Speech and Hearing Science Commons^™

Development And Validation For A Mobile Speech-In-Noise Audiometric Task, Tommy Peng

Engineering and Applied Science Theses & Dissertations

Traditional speech-in-noise hearing tests are performed by clinicians with specialized equipment. Furthermore, these tasks often present contextually weak sentences in background babble, which are poor representations of real-world situations. This study proposes a mobile audiometric task, Semantic Auditory Search, which uses the Android platform to bypass the need for specialized equipment and presents multiple tasks of two competing real-world conversations to estimate the user’s speech-in-noise hearing ability. Through linear regression models built from data of seventy-nine subjects, three Semantic Auditory Search metrics have been shown to have statistically significant (p < 0.05) with medium effects sizes for predicting QuickSIN SNR50. The internal consistency of the task was also high, with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.88 or more across multiple metrics. In conclusion, this preliminary study suggests that Semantic Auditory Search can accurately and reliably perform as an automated speech-in-noise hearing test. It also has tremendous potential for extension into automated tests of cognitive function, as well.

Program Sustainability: Hearing Loss And Tinnitus Prevention In American Indian Communities, William Hal Martin, Judith L. Sobel, Susan E. Griest, Linda C. Howarth, Thomas Becker

Judith L. Sobel

INTRODUCTION: An important goal of any health promotion effort is to have it maintained in delivery and effectiveness over time. The purpose of this study was to establish a community-based noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus prevention program in three different types of American Indian communities and evaluate them for evidence of long-term sustainability.

METHODS: The target population was fourth- and fifth-grade students from three different models of American Indian communities. The evidenced-based Dangerous Decibels® program was adapted to include local media, classroom education, family and community outreach, and web-based activities. Sustainability was attempted by promoting funding stability, political support, partnerships ...

Development Of Kinematic Templates For Automatic Pronunciation Assessment Using Acoustic-To-Articulatory Inversion, Deriq K. Jones

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Computer-aided pronunciation training (CAPT) is a subcategory of computer-aided language learning (CALL) that deals with the correction of mispronunciation during language learning. For a CAPT system to be effective, it must provide useful and informative feedback that is comprehensive, qualitative, quantitative, and corrective. While the majority of modern systems address the first 3 aspects of feedback, most of these systems do not provide corrective feedback. As part of the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded study “RI: Small: Speaker Independent Acoustic-Articulator Inversion for Pronunciation Assessment”, the Marquette Speech and Swallowing Lab and Marquette Speech and Signal Processing Lab are conducting a ...

Exploring The Lived Experiences Of Adults Who Stutter: A Qualitative Study, Emilie S. Scharf

Ursidae: The Undergraduate Research Journal at the University of Northern Colorado

Stuttering is a phenomenon that affects millions of people worldwide, and up until now the disorder has most often been portrayed in a negative light. The purpose of this study was to understand the lived experiences of young adults who stutter, framing the research with a more holistic perspective. Two participants were interviewed in depth using a qualitative research approach to explore what it is like to live with stuttering and how it has affected their daily lives. Literature to date tends to group people who stutter into quantitative studies that problematize the disorder (Blood, G., Blood, I.M., Maloney ...

"Marie Manje La Pom Nan." Examining The Cognitive Process Of Restructuring And Advantage Selection In The Definite Article System In Haitian Creole Among U.S. Born Heritage Speakers Of Haitian Creole, Marie-Michelle Monéreau-Merry

All Graduate Works by Year: Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The distributional patterns of heritage speakers’ reanalyzed first language are often grammatically divergent from native speakers. Irrespective of the heritage language, there is converging evidence that the cognitive process of reanalysis of heritage languages is often evident in less salient properties of the language, such as inflectional morphology (Polinsky & Kagan, 2007). Therefore, Haitian Creole (HC) is a candidate for restructuring. In this investigation we compared the morphophonological patterns of the definite article system at the production and perception level between two groups of early learners of Haitian Creole (i.e. native speakers vs. United States (US) born heritage speakers).

The ...

Listening Effort Outcome Measures In Adult Populations, Melissa Tednes, Scott E. Seeman Phd

AuD Capstone Projects - Communication Sciences and Disorders

Listening effort is being considered clinically as an important indicator of patient success with amplification. Listening effort refers to “the mental exertion required to attend to, and understand, an auditory message”. (McGarrigle et al., 2014) Cognitive ability, age, and degree of hearing impairment all must considered when measuring the effort one is exerting on a specific task. Listening effort can be measured using subjective tools, electrophysiologic measures, or with a dual-task paradigm. Subjective tools include self-reports and questionnaires. Electrophysiologic measures can consist of measuring pupil dilation, heart rate variability, and skin conductance. A dual-task paradigm is set-up with two tasks ...

The Effect Of Speech Timing On Velopharyngeal Function, Megan Griggs

Honors Theses AY 16/17

It is likely that the timing of the speech can affect velopharyngeal function and the opening and closing of the velopharyngeal port, but we do not have a good understanding of how speech timing affects the control of the velopharyngeal opening and closing. The purpose of this project is to study the effect of two speech-timing conditions on velopharyngeal function in individuals with normal speech through the measurement of nasal airflow and oral air pressure during speech.

Automatic Activation Of Phonological Templates For Native But Not Nonnative Phonemes: An Investigation Of The Temporal Dynamics Of Mu Activation, Daniela Cristina Santos-Oliveira

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Models of speech perception suggest a dorsal stream connecting the temporal and inferior parietal lobe with the inferior frontal gyrus. This stream is thought to involve an auditory-motor loop that translates acoustic information into motor/articulatory commands and is further influenced by decision making processes that involve maintenance of working memory or attention. Parsing out dorsal stream’s speech specific mechanisms from memory related ones in speech perception poses a complex problem. Here I argue that these processes may be disentangled from the viewpoint of the temporal dynamics of sensorimotor neural activation around a speech perception related event.

Methods: Alpha ...

Musical Ear Syndrome: What Do We Know?, Cara D. Pestel

Rehabilitation, Human Resources and Communication Disorders Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this study was to review the existing literature regarding Musical Ear Syndrome and other related auditory hallucinations. While the existence of auditory hallucinations is evident, their cause is unclear and widely understudied. There was a need for existing information to be compiled for use in the healthcare field. This review of existing literature will aid speech-language pathologists, audiologists, nurses, psychologists, and physicians in understanding this condition and what differentiates it from other various disorders. This will allow these professionals to better understand the experiences and needs of those with Musical Ear Syndrome.

An Internationally Adopted Child's Transition: A Family Story, Holly C. Heckmann

Rehabilitation, Human Resources and Communication Disorders Undergraduate Honors Theses

The goal of this study was to contribute to the literature on international adoption by conducting a case study with one adoptive family. Data was collected using a semi-structured, in-depth interview that was audio recorded and transcribed word-for-word. The interview questions asked about family configuration, language background and use, adoptive family decisions about cultural inclusiveness, and the transition from home to school. The analysis was member-checked following coding for the themes that emerged. Results indicated that lingering differences from reduced exposure to language in the first year of life took the form of subtle language differences that continued through the ...

Pitch Perception In Preschool-Age Children Who Are Deaf Or Hard Of Hearing, Megan Lambert

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports

This research thesis will 1) provide an overview of the psychoacoustics of music perception, particularly as related to the properties of pitch perception in young children and 2) describe the methods and outcomes of an exploratory study to evaluate the efficacy of obtaining pitch perception data from preschool age children with hearing loss. Each child completed a series of three tasks, including coaching and practice, single note perception, and pitch contrasts. All of the children readily understood the single-note pitch perception task. Pitch contrast performance across participants ranged from 50% to 96% correct for the first data collection period and ...

Improving Access To Communication For Adults With Aphasia Using "Aphasia-Friendly" Accommodations, Chandler Hodgkin

Honors Theses

Accessing written health information is vital to any health visit (Blackstone, Beukelman, & Yorkston, 2015). People who have difficulty comprehending written text have difficulty understanding health-related information because it is usually written at a complex levels (Kanj & Mitic, 2009). If health information contains complicated content and is not easily accessible, people may not receive the health care needed (Blackstone et al., 2015). Many populations are considered communication vulnerable relative to health care which means they may not have access to understanding health information documents (Hallowell, 2016). These populations include people who are blind or visually impaired; people who are deaf or hard of hearing; people with a cognitive impairment; people of different cultures; and people with low literacy levels.

Another vulnerable population are people with aphasia, an acquired language disorder that impairs a person’s ability to understand spoken and written language (Hallowell, 2016). All of these populations may have difficulty accessing and understanding complex health-related forms and content (Hallowell, 2016). By making health information more accessible to people who are communication vulnerable, patient-provider communication can improve, thus allowing both patients and providers to ...

The Impact Of Higher Education On Linguistic Culture In Senegal And The Midwest United States, Kelsey Gough

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of globalization on linguistic culture in populations of people from both Senegal and the Midwest United States. This study will also specifically highlight any similarities and differences present between those who have a higher education and those that do not. These similarities and differences were revealed by asking the research question: How has the process of globalization impacted beliefs about language held by people from various educational levels in Senegal and the U.S. Midwest?

Data regarding globalization’s effect on the attitudes people have about language, linguistic culture, were ...

Healthcare Resources For The Deaf Community: A Study Of Kalamazoo Area Hospitals, Rachel Kellogg

Honors Theses

Hospitals need to analyze all patient care delivery methods, and especially those designated for vulnerable populations. The Deaf community is a particularly unique and often overlooked vulnerable population because of the additional communication barriers that they possess. The goal for this research is to look at the current best practices for communication and treatment in hospitals from the perspective of the Deaf community. This research also looks at how or if these practices are being carried out in community hospitals. In order to obtain this information, interview questions were developed with the help of an ASL interpreter and two interviews ...

Participation In Camp Dream. Speak. Live: Affective And Cognitive Outcomes For Children Who Stutter, Courtney T. Byrd, Elizabeth Hampton, Megann Mcgill, Zoi Gkalitsiou

Megann McGill

Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of participation in Camp Dream. Speak. Live., an intensive therapy program, on the communication attitudes, peer relationships and quality of life of children who stutter. Method: Participants were 23 children who stutter (n=5 females; n=18 males; age range 4–14 years) who attended a weeklong intensive therapy program that was exclusively developed to address the affective and cognitive components of stuttering. Outcome measures included the KiddyCAT Communication Attitude Test for Preschool and Kindergarten Children who Stutter, the Overall Assessment of the Speaker’s Experience of Stuttering (OASES ...

From Grapheme To Phonological Output: Performance Of Adults Who Stutter On A Word Jumble Task, Megann Mcgill, Harvey Sussman, Courtney T. Byrd

Megann McGill

Purpose

The purpose of the present study was to extend previous research by analyzing the ability of adults who stutter to use phonological working memory in conjunction with lexical access to perform a word jumble task.

Method

Forty English words consisting of 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-letters (n = 10 per letter length category) were randomly jumbled using a web-based application. During the experimental task, 26 participants were asked to silently manipulate the scrambled letters to form a real word. Each vocal response was coded for accuracy and speech reaction time (SRT).

Results

Adults who stutter attempted to solve fewer word ...

Perception Of Hearing Loss In Orchestral Musicians, Eva Gebel, Sherri M. Jones, Julie A. Honaker

Public Access Theses and Dissertations from the College of Education and Human Sciences

Musicians are at risk for hearing loss due to noise exposure and presbycusis (1, 2). Compared to non‐musicians with hearing loss, musicians with hearing loss show improvements in speech understanding in a background of noise, but by self‐report do not perceive an advantage (3). This project aimed to explore this further by studying six orchestral musicians aged 42‐64 with a perceived hearing loss. Scores on a variety of assessments were compared to published normative data and a survey was also completed. No significant differences were found between the musicians and the normative data. Survey responses indicated that ...

Spa 6930 Billingual Assessment And Intervention, Maria Brea

Service-Learning Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Botulinum Toxin Type A Injections Into The Cricopharyngeal Muscle To Treat Upper Esophageal Dysfunction, Brittani R. Greene

Communication Disorders and Sciences Student Posters

No abstract provided.

Osteoporosis And Sensorineural Hearing Loss, Jenette Dziezynski

Communication Disorders and Sciences Student Posters

Osteoporosis is a disease that affects 7.9 to 22.6% of women in the United States. This illness causes a loss of bone mineral density at different sites of the body. There appears to be a correlation between osteoporosis and sensorineural hearing loss, but studies have displayed conflicting results regarding this association. Furthermore, if this relationship exists, the exact physical cause of the sensorineural hearing loss is unknown. After review of the literature, although some studies denied the existence of a correlation, most research confirmed the relationship between osteoporosis and sensorineural hearing loss. Additionally, some studies have proposed demineralization ...