Monthly Archives: May 2011
Temporal Variability and Stability in Infant-Directed Sung Speech: Evidence for Language-specific Patterns
In this paper, sung speech is used as a methodological tool to explore temporal variability in the timing of word-internal consonants and vowels. It is hypothesized that temporal variability/stability becomes clearer under the varying rhythmical conditions induced by song. This is explored crosslinguistically in German — a language that exhibits a potential vocalic quantity distinction — and the non-quantity languages French and Russian. Songs by non-professional singers, i.e. parents that sang to their infants aged 2 to 13 months in a non-laboratory setting, were recorded and analyzed. Vowel and consonant durations at syllable contacts of trochaic word types with CVCV or CV CV structure were measured under varying rhythmical conditions. Evidence is provided that in German non-professional singing, the two syllable structures can be differentiated by two distinct temporal variability patterns: vocalic variability (and consonantal stability) was found to be dominant in CV CV structures whereas consonantal variability (and vocalic stability) was characteristic for CVCV structures. In French and Russian, however, only vocalic variability seemed to apply. Additionally, findings suggest that the different temporal patterns found in German were also supported by the stability pattern at the tonal level. These results point to subtle (supra) segmental timing mechanisms in sung speech that affect temporal targets according to the specific prosodic nature of the language in question.
from Language and Speech
Speaking Rate Affects the Perception of Duration as a Suprasegmental Lexical-stress Cue
Three categorization experiments investigated whether the speaking rate of a preceding sentence influences durational cues to the perception of suprasegmental lexical-stress patterns. Dutch two-syllable word fragments had to be judged as coming from one of two longer words that matched the fragment segmentally but differed in lexical stress placement. Word pairs contrasted primary stress on either the first versus the second syllable or the first versus the third syllable. Duration of the initial or the second syllable of the fragments and rate of the preceding context (fast vs. slow) were manipulated. Listeners used speaking rate to decide about the degree of stress on initial syllables whether the syllables’ absolute durations were informative about stress (Experiment 1a) or not (Experiment 1b). Rate effects on the second syllable were visible only when the initial syllable was ambiguous in duration with respect to the preceding rate context (Experiment 2). Absolute second syllable durations contributed little to stress perception (Experiment 3). These results suggest that speaking rate is used to disambiguate words and that rate-modulated stress cues are more important on initial than non-initial syllables. Speaking rate affects perception of suprasegmental information.
from Language and Speech
What Variables Predict Quality of Text Notes and are Text Notes Related to Performance on Different Types of Tests?
Despite the importance of notes to test performance, very little is known about the cognitive variables related to notetaking, especially text notes. The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate the contributions of transcription fluency, reading comprehension, verbal working memory, executive attention, and background knowledge to the quality of text notes. A secondary purpose was to evaluate the relationship of all of the other aforementioned variables to three test types to determine if notes are more important to some test types than others: a free recall essay and two types of multiple choice items: memory items and inference items. Results indicated that transcription fluency was the best predictor of notes (reading comprehension was also significant predictor), which extends previous findings on the importance of transcription fluency to lecture notes. Notes’ were the best predictor of the essay and the memory multiple choice items but not the inference items. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Impaired executive functions in paediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder patients
Conclusion: Our results suggested that paediatric OCD patients had worse abstraction-flexibility, mental set-shifting, verbal comprehension and visuospatial/construction abilities.
Do Postures of Distal Effectors Affect the Control of Actions of Other Distal Effectors? Evidence for a System of Interactions between Hand and Mouth
The data from the present study support the hypothesis that there exists a system involved in establishing interactions between movements and postures of hand and mouth. This system might have been used to transfer a repertoire of hand gestures to mouth articulation postures during language evolution and, in modern humans, it may have evolved a system controlling the interactions existing between speech and gestures.
from PLoS ONE
Progression of language decline and cortical atrophy in subtypes of primary progressive aphasia
Conclusions: The results suggest that the unique features, which sharply differentiate the PPA variants at the early to middle stages, may lose their distinctiveness as the degeneration becomes more severe. Given the substantial atrophy over 2 years, PPA clinical trials may require fewer patients and shorter study durations than Alzheimer disease trials to detect significant therapeutic effects.
from Neurology
Weighting of cues for fricative place of articulation perception by children wearing cochlear implants
Conclusions: Children wearing a cochlear implant use similar cue-weighting strategies as normal listeners (i.e. all apply more weight to the frication noise than to the transition cue), but may have limitations in processing formant transitions and in cue interaction.
from the International Journal of Audiology
Speech perception in noise: Exploring the effect of linguistic context in children with and without auditory processing disorder
Conclusion: Further study using a larger sample is warranted to deepen our understanding of the nature of APD and identify characteristic profiles to enable better tailoring of therapeutic programs
from the International Journal of Audiology
Development and evaluation of the Mandarin speech signal content on the acceptable noise level test in listeners with normal hearing in mainland China
Conclusions: (1) The contents of different Mandarin running speeches may not affect the acceptable noise level in Mandarin normal-hearing listeners; (2) The running speech selected from the primary school ought to be used as the Mandarin acceptable noise level test material to evaluate the outcomes of hearing aid fitting.
from the International Journal of Audiology
Open ear hearing aids in tinnitus therapy: An efficacy comparison with sound generators
TRT was equally effective with sound generator or open ear hearing aids: they gave basically identical, statistically indistinguishable results.
from the International Journal of Audiology
Adventure Pack for Articulation
As you are looking at making your FY12 orders, you should consider the Adventure Pack as a good addition to your collection of materials.
from Speech Techie.com
Sonova sales increase 13.3% to CHF 1,617 million for financial year 2010/11
Sonova consolidated its leading position in the hearing instrument industry in financial year 2010/11. Despite negative currency effects, a new sales record of CHF 1,617 million was achieved.
from News-Medical.net
Penn research overturns theory on how children learn their first words
New research by a team of University of Pennsylvania psychologists is helping to overturn the dominant theory of how children learn their first words, suggesting that it occurs more in moments of insight than gradually through repeated exposure.
from EurekAlert.org
Poorer reading skills following changed computer habits of children
Sweden and the US are two countries in which increased leisure use of computers by children leads to poorer reading ability. This is the conclusion from research carried out at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
from EurekAlert.org
Enhancement produces modest increases in the effectiveness of stimulus pairing procedures to increase vocal behavior in children with autism
This review provides a summary and appraisal commentary on the treatment review by Esch, B. E., Carr, J. E., & Grow, L. L. (2009). Evaluation of an enhanced stimulus-stimulus pairing procedure to increase early vocalizations of children with autism. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 42, 225-241.
from Evidence-Based Communication Assessment and Intervention
