difficulty with tasks which required sensory-receptive functions. These results were discussed with reference to Luria’s clinical description of “kinesthetic motor aphasia.”
Effects of External Ear Canal Pressure on the Middle-Ear Muscle Reflex Threshold
Authors: Martin Frederick N. , Coombes Sherry
Published: July 2014

Twenty normal-hearing individuals served as subjects in an experiment designed to determine the relationships between positive and negative air pressure in the external auditory canal and the intensity required to elicit the acoustic reflex. Pressure was varied from +240 to −240 mm H
2
O. Changes in the magnitude of acoustic impedance were measured on an acoustic impedance meter and displayed graphically on a Y-T recorder. As air pressure was varied in the canal and the tympanic membrane was displaced from its position of greatest compliance, systematic increases in the intensity required to elicit the reflexes were noted. The magnitude of the differences was smaller than might have been anticipated, not exceeding a mean of 5.1 dB at −240 mm H
2
O.
Averaged Evoked Potentials in Cats with Lesions of Auditory Pathway
Authors: Goldenberg Robert A. , Derbyshire Arthur J.
Published: July 2014

Averaged evoked activity was recorded from needle electrodes placed at the vertex of the calvaria and adjacent to each bulla in anesthetized cats in response to click stimuli. The portion of the response from 0 to 10 msec was analyzed. Activity during the first 3 msec was greatly reduced on the side ipsilateral to a lesion involving destruction of the cochlea or section of the eighth nerve and its blood vessels. Activity after 4 msec was greatly reduced on the side ipsilateral to destruction of the cochlear nuclei. No effect was found with destruction of both inferior colliculi. The bulla-vertex evoked responses were also compared to those recorded from the round window. The results support the premise that change in the wave-form of the early evoked potential can be used to determine site of loss of acoustic information along the auditory pathway.
Brain Stem Auditory-Evoked Responses in Premature Infants
Authors: Schulman-Galambos Carol , Galambos Robert
Published: July 2014

Brain stem auditory-evoked responses were recorded in 24 infants ranging in age from six-weeks premature to term. At a given age, the latency of the response increased with decreasing stimulus intensity. Further, as age increased, there was a systematic decrease in latency of the response at each sound intensity level. The response was shown not to be susceptible to fatigue or sleep stage. It may, therefore, be of use for evaluating auditory function in high-risk newborn infants.
Practicality of Shortening the Porch Index of Communicative Ability
Authors: DiSimoni Frank G. , Keith Robert L. , Holt Dennis L. , Darley Frederic L.
Published: July 2014

This study investigated the practicality of developing short forms of the Porch Index of Communicative Ability (PICA). Stepwise regression procedures were performed using data from 222 complete administrations of the PICA to determine the accuracy of prediction of overall scores on the basis of data from either fewer subtests or fewer items. Results indicated that the PICA is highly redundant and that it may be possible to develop useful shorter forms of it.
Tympanometric Curves and Otosclerosis
Authors: Ivey Robert G.
Published: July 2014

Patients with clinical otosclerosis (28 ears) were examined audiometrically and with an electroacoustic impedance bridge. The results were compared to corresponding findings for normal ears. The tympanometric curves of surgically proven otosclerosis were found to differ characteristically from those of normal ears. A curve typical of footplate fixation shows a rapid increase in acoustic impedance as external auditory canal pressure is reduced from ambient air pressure.
The Measurement of Critical Masking Bands
Authors: Margolis Robert H. , Small Arnold M.
Published: July 2014

The characteristics of the critical masking band, that spectral region of a wide-band noise that is effective in masking a pure-tone signal, were inferred by measuring detectability (d′) for tonal signals as a function of the cutoff frequency of a low-pass or high-pass noise masker. As the cutoff frequency of a low-pass noise was decreased from the wide-band (100–7000 Hz) condition toward the signal frequency, (500, 1000, or 4000 Hz) detectability maintained a constant minimum until a further reduction in cutoff frequency increased detectability, presumably due to a reduction in masker power within the critical band. As cutoff frequency was reduced further, detectability increased monotonically until detection reached 100%. This usually occurred when the cutoff frequency is 0.04 to 0.06 octaves below the signal frequency. The range of cutoff frequencies over which detectability changes occurred defines the critical masking band. These ranges correspond closely to well-known critical ratio data. The dependence of d′ on noise cutoff frequency did not differ at the two signal levels (15 and 25 dB SL) used in this experiment. The critical band appeared symmetrical about the signal frequency for most subjects and most experimental conditions, although some subjects displayed a marked asymmetry in the high frequency direction for some conditions.
A Miniature Accelerometer for Detecting Glottal Waveforms and Nasalization
Authors: Stevens K. N. , Kalikow D. N. , Willemain T. R.
Published: July 2014

A lightweight accelerometer has been used to obtain a waveform related to the glottal acoustic output when attached to the neck of a speaker, and to provide an indication of acoustic coupling to the nasal cavities when attached to the external surface of the nose. Examples of signals produced by the accelerometer are shown, and possible clinical applications are discussed.
The Distribution of Perceptual Cues in English Prevocalic Fricatives
Authors: LaRiviere Conrad , Winitz Harris , Herriman Eve
Published: July 2014

Two experiments involving deletion of selected segments of syllables were undertaken to investigate the distribution of perceptual cues and the role of right-to-left coarticulation in fricative vowel monosyllables. From 12 original syllables (/f, θ, s, ∫/ in combination with /i, u, a/), manipulations were made so that a group of listeners were exposed to transitionless syllables and isolated segments of syllables. Consonant and vowel recognition scores under these conditions showed that right-to-left coarticulation effects are perceptible, but do not contribute to consonant identification. The vocalic effects shown for many monosyllables were consistent with a normalization hypothesis. In agreement with previous literature, spectral cues in frication determine /s, ∫/ recognition. These cues also contribute to the identification of many /f/ and /θ/ syllables.
Bone Conduction Thresholds for Normal Listeners in Force and Acceleration Units
Authors: Dirks Donald D. , Kamm Candace , Gilman Samuel
Published: July 2014

In a previous article we reported on the standardization of normal hearing for bone conduction. All of our findings were reported in force units. Because many international users of this information express such findings in units of acceleration, we have, at the Editor’s request, converted our force units into acceleration units to increase the scope of our results and to enhance their comparison with other investigations. This note presents data which may be useful to organizations concerned with the development of standards for normal hearing by bone conduction.
An Electromyographic Study of Velopharyngeal Function in Speech
Authors: Bell-Berti Fredericka
Published: July 2014

Electromyographic (EMG) recordings were obtained from the levator palatini, superior pharyngeal constrictor, middle pharyngeal constrictor, palatoglossus, and palatopharyngeus muscles of three talkers of American English. Bipolar hooked-wire electrodes were used. Each subject read nonsense words composed of three vowels (/i, a, u/), six stop consonants (/p, b, t, d, k, g/), and two nasal consonants (/m, n/) to form various stop-nasal and nasal-stop contrasts. Multiple repetitions of each utterance type were recorded and subsequently processed by computer. The levator palatini was found to be the primary muscle of velopharyngeal closure for each of the subjects. The palatopharyngeus also showed consistent oralization activity for each of the subjects, although the activity of this muscle was strongly affected by vowel environment. Two subjects showed pharyngeal constrictor muscle activity related to oral articulation, but pharyngeal constrictor activity for the third subject was related to vowel quality. Nasal articulation was accomplished by suppression of oral articulation for each subject. Vowel quality affected the strength of EMG signals for lateral and posterior pharyngeal wall muscles. In those cases where activity was different for the three vowels, activity was greatest for /a/.
Rapid Auditory Processing in Normal and Disordered Language Development
Authors: Tallal Paula
Published: July 2014

Four-and-one-half- to eight-and-one-half-year-old children with normal language development, normal adults, and dysphasic children were tested for their ability to perceive binary sequences of nonverbal auditory stimuli. Performance was studied in relation to the rate of presentation of stimulus sequence, as measured by the time interval between stimulus elements. Of the normal children studied, only the eight-and-one-half-year-old group responded as well as the adult group to auditory patterns composed of complex tones presented in rapid succession (8–305 msec intervals). Normal children six-and-one-half years and older were able to respond to these same auditory patterns when they were presented more slowly (947–4062 msec intervals). The overall pattern of performance of the dysphasic children was not similar to that of any age group of children with normal language development. The dysphasics' performance was significantly poorer than that of even the four-and-one-half-year-old normal group on rapidly presented auditory sequences, but not significantly different from normal children their own age or adults on the same patterns which were presented more slowly. The interrelation of normal development of rapid auditory processing and normal language development is discussed.
Information Processing of Visually Presented Picture and Word Stimuli by Young Hearing-Impaired and Normal-Hearing Children
Authors: Kelly Ronald R. , Tomlinson-Keasey C.
Published: July 2014

Eleven hearing-impaired children and 11 normal-hearing children (mean = four years 11 months) were visually presented familiar items in either picture or word form. Subjects were asked to recognize the stimuli they had seen from cue cards consisting of pictures or words. They were then asked to recall the sequence of stimuli by arranging the cue cards selected. The hearing-impaired group and normal-hearing subjects performed differently with the picture/picture (P/P) and word/ word (W/W) modes in the recognition phase. The hearing impaired performed equally well with both modes (P/P and W/W), while the normal hearing did significantly better on the P/P mode. Furthermore, the normal-hearing group showed no difference in processing like modes (P/P and W/W) when compared to unlike modes (W/P and P/W). In contrast, the hearing-impaired subjects did better on like modes. The results were interpreted, in part, as supporting the position that young normal-hearing children dual code their visual information better than hearing-impaired children.
Consonant Confusions in Patients with Sensorineural Hearing Loss
Authors: Bilger Robert C. , Wang Marilyn D.
Published: July 2014

Consonant confusion matrices were obtained from 22 outpatient listeners with sensorineural hearing loss for four sets of CV and VC nonsense syllables, presented monaurally at SRT + 40 dB. Testing was typically conducted for six hours on each of two separate days. Overall performance and patterns of confusions were stable over time. Analysis of the matrices in terms of phonological features indicated that the patterns of consonant confusions varied both with degree and configuration of the subject’s loss. Scaling of intersubject similarity using a pairwise multidimensional scaling analysis resulted in consistent classification of subjects according to audiometric configuration into three groups-essentially normal hearing, flat or rising audiograms, and high-frequency hearing losses.
Normal and Retarded Children’s Understanding of Semantic Relations in Different Verbal Contexts
Authors: Duchan Judith Felson , Erickson Joan Good
Published: July 2014

The effect of different semantic relations presented in different verbal contexts to language retarded and normal children at the one- and two-word stage of development was studied. No significant difference was found between the performance of mentally retarded language-disordered and normal children on the verbal comprehension task. Both groups of children performed best on the possessive, next on the agent-object, then actor-action, and poorest on the locative relations. Finally, nonsense, telegraphic, and expanded contexts did make a difference in the children’s understandings with expanded being the best, telegraphic next, and nonsense contexts poorest. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.
Perceptual Dimensions Underlying Vowel Lipreading Performance
Authors: Jackson Pamela L. , Montgomery Allen A. , Binnie Carl A.
Published: July 2014

This study was concerned with the extraction, description, and verification of visual perceptual features underlying vowel lipreading performance. Ten viewers with normal hearing rated the visual similarity of pairs of 15 vowels and diphthongs presented in an /h_g/ context by four speakers. Multidimensional scaling techniques were used to extract potential perceptual features which were then labeled by the experimenters. The resulting perceptual dimensions were correlated with physical measurements of lip shape to evaluate the adequacy of the feature labels. The results indicated that the traditional extended-rounded vowel feature and a vertical lip separation feature were the characteristics most prominent in judging the stimuli. In addition, a feature related to overall area of maximum lip opening and two features unique to diphthong perception were tentatively identified.
Observer Bias as a Factor in Neonatal Hearing Screening
Authors: Mencher George T. , McCulloch Barbara , Derbyshire A. J. , Dethlefs Rich
Published: July 2014

To evaluate observer bias as a possible factor influencing neonatal hearing testing, two trained observers were asked to evaluate the behavior of 200 neonates at a moment the observers thought a stimulus was being presented. Observers were receiving masking noise, and when the stimulus button was pressed a stimulus might or might not be delivered to the child. Results suggest that observer bias is not a factor when arousal is the only acceptable response and is clearly defined, and the observers are limited to a yes-no decision. Sequential analysis of infant response patterns is presented and a specific test scoring protocol is outlined.
Timing Control Accuracy in Normal Speakers and Stutterers
Authors: Cooper Margaret H. , Allen George D.
Published: July 2014

This study attempted to assess the abilities of 10 normal speakers, five stutterers in therapy, and five stutterers no longer in therapy, to control the time program of repeated utterances. The speech sample comprised repeated sentences, paragraphs, and nursery rhymes, and a finger-tapping task was included as a control. Temporal accuracy was measured. Results suggest that (1) there is a wide range of timing abilities, even among the normal speakers, with considerable overlap between the different groups of speakers; (2) on most of the experimental tasks, normal speakers are more accurate timers than are stutterers; (3) stutterers released from therapy are more accurate timers than are stutterers still in therapy, whenever these groups differ; and (4) subjects' speech timing scores correlate moderately with their tapping scores. These results are discussed in terms of (1) theoretical timing control processes, such as a neural clock for controlling speech segment durations, and a speech motor output buffer, whose capacity may be limited in stutterers, and (2) known effects of rhythmic constraints and respiratory irregularity on fluency.