Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons^™

Automating Intended Target Identification For Paraphasias In Discourse Using A Large Language Model, Alexandra C. Salem, Robert Gale, Mikala S. Fleegle, Gerasimos Fergadiotis, Steven Bedrick

Speech and Hearing Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose:

To date, there are no automated tools for the identification and fine-grained classification of paraphasias within discourse, the production of which is the hallmark characteristic of most people with aphasia (PWA). In this work, we fine-tune a large language model (LLM) to automatically predict paraphasia targets in Cinderella story retellings.

Method:

Data consisted of 332 Cinderella story retellings containing 2,489 paraphasias from PWA, for which research assistants identified their intended targets. We supplemented these training data with 256 sessions from control participants, to which we added 2,415 synthetic paraphasias. We conducted four experiments using different training data configurations to …

A Protracted Developmental Trajectory For English-Learning Children's Detection Of Consonant Mispronunciations In Newly Learned Words, Carolyn M. Quam, Daniel Swingley

Speech and Hearing Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Children are adept at learning their language’s speech-sound categories, but just how these categories function in their developing lexicon has not been mapped out in detail. Here, we addressed whether, in a language-guided looking procedure, 2-year-olds would respond to a mispronunciation of the voicing of the initial consonant of a newly learned word. First, to provide a baseline of mature native-speaker performance, adults were taught a new word under training conditions of low prosodic variability. In a second experiment, 24- and 30-month-olds were taught a new word under training conditions of high or low prosodic variability. Children and adults showed …

Computer Adaptive Testing For The Assessment Of Anomia Severity, Gerasimos Fergadiotis, Marianne Casilio, William D. Hula, Alexander Swiderski

Speech and Hearing Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Anomia assessment is a fundamental component of clinical practice and research inquiries involving individuals with aphasia, and confrontation naming tasks are among the most commonly used tools for quantifying anomia severity. While currently available confrontation naming tests possess many ideal properties, they are ultimately limited by the overarching psychometric framework they were developed within. Here, we discuss the challenges inherent to confrontation naming tests and present a modern alternative to test development called item response theory (IRT). Key concepts of IRT approaches are reviewed in relation to their relevance to aphasiology, highlighting the ability of IRT to create flexible and …

Effects Of Phonomotor Treatment On Discourse Production, Joann P. Silkes, Gerasimos Fergadiotis, Rebecca Hunting Pompon, Janaki Torrence, Diane L. Kendall

Speech and Hearing Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Aphasia is an acquired language disorder that makes it difficult for people to produce and comprehend language, with all people with aphasia (PWA) demonstrating difficulty accessing and selecting words (anomia). While aphasia treatments typically focus on a single aspect of language, such as word retrieval, the ultimate goal of aphasia therapy is to improve communication, which is best seen at the level of discourse.

Aims: This retrospective study investigated the effects of one effective anomia therapy, Phonomotor Treatment (PMT), on discourse production.

Methods & Procedures: Twenty-six PWA participated in 60 h of PMT, which focuses on …

"Justice Is Blind": A Model For Analyzing Metaphor Transformations And Narratives In Actual Discourse, L. David Ritchie

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this article I present a model of how metaphors are transformed and re-presented as narratives, how this process helps shape communicative interactions, and how it contributes to relevance effects and the generation of meaning, often by simultaneously affecting multiple cognitive contexts. I demonstrate the application of the model to samples of discourse from current research and show how it can contribute to understanding troubled communicative relationships and potentially to improving communication in situations of misunderstanding and conflict.

X Is A Journey: Embodied Simulation In Metaphor Interpretation, L. David Ritchie

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

This essay compares simulation-based accounts of metaphor processing recently proposed by Gibbs (2006a) and Ritchie (2006), using examples of metaphors based on the metaphor vehicle "journey" from four different texts. From analysis of these different examples, it is concluded that simulation may come into play at different levels, depending on the metaphor and the context in which it is used. Further, it is suggested that the imaginative simulation of the object or action named by a metaphor vehicle, proposed by Gibbs, incorporates a partial subset of detail-level perceptual simulators. This leads to the proposal that the two models describe cognitive …