bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Acoustic Patterns of Apraxia of Speech
Authors: Kent R. D. , Rosenbek John C.
Published: July 2014

Apraxia of speech (or verbal apraxia) is a controversial disorder, considered by some to be an impairment of the motor programming of speech. Because the disorder is characterized by "higher orderrdquo; errors such as metathesis and segment addition as well as by errors of apparent dyscoordination of articulation, it seems to reflect a relatively high level of damage to the nervous system. This report presents acoustic descriptions of the speech of seven persons diagnosed as having apraxia of speech but without severe aphasic impairmaent, especially agrammatism. The acoustic results indicate a variety of segmental and prosodic atmormalities, including slow speaking rate with prolongations of transitions, steady states, and intersyllable pauses; reduced intensity variation across syllables; slow and inaccurate movements of the articulators; incoordination of voicing with other articulations; initiation difficulties; and errors of selection or sequencing of segments. These error patterns are discussed with respect to a theory of motor control based on spatial-temporal schemata. In addition, consideration is given to the controversy about phonologic versus motor programming impairment in apraxia of speech.
Variability in Matches to Subjective Tinnitus
Authors: Penner M. J.
Published: July 2014

For patients with noise-induce sensorineural hearing loss, the results of matching a binaurally presented comparison tone to subjective tinnitus during a 20-days test period are reported. As a control, results of matching an external comparison tom, to a standard tone. are also presented. The variability for tinnitus measurements was extremely large relative to comparable measures for a objective stimuli The relevance of this finding to the nature of tinnitus and to the construction of tinnitus maskers is discussed.
Dichotic Listening in Good and Poor Readers
Authors: Dermody Phillip , Mackie Kerrie , Katsch Richard
Published: July 2014

Dichotic listening performance using CV pairs was investigated in a group of 30 children, 15 good readers and 15 poor readers, aged 10–13 years. The results indicate that the poor readers did not demonstrate atypical laterality or phonetic processing effects, although there was significant difference in their ability to identify both items on dichotic trials correctly. However, when the same stimuli were presented monotically, there was no difference in the performance of the groups. Additional testing indicated that the poor performance for the double-correct response class was also demonstrated in conditions where the dichotic stimuli were separated by as much as 500 and 1000 msec. These results support previous findings that reading-disabled children exhibit a deficit in their capacity to process two items on dichotic tasks. The implications of these results are discussed in terms of both neurological and auditory processing interpretations, and it is suggested that dichotic tasks are useful for investigating auditory processing problems in reading-disabled children.
An Accelerometric Measure as a Physical Correlate of Perceived Hypernasality in Speech
Authors: Horii Yoshiyuki
Published: July 2014

This study investigated the correlation between a physical measure of oral-nasal coupling and perceived hypernasality in speech. A modified accelerometric method was utilized to extract distributional characteristics of a ratio of the nasal accelerometric amplitude to the voice amplitude during simulated hypernasal reading by 11 female talkers. Perceived hypernasality scores for the readings were derived from a panel of 30 listeners in a paired-comparison paradigm. A correlation coefficient of .92 was obtained between the mean nasal-to-voice ratio and the perceived hypernasality scores. The results indicated that the nasal-to-voice amplitude ratio is a promising index of perceived hypernasality in speech.
Voicing Contrasts and Their Phonological Implications in the Speech of Articulation-Disordered Children
Authors: Smit Ann B. , Bernthal John E.
Published: July 2014

Five-year-old articulation-disordered children, some classified as substituters and some as syllable reducers, were compared with normal child and adult controls in their production of voicing contrasts. These contrasts occurred in minimal pairs containing word-final obstruents and in minimal triples containing word-initial stops and /s/-plus-stop clusters in initial position. Measures of vowel duration, voice onset time (VOT), and frequency of use of phonetic voicing were made from spectrograms. In every comparison the substituters' performance resembled that of the normal controls, as did the syllable reducers' use of VOT in stop singles. The syllable reducers used larger vowel duration ratios than the normal controls in a few minimal pairs and used phonetic voicing less often in word-initial /b d g/. The production data and previously reported perception data were examined for evidence that individual syllable reducers had voicing contrasts in underlying phonological form despite their deletions of obstruents in which these contrasts occurred. Most of the syllable reducers appeared to recognize underlying voicing contrasts in at least a few final obstruents and in some of the initial stop singles.
Lombard and Sidetone Amplification Effects in Normal and Misarticulating Children
Authors: Siegel Gerald M. , Kennard Karen L.
Published: July 2014

Misarticulating and normal-speaking children participated in Lombard and sidetone amplification procedures, under standard instructions and under instructions designed to maximize the response to the procedures. The experimental group consisted of twelve 8-year-old children who misarticulated the /r/ sound. They were matched with normal-speaking school peers. In the Lombard procedure, the children told stories about familiar pictures under 60 dB SPL and 90 dB SPL of masking noise. In the sidetone amplification procedure, they performed the same task under 0 and +20 dB of amplified feedback. The dependent measure was vocal intensity. Both groups increased intensity under the noise and decreased under amplification. The instructions enhanced the effects for both groups, but more for the normals than for the misarticulating children in the case of the sidetone amplification procedure. In general, the procedures were effective with both groups, and there was no evidence that misarticulating children suffer from a generalized deficit in feedback processing.
Laryngograph as a Measure of Vocal Fold Contact Area
Authors: Gilbert H. R. , Potter Charles R. , Hoodin Ronald
Published: July 2014

The present investigation sought to provide additional information concerning the laryngograph as a means to study vocal fold contact area. Subglottal pressures were sensed simultaneously with the laryngographic signal while the speaker produced a variety of speech tasks. The onset and cessation of the subglottal pressure waveform was studied relative to the laryngographic and speech waveforms. Differences were noted for voiced-voiceless contrasts for bilabial stop consonant production and vocal effort changes during the three vowels studied. Also a high-resistance polymer strip was placed between the vocal folds and gradually removed while simultaneous laryngographic recordings were obtained during sustained productions of the vowel/Δ/. An increase in the amplitude of the laryngographie waveform upon withdrawal of the polymer strip strongly supported the concept that the laryngographic signal is generated directly by the change in conductance due to alterations in the area of vocal fold contact.
Elasticity of Canine Vocal Fold Tissue
Authors: Perlman Adrienne L. , Titze Ingo R. , Cooper Donald S.
Published: July 2014

Stress-strain curves were obtained from vocalis muscle tissue that was kept viable in an aerated Krebs-Ringer solution after excision of the larynx from live dogs. Results are compared to similar curves obtained from dead tissue and suggest that vocal fold elasticity depends on the level of strain, the elapsed time after elongation, the condition of the tissue, and the choice of rest length for strain computation. Tables of Young's moduli for various conditions are given.
Tympanometric Changes at 226 Hz and 678 Hz Across 10 Trials and for Two Directions of Ear Canal Pressure Change
Authors: Wilson Richard H. , Shanks Janet E. , Kaplan Susan K.
Published: July 2014

The influence that repeated tympanometric trials have on the aural-acoustic admittance characteristics of the middle-ear transmission system was studied in 24 young adults. The 226-Hz and 678-Hz data were generated by concurrently digitizing the conductance and admittance tympanograms at 25 daPa/s for both ascending and descending pressure directions. Ten successive trials for each frequency and direction of pressure change were made. Changes in admittance corrected for ear canal volume across the 10 tympanometrie trials were computed. The results demonstrated that generally admittance increases as the number of trials increases. For many subjects, the complexity of the tympanometric configuration also increases across trials. The results from eight subjects with single-peaked 678-Hz tympanograms were compared with the results from eight subjects with notched 678-Hz tympanograms to explain the mean decrease in susceptance across tympanometric trials. Finally, the pressure peak locations of the conductance, susceptance, and admittance tympanograms were evaluated and are discussed. The effects that differences in peak pressure location have on the computed static admittance values are presented.
Microprocessor-Based Speech Processing System
Authors: Guillemi B. J. , Nguyen D. T.
Published: July 2014

Durational measurements of frication, aspiration, prevoicing, and voice onset are often difficult to perform from the spectrogram, and the resolution is limited to about 5 ms. In many instances, a higher resolution can be obtained from a study of waveforms than from a study of spectrum. We present a microprocessor-based speech acquisition and processing system which uses waveform analysis techniques to extract measurements from the acoustic signal. The system is low cost and portable; it operates in "real time" and employs noninvasive data-capturing techniques. The usefulness of the system is demonstrated in the VOT measurement of CV clusters and in the measurement of fundamental frequency.
Development of Topic Manipulation Skills in Discourse
Authors: Brinton Bonnie , Fujiki Martin
Published: July 2014

This study investigated the manipulation of discourse topic in spontaneous conversation in three age groups. Subjects consisted of six dyads of peers at each of the following age levels (years:months): 5:0–5:11, 9:0–9:11, and adults. Fifteen min of discourse were taped, transcribed, and analyzed for each age level. Patterns of topic introduction, reintroduction, maintenance, and shading were considered at each age level. Although considerable variation within groups was evident, the results suggested several developmental trends. The number of topics introduced and reintroduced in the sampling period decreased with age, whereas the proportion of topics maintained increased with age. Additionally, subjects maintained topics for longer sequences of utterances with increasing age. Topic shading also increased with age. These results are discussed with regard to patterns of development, and clinical implications are considered.
Children's Speech Revisions for a Familiar and an Unfamiliar Adult
Authors: Tomasello Michael , Farrar Michael Jeffrey , Dines Jennifer
Published: July 2014

Initial characterizations of the communicative abilities of preschoolers stressed their egocentric nature. Recently, however, even 2-year-olds have been observed to adjust their speech appropriately in situations in which the listener provides feedback by signaling noncomprehension. The current study had an adult signal noncomprehension to the requests of 2-year-old Stage I and Stage II children. Each child interacted with a familiar (mother) and an unfamiliar adult. The children repeated their requests about one third of the time and revised them about two thirds of the time. Stage I children elaborated their requests significantly more often than Stage II children. The familiarity of the adult listener had no effect on the way Stage II children revised their requests, but the Stage I children's revisions contained novel lexical items more often when they were interacting with the unfamiliar adult. Both of these findings may have resulted from the fact that the more conversationally skilled Stage II children relied on verbal-conversational cues, which were the same for both adult interactants in this situation. The Stage I children may have been less aware of these conversational cues, relying on general social cues such as familiarity of the interactant. The results are discussed in terms of the potential role of different types of adults in the language acquisition process.
A Procedure for Phonetic Transcription by Consensus
Authors: Shriberg Lawrence D. , Kwiatkowski Joan , Hoffmann Kit
Published: July 2014

A consensus transcription procedure is presented, and representative data are reported. The procedure includes explicit response definitions for mapping narrow phonetic transcription onto dichotomous, nonerror/error scores and 17 rules for obtaining consensus between two transcribers. The data include descriptive statistics for consensus rule use based on over 18,000 sounds transcribed during a normative study of speech sound acquisition in children aged 3–6 years. Validity and reliability issues in phonetic transcription are discussed.
Reproducibility and Variability of Speech Muscle Activity in Athetoid Dysarthria of Cerebral Palsy
Authors: Neilson Peter D. , O'Dwyer Nicolas J.
Published: July 2014

Athetoid dysarthria is thought to result from involuntary movements which are variable and irregular in nature. In this study, electromyographic (EMG) activity recorded from six speech muscles was quantified during repetitions of a test sentence by normal and athetoid adult subjects. In the athetoid subjects the articulation of the test sentence was disrupted intermittently by involuntary activity which usually occurred in the time intervals between the syllables in the test sentence, rather than during articulation of the syllables themselves, The EMG activity associated with each syllable in the test sentence was partitioned into reproducible and variable components. The ratio of the reproducible component to the variable component—the signal-to-noise ratio—did not differ Significantly between the two subject groups. In the athetoid subjects, however, the reproducible component of the EMG activity was grossly abnormal. We concluded that this abnormal voluntary activity, rather than variable involuntary activity, was the primary cause of athetoid dysarthria.
Effects of Linguistic and Extralinguistic Context on Semantic and Syntactic Processing in Aphasia
Authors: Pierce Robert S. , Beekman Lisa A.
Published: July 2014

This study assessed whether the comprehension of specific lexical items (a semantic judgment) and reversible passive sentences (a syntactic judgment) would be facilitated by preceding them with either linguistic or extralinguistic context. Twenty aphasic subjects were compared for their ability to comprehend semantic and syntactic components of target sentences presented in isolation and when the sentences were preceded by either a single sentence or a picture that predicted the target information. The results revealed that the subjects who demonstrated low comprehension skills on standard tests of auditory comprehension performed better when the target information was preceded by the contextual information than when it was presented in isolation. A similar effect was not seen for those subjects with higher level auditory comprehension skills. These results support the effective use of linguistic and extralinguistic context by some aphasic subjects during the decoding of literal meanings.
Dissociations between Vowel Durations and Formant Frequency Characteristics
Authors: Bernstein-Ratner Nan
Published: July 2014

Disagreement exists on the degree to which rate of speech and segmental duration affect the formant frequency characteristics of vowels. Post hoe analysis of the vowel characteristics of words uttered by women in conversational speech with both adult and child addressees indicates that there is no simple relationship between the length of vowels and the degree to which their formant frequency characteristics resemble those seen in citation forms of speech. In the ease of women addressing children, it was possible for content and function words to share formant frequency characteristics that maximally differentiated their embedded vowels, despite the relatively shorter duration of function word vowels. Implications for the elicitation of "clear speech" are discussed.
Electrolaryngeal Speech Produced by Laryngectomized Subjects
Authors: Weiss Michael S. , Basili Annamaria C.
Published: July 2014

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptual confusions individuals experience while listening to the speech of laryngectomized persons who used electrolarynges. Six talkers generated speech samples using two different models of electrolarynges. Intelligibility was evaluated from phonetic transcriptions of the speech samples. Confusion matrices were generated from the transcriptions. Talkers varied considerably in their intelligibility, but there was little difference in intelligibility for a given talker using either model of electrolarynx. The perceptual confusions revealed that most errors occurred on the voicing feature.
Linguistic Environment of the Deaf Child
Authors: Newton Laurie
Published: July 2014

Teachers' communication with deaf and hearing children was compared to identify differences in the teachers' use of two types of nonliteral language: idiomatic language and indirect requests. Two groups of teachers of the deaf were observed, one using oral language only and the other using Total Communication. A third group consisted of teachers of normally hearing children. No differences were found in teachers' use of nonliteral language when talking to hearing children as compared to teachers talking to oral deaf children. Reduced use of idiomatic language occurred, in both the oral and signed portions of communication, only when Total Communication was used. No differences were observed in the oral portion of the three groups' use of indirect requests. However, only 55% of these requests were encoded nonliterally in the signed portion of utterances.
Acoustic Dimensions of Hearing-Impaired Speakers' Intelligibility
Authors: Metz Dale Evan , Samar Vincent J. , Schiavetti Nicholas , Sitler Ronald W. , Whitehead Robert L.
Published: July 2014

Regression and principal components analyses were employed to study the relationship between three measures of speech intelligibility and 12 segmental, prosodic, and hearing ability parameters in 20 severely to profoundly hearing-impaired speakers. Regression analyses on the original 12 parameters revealed that cognate pair voice onset time differences and mean sentence duration strongly predicted speech intelligibility based on readings of isolated word and contextual speech material. A principal components analysis derived four factors that accounted for the majority of the variance in the original 12 parameters. Subsequent regression analyses using the four factors as predictor variables revealed two factors with strong relationships to the speech intelligibility measures. One factor primarily reflected segmental production processes related to the temporal and spatial differentiation of phonemes, whereas the other factor reflected prosodic features and production stability. These results are consistent with prior research that suggests independent primary and secondary roles for segmental and prosodic speech characteristics, respectively, in determining intelligibility in severely to profoundly hearing-impaired speakers.
Auditory Stimulation, Rhythm, and Stuttering
Authors: Martin Richard R. , Johnson Linda J. , Siegel Gerald M. , Haroldson Samuel K.
Published: July 2014

In a previous experiment, Martin, Siegel, Johnson, and Haroldson (1984) found that stutterers reduced their stuttering under amplified sidetone, but only if the amplified sidetone condition had been preceded by a condition of speaking in noise. The authors speculated that when stutterers were exposed initially to loud noise and its attendant reduction in stuttering, they became "sensitized" to reduced stuttering in any subsequent condition where their auditory feedback was modified. The current experiment tested that hypothesis with 24 adult stutterers divided evenly into three groups.

One group of stutterers spoke with no auditory stimulation (quiet), then while receiving 100 dB SPL white noise, and then while receiving amplified sidetone (0, +10, +20 dB SPL). A second group spoke in quiet, then while receiving amplified sidetone, and then while receiving amplified sidetone again. A third group spoke in quiet, then while receiving rhythmic stimulation, and then while receiving amplified sidetone. Relative to vocal intensity in quiet, stutterers spoke with increased vocal intensity during noise, with decreased vocal intensity during amplified sidetone, and with no significant change in vocal intensity during rhythmic stimulation. Relative to stuttering frequency in quiet, subjects spoke with decreased stuttering frequency during loud noise and during amplified sidetone, but only when the amplified sidetone was preceded by the loud noise condition. These results are discussed in terms of the "sensitizationrdquo; hypothesis.
Speech-Tracking Performance in Single-Channel Cochlear Implant Subjects
Authors: Robbins Amy McConkey , Osberger Mary Joe , Miyamoto Richard T. , Kienle Marjorie L. , Myres Wendy A.
Published: July 2014

This study evaluated 20 deaf adults' ability to understand connected discourse under two conditions: (a) lipreading alone (LA), and (b) lipreading plus electrical stimulation by a single-channel cochlear implant (LI). Performance was evaluated using the speech-tracking procedure, which required the deaf receiver to repeat verbatim textual material read by another individual. The reception of ongoing speech was measured in terms of the number of words repeated correctly per minute. The results revealed, on the average, a significantly higher tracking rate in the LI condition (28.6 wpm) than the LA condition (16.4 wpm). There was a significant learning effect across sessions for both conditions. Subjects who were previous hearing aid users achieved a significantly higher tracking rate in the LI condition than did subjects who had no previous experience with amplification. Significant subject differences were present as a function of condition. Sixteen of the 20 subjects achieved higher tracking rates in the LI than in the LA condition. However, 4 of these 16 subjects showed similar relative gains in both conditions and 3 showed a decrease in performance in the LA condition over time. The remaining 4 subjects showed nearly equivalent tracking rates in both conditions over time. The data suggest that the majority of subjects were able to learn to make use of the cues provided by electrical stimulation by a single-channel cochlear implant to enhance their lipreading skills, at least for highly redundant material in a communicative situation.
Categorical Perception of Speech Sounds via the Tactile Mode
Authors: Collins M. Jane , Hurtig Richard R.
Published: July 2014

The usefulness of tactile devices as aids to lipreading has been established. However, maximum usefulness in reducing the ambiguity of lipreading cues and/or use of tactile devices as a substitute for audition may be dependent on phonemic recognition via tactile signals alone. In the present study, a categorical perception paradigm was used to evaluate tactile perception of speech sounds in comparison to auditory perception. The results show that speech signals delivered by tactile stimulation can be categorically perceived on a voice-onset time (VOT) continuum. The boundary for the voiced-voiceless distinction falls at longer VOTs for tactile than for auditory perception. It is concluded that the procedure is useful for determining characteristics of tactile perception and for prosthesis evaluation.
Developmental Trends in Vocal Fundamental Frequency of Young Children
Authors: Robb M. P. , Saxman J. H.
Published: July 2014

Developmental trends in vocal fundamental frequency of young children. Robb, M. P., & Saxman, J. H. September 1985, pp. 421-427.

In the Discussion section at the bottom of page 426, two lines were omitted in the paragraph. The entire paragraph should read:

Taking into account that such a discontinuity in F
0
[might exist between non-intentional and intentional utterances, an interesting trend for the developmental] course of F
0
variability is suggested. The child's transition from meaningless, phonologically undifferentiated babbling to productions of meaningful speech (11-16 months) is a period in which large interutterance variability might be expected. Even within the transition period of larger variability, the function of decreasing interutterance standard deviation across age is apparent and is depicted quite clearly in Figure 1. We cannot, however, rule out the influence of segment duration on the reported F
0
variability values. The decrease in F
0
standard deviation as a function of age was not independent of segment duration decreases, and as such, the influence of one upon the other is not clearly discernible during this early age period.
Relationship between Intraoral Air Pressure and Vocal Intensity in Children and Adults
Authors: Stathopoulos Elaine T.
Published: July 2014

Intraoral air pressure (P
0
) varies as a function of age. Specifically, children produce significantly higher P
0
values than adults. The higher P
0
produced by children has been discussed in relation to age-related volumetric differences of the subglottal and vocal tract, to lung compression differences, and to the fact that children's "comfortable" speaking level might exceed that of adults. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the hypothesis that children (vs. adults) and women (vs. men) produce higher P
0
values when sound pressure level (SPL) is held constant. Measurements were made of P
0
generated by children and adults during a connected speech task completed at three intensity levels. The findings of the study indicated that (a) peak P
0
values increased as vocal intensity increased for all subject groups, (b) peak P
0
values were higher for voiceless stops than for voiced stops, and (c) peak P
0
values were not significantly different for adults than for children or for men than for women. These results were interpreted to show that despite physical and physiological differences between male and female, and between adult and child vocal tracts, all groups use the same P
0
mechanism for achieving a given vocal intensity level.
Speech Cue Enhancement for the Hearing Impaired
Authors: Revoile Sally G. , Holden-Pitt Lisa , Pickett James M. , Brandt Fred
Published: July 2014

Hearing-impaired persons with reduced voicing perception for final fricatives were studied for improvement in perception via training or enhancement of the vowel duration cue. Ten utterances each of the syllables/bæf, bæs, bæv, bæz/composed three stimulus sets that were graded for the magnitude of the vowel duration cue. These sets were used differentially among 25 hearing-impaired listeners to train and test voicing perception. When enhanced, the vowels of the utterances were lengthened before voiced fricatives and shortened before voiceless fricatives. Training for the utterances with unmodified vowels yielded a small performance improvement for a subgroup of 14 listeners. In comparison, this subgroup showed considerably more improvement for the utterances with vowel duration enhancements. Another subgroup of 5 listeners displayed good fricative voicing perception independent of training or the vowel duration enhancements. A remaining subgroup of 6 listeners manifested poor use of the maximum unmodified vowel duration cues, even subsequent to training. This group showed a significant improvement in perception only for the voiced fricatives when extra duration enhancement and further training were used. This subgroup also demonstrated the poorest performance for a measure of vowel duration discrimination. Among the auditory variables examined, the listeners' tone thresholds at 250 Hz showed the highest relation to perception of fricative voicing.
Interdigitating Muscle Fibers Throughout Orbicularis Oris Inferior
Authors: Blair Claudia
Published: July 2014

Observations of serial sections from two cadaveric specimens of human lower lip are presented. The complex structure of the muscles of the lower lip region includes several fascicles of fibers that are parallel to the vermilion border and other muscle fibers that interdigitate the parallel structures. Two classes of interdigitating muscle fibers are described: The majority originate inferior to the mucosal-gingival border and have a primarily vertical course. The others originate at the hairy epidermis inferior to the vermilion, course diagonally through the horizontal fibers, and insert near the mucosal-vermilion border.
Audiologic and Nonaudiologic Correlates of Hearing Handicap in Black Elderly
Authors: Marcus-Bernstein Claire
Published: July 2014

The purpose of this study was to explore the contributions of audiologic and nonaudiologic factors, including medical, social, economic, and psychological, towards understanding hearing handicap in black elderly. One hundred hearing-impaired black elderly subjects from Harlem Hospital were given audiologic evaluations, including speech recognition tests under varied conditions. Audiologic factors were significantly related to hearing handicap, measured by the Hearing Handicap Scale (HHS) and the Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly (HHIE), with stronger correlations for speech recognition measured at 50 dB HL in a sound field than at 40 dB SL under earphones. Once hearing loss was taken into consideration, nonaudiologic factors (measured on the Multidimensional Functional Assessment Questionnaire), particularly the dependability dimension of social support and the lethargy and paranoid dimensions of mental health, emerged as contributing predictor variables for HHS and HHIE scores. These findings suggest that a multidimensional approach is key to understanding and remediating hearing handicap in black elderly.
Influence of the Acoustic Reflex on Vowel Recognition
Authors: Dorman Michael , Cedar Ingrid , Hannley Maureen , Leek Marjorie , Lindholm Julie Mapes
Published: July 2014

Computer synthesized vowels of 50- and 300-ms duration were presented to normal-hearing listeners at a moderate and high sound pressure level (SPL). Presentation at the high SPL resulted in poor recognition accuracy for vowels of a duration (50 ms) shorter than the latency of the acoustic stapedial reflex. Presentation level had no effect on recognition accuracy for vowels of sufficient duration (300 ms) to elicit the reflex. The poor recognition accuracy for the brief, high intensity vowels was significantly improved when the reflex was preactivated. These results demonstrate the importance of the acoustic reflex in extending the dynamic range of the auditory system for speech recognition.
Development of Velar Consonants among Normal Two-Year-Olds
Authors: Dyson Alice T.
Published: July 2014

This study examined the frequency of occurrence of velar deviations in spontaneous single-word utterances over a 6-month period for 40 children who ranged in age from 1:11 (years:months) to 3:1 at the first observation. The productions of a subset of 14 children whose percentage of occurrence of velar deviations was greater than the mean of the total group were examined further to describe the types of velar deviations and the effects of word position and phonetic context. Results indicated that velars presented difficulty for less than half of the children. In the subgroup the type of deviation and the percentage of correct velars appeared to vary with the position in the word, the vowel environment, and the velar's function as a singleton or as one segment of a cluster.
Characteristics of Speech Production after Tracheoesophageal Puncture
Authors: Robbins Joanne , Christensen John , Kempster Gail
Published: July 2014

Voice onset time (VOT) and vowel duration characteristics of speakers following the Singer-Blom technique of tracheoesophageal puncture (1980) were compared to those of traditional esophageal and laryngeal speakers. Fifteen subjects in each of the three speaker groups produced the words /pik/, /kup/, and /kup/ in a carrier phrase while audio recordings were obtained. Broadband spectrograms were made of the consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) utterances and vowel duration and VOT were measured. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) procedures revealed that the tracheoesophageal speakers produced significantly shorter VOTs and longer vowel durations than the laryngeal speakers. However, the longer vowel durations for the traeheoesophageal speakers were not completely accounted for by the shorter VOTs found for that group. Spectrographic examination suggests that delayed voice offset time for the tracheoesophageal speakers also contributes to their longer vowel durations. Overall findings indicate that the physical characteristics and motor control properties of the neoglottis, even when driven by pulmonary air as in tracheoesophageal speakers, exert a major influence on alaryngeal voice production.
Effects of White Noise Masking and Low Pass Filtering on Speech Kinematics
Authors: Forrest Karen , Abbas Paul J. , Zimmermann Gerald N.
Published: July 2014

The effects of reduced auditory information on spatial and temporal parameters of speech production were investigated using cinefluorographic techniques. While subjects read a series of test words embedded in carrier sentences, they received (a) normal auditory information, (b) auditory information regarding only the first formant of their production, or (c) high level noise to mask all formant information. Kinematic analyses indicated that while there were some changes across conditions, these changes were not consistent either within or across the subjects. Parameters that were affected included mean displacement, vocal tract shape, interarticulator timing, and steady state duration. The results suggest that auditory information plays a role in maintaining dynamic aspects of speech kinematics. That is, while speech can be produced without auditory information, the precise action and coordination that characterize normal production may be altered.
Reaction Times of Moderate and Severe Stutterers to Monaural Verbal Stimuli
Authors: Rastatter Michael P. , Dell Carl W.
Published: July 2014

Fourteen right-handed stutterers and 14 normal speakers (7 men & 7 women) responded to monaurally presented stimuli with their right and left hands. Results of an ANOVA with repeated measures showed that a significant ear-hand interaction existed in the normal subjects' data, with the right-ear, right-hand configuration producing the fastest responses. These findings were in concert with an efficiency model of neurolinguistic organization that suggests that the left hemisphere is dominant for language processing with the right hemisphere being capable of performing less efficient auditory-verbal analysis. Results of a similar ANOVA procedure showed that all main effects and interactions were nonsignificant for the stutterers. From these data a bilateral model of neurolinguistic organization was derived for the stutterers where both hemispheres must participate simultaneously in the decoding process. This held true regardless of sex or severity of stuttering.
Effects of Vowel Context on the Articulatory Closure Postures of Deaf Speakers
Authors: Tye-Murray Nancy
Published: July 2014

Using cinefluorography, this investigation evaluated how the bilabial and dorsal stop closure postures of 2 hearing and 5 deaf speakers varied with vowel context. The jaw and tongue body postures of the hearing and the 2 most intelligible deaf speakers altered with the identity of the following vowel. This did not occur consistently for the remaining deaf speakers. The results concur with a previous suggestion (Tye, Zimmermann, & Kelso, 1983) that some speakers who learn speech without audition may develop a different articulatory coordination than hearing speakers. Discovering these differences may lead to a general account for many of their intelligibility deficits.
Prediction of Vocal Severity Within and Across Voice Types
Authors: Wolfe Virginia I. , Steinfatt Thomas M.
Published: July 2014

Fifty-one subjects representing diverse laryngeal etiologies recorded /a/ and /i/ to provide a study sample of 102 vowel sounds. Listeners categorized each vowel on the basis of four voice types (normal, breathy, hoarse, unclassified) and evaluated the degree of vocal abnormality on a 7-point scale. In addition to spectrographic noise (SN) classification, several acoustic measures based on period variability were entered into a nmltiple regression analysis for the prediction of vocal severity across and within voice types. In general, spectrographic noise and curvilinear derivatives of the period standard deviation (PSD) provided the best predictions of disorder severity. Different variables were the major predictors for different voice types. Several variables used in previous studies were inefficient as predictors of severity.
Similarities between Tactual and Auditory Speech Perception
Authors: Eilers Rebecca E. , Özdamar Özcan , Oller D. Kimbrough , Miskiel Edward , Urbano Richard
Published: July 2014

Perception of synthetic speech continua through the sense of touch and audition was compared utilizing a 32-channel spectrally oriented electrocutaneous display and standard auditory psychophysical procedures. Results indicated a close correspondence between tactual and auditory discrimination and identification for a vowel (/a/-//) and a consonant (/sta/-/sa/) continuum. These results suggest that at least some aspects of speech perception are amodal.
Subgrouping Young Stutterers
Authors: Schwartz Howard D. , Conture Edward G.
Published: July 2014

The purpose of this investigation was to identify speech and nonspeech behaviors associated with stuttering of young persons and to use these behaviors in attempts to discern and describe subgroups of these individuals. Forty-three young stutterers (10 girls and 33 boys) produced stutterings and associated behaviors during conversations that were video/audio recorded. Fourteen associated speech and nonspeech behaviors and speech disfluency types were identified and quantified for 10 stutterings from each of the 43 subjects. The 14 associated behaviors and speech disfluency types were further reduced to form three related indices: (a) Sound Prolongation Index, (b) Nonspeech Behavior Index, and (c) Behavioral Variety Index. Results indicated that five subgroups of young stutterers could be identified and described on the basis of these youngsters' number and variety of speech and nonspeech behaviors associated with their stuttering. Findings are taken to suggest that these speech and nonspeeeh behavioral differences reflect differences in young stutterers' reactions and adjustments to their problem.
Summarization Strategies of Hearing-Impaired Normally Hearing College Students
Authors: Peterson Laura Napolitano , French Lucia
Published: July 2014

The purpose of this study was to compare the summary writing skills of hearing-impaired and normally hearing college Students. Summarization was defined in terms Of the following measures: deletion of trivial text information, inclusion of most important ideas, selection of topic sentences, creation of topic statements, and integration of information Within and among several paragraphs. Inclusion of opinionated, incorrect, and uninterpretable information Was measured also. Thirty hearing-impaired and 30 normally hearing students read and summarized two expository science passages that were controlled for the number of topic (main idea) sentences and that had been rated previously for the importance of "idea units." Students' factual comprehension also was assessed. Hearing-impaired and normally hearing students exhibited a similar pattern of use among several measured summarization strategies, except for the inclusion of opinions Or comments in their summaries. Hearing-impaired students were not as sensitive as normally hearing students to importance of ideas and used the following summarization strategies significantly less often: inclusion of important ideas, selection of topic sentences, creation of topic statements, and integration of ideas within and among paragraphs. The results indicated that hearing-impaired college students have basic summarization skills but do not apply summarization strategies as effectively as normally hearing students.
Intraoral Pressure, Nasal Pressure and Airflow Rate in Cleft Palate Speech
Authors: Laine Tellervo , Warren Donald W. , Dalston Rodger M. , Hairfield W. Michael , Morr Kathleen E.
Published: July 2014

We have suggested that compensatory behaviors associated with cleft palate may be strategies developed for the purpose of satisfying the requirements of a speech regulating system. The purpose of the present study was to test this hypothesis in subjects demonstrating various degrees of velopharyngeal inadequacy. The pressure-flow technique was used to assess aerodynamic responses to a loss of velar resistance in 74 subjects compared to a control group of 137 subjects with adequate velopharyngeal closure.

The results of this study demonstrate that as degree of inadequacy increased, airflow rate also increased. Although intraoral pressure fell as inadequacy increased, many subjects were able to maintain pressures above 3.0 cm H
2
0 by increasing airflow rate. Nasal pressure increased in proportion to the decrease in intraoral pressure While combined nasal plus oral pressure remained constant across groups. These findings suggest that a loss of resistance at the velar port is compensated by an increase in resistance at the nasal port. Airflow rate appears to be adjusted to total upper airway resistance. These findings support our contention that the speech system is constrained to meet aerodynamic requirements.
Acoustic and Perceptual Analysis of Word-Initial Stop Consonants in Phonologically Disordered Children
Authors: Forrest Karen , Rockman Barbara K.
Published: July 2014

Spectrographic measures of voice onset time (VOT) were made for phonologically disordered children in whom a voicing contrast was just beginning to emerge. These temporal measures were related to adult listeners' perception of voicing of the initial stop consonant to determine how well VOT could predict perceived voicing. In general, the predictive utility of VOT was not very high. The relation between VOT as produced by the phonologically disordered children and perceived voicing ranged from 0.31 to 0.43. A finer-grained analysis was conducted to determine what other acoustic cues might have influenced the listeners' judgments of voicing. Although no one acoustic cue could be found to explain all listeners' responses, spectral cues such as fundamental and F
1
frequencies at the onset of voicing, as well as the burst and aspiration amplitude relative to the vowel onset amplitude accounted for the perceived voicing of about half of the tokens that were not differentiated by VOT. Rather than relying solely on the temporal characteristics of the VOT interval, a matrix of acoustic cues may influence how a listener perceives word-initial voicing as produced by phonologically disordered children.
Explanation of Ambiguous Advertisements
Authors: Nippold Marilyn A. , Cuyler Juliana S. , Braunbeck-Price Renee
Published: July 2014

Explanation of linguistic ambiguity occurring in a naturalistic context was examined for children and adolescents at various ages. Subjects ages 9 through 18 were asked to explain the meanings of 14 ambiguous advertisements taken from recent magazines, newspapers, and brochures. All of the ads were lexically ambiguous and contained a word or phrase that had both a physical and a psychological meaning (e.g., "Introducing the Upper Crusts. Two sensational new entrees from Stouffer's"). Results were that older subjects explained the meanings correctly more frequently than younger subjects, although adolescents who were 18-years-old did not perform perfectly. It was also found that the psychological meanings of the ads were more difficult to explain than the physical meanings. The results were interpreted in relation to previous developmental studies of ambiguity involving sentences, jokes, and riddles , and Studies of figurative language explanation.
Tape Recorder Effects on Jitter and Shimmer Extraction
Authors: Doherty E. Thomas , Shipp Thomas
Published: July 2014

To test for possible contamination of acoustic analyses by record/reproduce systems, five sine waves of fixed frequency and amplitude were sampled directly by a computer and recorded simultaneously on four different tape formats (audio and FM reel-to-reel, audio cassette, and video cassette using pulse code modulation). Recordings were digitized on playback and with the direct samples analyzed for fundamental frequency, amplitude, jitter, and shimmer using a zero crossing interpolation scheme. Distortion introduced by any of the data acquisition systems is negligible when extracting average fundamental frequency or average amplitude. For jitter and shimmer estimation, direct sampling or the use of a video cassette recorder with pulse code modulation are clearly superior. FM recorders, although not quite as accurate, provide a satisfactory alternative to those methods. Audio reel-to-reel recordings are marginally adequate for jitter analysis whereas audio cassette recorders can introduce jitter and shimmer values that are greater than some reported values for normal talkers.
Anticipatory and Carry-Over Nasal Coarticulation in the Speech of Children and Adults
Authors: Flege James Emil
Published: July 2014

Producing /n/ requires a lingual constriction to be formed and the velopharyngeal port (VPP) to be opened. This study examined interarticulator timing in the speech of adults and children aged 5 and 10 years. A new acoustic method was developed to determine the time at which VPP opening began during vowels spoken in the context of /d_n/, and VPP closing reached completion in vowels spoken in the context of /n_d/. Adults and children alike nasalized most of the vowels in the /d_n/context. This suggested that the children's speech was not more "segmental" than adults'. It suggested, further, that nasalizing vowels in a /d_n/ context is a natural speech process that need not be learned by young children. The children, like the adults, nasalized most of the vowels spoken in the context of /n_d/. The lack of significant between-group differences, taken together with several other findings of the study, is consistent with the view that the temporal domain of carry-over nasal coarticulation is determined largely by the time needed to close the VPP (i.e, by inertial properties of the speech production mechanism).