Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Acoustic Characteristics Of Vowels Produced By Men, Women And Children, Laura Arlene Getty

Masters Theses

This investigation was a replication and extension of Peterson and Barney’s (1952) research on the acoustics and perception of vowels. This study explored the acoustic characteristics of 12 vowels produced by 50 men, 50 women and 41 children. Speech samples were tape recorded as subjects read lists of words and isolated vowels. Speech samples were digitized. Speech waveforms, spectrograms and formant frequencies were examined and measured.

The average formant frequency values were similar but not identical to the values reported by Peterson and Barney (1952). The largest discrepancy between the two studies was the degree of overlap among vowel categories, …

An Investigation Of Three Strategies To Enhance Generalization Of Conversational Skills, Janice Ann Cain

Masters Theses

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of three strategies to enhance generalization of taught conversational skills: (1) multiple and varied scenarios, (2) multiple conversational partners, and (3) homework assignments. A multiple baseline across behaviors design tested whether the initial training package produced generalization to the probe sessions and whether the addition of homework would produce greater generalization to the probe sessions compared to that observed during the initial training. Four adults, one male and three female, ranging in age from 20-64 years served as subjects. Skills were taught using a combination of coaching, modeling, behavioral …

Analogical Reasoning Of Elderly Adults Using Three Modalities: Words, Pictures, And Figures, Judy L. Rau

Masters Theses

This study examined the analogical processing skills of elderly adults. Forty-seven subjects (ages 65-90) completed analogy tasks presented in three modalities: words, pictures, and geometric figures (90 total). The subjects for this study were elderly adults living independently in a federally subsidized apartment building. The subjects used in this study possessed characteristics similar to the "typical" American adult. Results indicated that performance does not vary significantly with age in the word and picture modalities. Significant (p < .05) negative relationships were found between performance on the geometric figure analogies and increased age and between overall performance and increased age. Significant (p < .05) positive relationships were found between education and performance on each of the three modalities as well as between education and overall performance.

Perceptual Effects Of Perturbation And Additive Noise, Richard E. Nero

Masters Theses

This study investigated the perceptual effects of varying glottal waveshape perturbation, duty cycle perturbation, jitter, signal-to-noise ratio perturbation, and shimmer at three levels of perceived magnitude (high, medium, and low). Voice signals were synthesized using a modified version of Klatt's (1980) formant synthesizer. Listeners rated signal dysphonia using an A-B dissimilarity procedure. Multidimensional scaling analysis suggested that signals judged low in magnitude of dysphonia were perceived to be most similar. Medium-level and high-level magnitude signals were judged to be respectively less similar. Signals varying in duty cycle and fundamental frequency perturbation were perceived to be very similar while those signals …

Teacher And Student Discourse Variables In Academic Communication, Janet M. Sturm

Masters Theses

This study was designed to analyze the oral communication exchanges between first, third, and fifth grade teachers and their students. It was based on the hypothesis that discourse parameters of linguistic quantity and complexity and communication acts change over grade level, much as the discourse parameters of caregivers with young children have been found to do. The language of teachers and students in 15 classrooms was examined by measuring 6 form and quantity variables and 11 communication act variables. Results showed significant differences for some form variables (MLU, mazes, and Type-token ratio) and some communication acts (convey content, mark content, …

The Relationship Between Untrained Listener Perceptions And Disordered Voices, Donald S. Finan

Masters Theses

The ability of trained listeners to make judgments of voice quality has been well documented. This study is designed to investigate untrained listeners' ability to make quality judgments of male and female produced normal, breathy, harsh, and hypernasal voice qualities. Research purposes are as follows:

1. To test if untrained listeners tend to reliably assign specific positive or negative descriptive adjectives according to vocal quality.

2. To determine if specific disordered vocal qualities carry more negative rating than others.

A series of actors and actresses were trained to produce the disordered voice qualities of breathy, harsh, and hypernasal according to …