Digital Commons Network^™

Female Teachers As Sexual Predators: A Qualitative Study Of Grades 7-12 In The State Of Florida's Public Schools, Jayme Lynn Joslyn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study's purpose was to discover commonalities and differences among female predators and Florida female teachers who are perceived and reported to harass students sexually. When perceived and reported female sexual harasser and student safety was researched, a breath of studies did not occur. When current studies were reviewed, teacher sexual harassment continued to occur. In this qualitative study, ten Florida public school female teachers who were perceived and reported to sexually harass students were randomly selected. Findings indicted that further research is still needed on female teachers who are perceived and reported to sexually harass students. When researching the …

Spoken Word Recognition In Quiet And In Noise By Native And Non-Native Listeners: Effects Of Age Of Immersion And Vocabulary Size, Astrid Zerla Doty

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In spoken word recognition, high-frequency words with few neighbors and less frequently occurring minimal pair neighbors (lexically easy words) are recognized more accurately than low-frequency words with many and more frequently occurring neighbors (lexically hard words). Bradlow and Pisoni (1999) found a larger easy hard word effect for non-native than native speakers of English. The present study extends this work by specifically comparing word recognition by non-native listeners with either earlier or later ages of immersion in an English-speaking environment to that of native English speakers. Listeners heard six lists of 24 words, each composed of 12 lexically easy and …

Clear Speech Effects For Vowels Produced By Monolingual And Bilingual Talkers, Teresa Demasi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

'Clear speech' is a speaking style that talkers often employ when they know they may have trouble being understood, as when speaking in noise or to a person with a hearing loss. When 'clear speech' produced by native talkers is presented in noise to native listeners, it has been shown to be about 10-15 percentage points more intelligible, on average, than normally produced speech. Recent research has shown that bilingual listeners may experience a smaller intelligibility benefit than monolingual listeners from 'clear speech' produced by monolingual talkers. The present study compares the ability of monolingual and bilingual talkers to produce …

The Influence Of Performance Background On Instrumentalists' Ability To Discriminate And Label Cornet And Trumpet Timbre, Gary Compton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study was an examination of timbre discrimination and labeling, with specific consideration of the soprano-brass timbres of cornets and trumpets. This study sought to determine whether instrumentalists differed in their ability to label and discriminate cornet and trumpet timbres, and whether these abilities were influenced by the instrumentalists' performing instrument and years of playing experience. Wind, brass and percussion players (n=100) from existing instrumental groups in the Tampa Bay area participated in the study. These groups were collegiate trumpet majors from a large public university school of music, a collegiate wind ensemble from a private university, and a brass …

An Investigation Of The Effects Of Perceived Feedback Accuracy On Performance, Ashley A. Gray

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study built upon the theoretical feedback process of Ilgen, Fisher and Taylor (1979), as refined by Kinicki, Prussia, Wu, & Mckee-Ryan (2004), to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the mechanism underlying an individual's response to performance feedback. The feedback model implicates source credibility and the feedback-rich environment as critical elements in the process explaining recipient accuracy perceptions and responses. Thus the sign and perceived accuracy of performance feedback were investigated in a 3 x 3 (plus control) experimental design. One hundred fifty-six undergraduate students were randomly assigned to feedback conditions, in which they performed on a three-trial …

Effect Of Age On 11- To 18-Year-Olds’ Discrimination Of Nuances In Instrumental And Speech Phrase Interpretations, Andrew Sioberg

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation was a continuation of study on a theory of a learning window for the perception of expressive qualities in music and speech. The proposed theory suggested that a practice window must overlap a learning window before it closes around the age of 10. This dissertation sought to determine whether children older than the proposed learning window continued to improve in speech and musical discrimination skill, or leveled off in this ability. It also examined the impact of gender and private lesson experience on discrimination ability.

Instrumental music students (n = 292) attending a public magnet school for visual …

The Effect Of Conducting Gesture On Expressive-Interpretive Performance Of College Music Majors, Ronald Wayne Gallops

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of non-verbal conducting gesture on musicians’ stylistic response and whether conducting gestures alone elicit consistent musical responses from musicians. Through an analysis that utilized a Gestural Response Instrument (GRI) it was determined that, even if the use of verbal and facial cues were eliminated, some experienced conductors successfully utilized non-verbal conducting gestures to communicate specific musical interpretations. It appeared that musicians responded in specific ways to the musical interpretation of conductors who had command of a variety of conducting gestures. The results illustrated the existence of a perceptual contract that …