Speech and Hearing Science Commons^™

The Development Of A Neonatal Communication Intervention Tool, Esedra Strasheim, Alta Kritzinger, Brenda Louw

ETSU Faculty Works

Neonatal communication intervention is important in South Africa, which has an increased prevalence of infants born with risks for disabilities and where the majority of infants live in poverty. Local literature showed a dearth of information on the current service delivery and roles of speech-language therapists (SLTs) and audiologists in neonatal nurseries in the South African context. SLTs have the opportunity to provide the earliest intervention, provided that intervention is well-timed in the neonatal nursery context. The aim of the research was to compile a locally relevant neonatal communication intervention instrument/tool for use by SLTs in neonatal nurseries of public …

Effects Of Degree And Configuration Of Hearing Loss On The Contribution Of High- And Low-Frequency Speech Information To Bilateral Speech Understanding, Benjamin W. Y. Hornsby, Earl E. Johnson, Erin Picou

ETSU Faculty Works

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of degree and configuration of hearing loss on the use of, and benefit from, information in amplified high- and low-frequency speech presented in background noise.

Design: Sixty-two adults with a wide range of high- and low-frequency sensorineural hearing loss (5 to 115+ dB HL) participated in the study. To examine the contribution of speech information in different frequency regions, speech understanding in noise was assessed in multiple low- and high-pass filter conditions, as well as a band-pass (713 to 3534 Hz) and wideband (143 to 8976 Hz) condition. To …

Quantifying Articulatory Distinctiveness Of Vowels, Jun Wang, Jordan R. Green, Ashok Samal, David B. Marx

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

The articulatory distinctiveness among vowels has been frequently characterized descriptively based on tongue height and front-back position; however, very few empirical methods have been proposed to characterize vowels based on time-varying articulatory characteristics. Such information is not only needed to improve knowledge about the articulation of vowels but also to determine the contribution of articulatory imprecision to poor speech intelligibility. In this paper, a novel statistical shape analysis was used to derive a vowel space that depicted the quantified articulatory distinctiveness among vowels based on tongue and lip movements. The effectiveness of the approach was supported by vowel classification accuracy …

Speaking Rate Effects On Normal Aspects Of Articulation: Outcomes And Issues, Jeffrey J. Berry

Speech Pathology and Audiology Faculty Research and Publications

The articulatory effects of speaking rate have been a point of focus for a substantial literature in speech science. The normal aspects of speaking rate variation have influenced theories and models of speech production and perception in the literature pertaining to both normal and disordered speech. While the body of literature pertaining to the articulatory effects of speaking rate change is reasonably large, few speaker-general outcomes have emerged. The purpose of this paper is to review outcomes of the existing literature and address problems related to the study of speaking rate that may be germane to the recurring theme that …

“What” And “Where” In Auditory Sensory Processing: A High-Density Electrical Mapping Study Of Distinct Neural Processes Underlying Sound Object Recognition And Sound Localization, Victoria M. Leavitt, Sophie Molholm, Manuel Gomez-Ramirez, John J. Foxe

Publications and Research

Functionally distinct dorsal and ventral auditory pathways for sound localization (WHERE) and sound object recognition (WHAT) have been described in non-human primates. A handful of studies have explored differential processing within these streams in humans, with highly inconsistent findings. Stimuli employed have included simple tones, noise bursts, and speech sounds, with simulated left–right spatial manipulations, and in some cases participants were not required to actively discriminate the stimuli. Our contention is that these paradigms were not well suited to dissociating processing within the two streams. Our aim here was to determine how early in processing we …

Effect Of Occlusion, Directionality And Age On Horizontal Localization, Lynzee Nicole Alworth

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Localization acuity of a given listener is dependent upon the ability discriminate between interaural time and level disparities. Interaural time differences are encoded by low frequency information whereas interaural level differences are encoded by high frequency information. Much research has examined effects of hearing aid microphone technologies and occlusion separately and prior studies have not evaluated age as a factor in localization acuity. Open-fit hearing instruments provide new earmold technologies and varying microphone capabilities; however, these instruments have yet to be evaluated with regard to horizontal localization acuity.

Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine the effects of …

Temporal And Aerodynamic Aspects Of Velopharyngeal Coarticulation: Effects Of Age, Gender And Vowel Height, Fadwa Khwaileh

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Previous studies on the normal patterns of velopharyngeal coarticulation did not provide a multidimensional description of the phenomenon. The primary objective of this study was to determine the effects of age, gender and vowel height on the temporal and aerodynamic aspects of nasal airflow segments related to velar coarticulation in the normal speech of children and adults. A secondary objective was to determine the within speaker variability of the segments.

Speakers consisted of 20 children between the ages of 5 and 7 years, 20 children between 9 and 11 years and 20 adult speakers 18 years or older. Nasal and …

Phonemic Resetting Versus Postural Adjustments In The Speech Of Cochlear Implant Users: An Exploration Of Voice-Onset Time, Harlan Lane, Jane Wozniak, Melanie Matthies, Mario Svirsky, Joseph Perkell

Harlan Lane

Voice-onset time (VOT) was measured in plosive-initial syllables uttered by five cochlear implant users prior to and repeatedly at intervals after activation of their speech processors. In "short-term" experiments, the elicitation set was read after the subject's processor had been off for 24 h, then turned on, then off again. Four out of five implant users increased voiceless and/or voiced VOTc (VOT corrected for changes in syllable duration) from preimplant baselines to final recordings made 1–3 years later. Measured acoustic correlates of speech "posture" (average SPL, F0, and low-frequency spectral slope) changed concurrently. Results in the short-term study were largely …

The Distinctness Of Speakers' Productions Of Vowel Contrasts Is Related To Their Discrimination Of The Contrasts, Joseph Perkell, Frank Guenther, Harlan Lane, Melanie Matthies, Ellen Stockmann, Mark Tiede, Majid Zandipour

Harlan Lane

This study addresses the hypothesis that the more accurately a speaker discriminates a vowel contrast, the more distinctly the speaker produces that contrast. Measures of speech production and perception were collected from 19 young adult speakers of American English. In the production experiment, speakers repeated the words cod, cud, who'd, and hood in a carrier phrase at normal, clear, and fast rates. Articulatory movements and the associated acoustic signal were recorded, yielding measures of contrast distance between /ɑ/ and /ʌ/ and between /u/ and /ʊ/. In the discrimination experiment, sets of seven natural-sounding stimuli ranging from cod to cud and …

Changes In Sound Pressure And Fundamental Frequency Contours Following Changes In Hearing Status, Harlan Lane, Jane Wozniak, Melanie Matthies, Mario Svirsky, Joseph Perkell, Michael O'Connell, Joyce Manzella

Harlan Lane

Sound-pressure level (SPL) and fundamental frequency (F0) contours were obtained from four postlingually deafened adults who received cochlear implants and from a subject with Neurofibromatosis-2 (NF2) who had her hearing severely reduced following surgery to remove an auditory-nerve tumor and to implant an auditory brainstem implant. SPL and F0 contours for each phrase in passages read before and after changes in hearing were averaged over repeated readings and then normalized with respect to the highest SPL or F0 value in the contour. The regularity of each average contour was measured by calculating differences between successive syllable means and averaging the …

Effects Of Bite Blocks And Hearing Status On Vowel Production, Harlan Lane, Margaret Denny, Frank Guenther, Melanie Matthies, Lucie Ménard, Joseph Perkell, Ellen Stockmann, Mark Tiede, Jennell Vick, Majid Zandipour

Harlan Lane

This study explores the effects of hearing status and bite blocks on vowel production. Normal-hearing controls and postlingually deaf adults read elicitation lists of /hVd/ syllables with and without bite blocks and auditory feedback. Deaf participants' auditory feedback was provided by a cochlear prosthesis and interrupted by switching off their implant microphones. Recording sessions were held before prosthesis was provided and one month and one year after. Long-term absence of auditory feedback was associated with heightened dispersion of vowel tokens, which was inflated further by inserting bite blocks. The restoration of some hearing with prosthesis reduced dispersion. Deaf speakers' vowel …

An Investigation Of The Relation Between Sibilant Production And Somatosensory And Auditory Acuity, Satrajit Ghosh, Melanie Matthies, Edwin Maas, Mark Tiede, Lucie Ménard, Frank Guenther, Harlan Lane, Joseph Perkell

Harlan Lane

The relation between auditory acuity, somatosensory acuity and the magnitude of produced sibilant contrast was investigated with data from 18 participants. To measure auditory acuity, stimuli from a synthetic sibilant continuum ([s]-[ʃ]) were used in a four-interval, two-alternative forced choice adaptive-staircase discrimination task. To measure somatosensory acuity, small plastic domes with grooves of different spacing were pressed against each participant's tongue tip and the participant was asked to identify one of four possible orientations of the grooves. Sibilant contrast magnitudes were estimated from productions of the words "said," "shed," "sid," and "shid." Multiple linear regression revealed a significant relation indicating …

The Effect Of Changes In Hearing Status On Speech Sound Level And Speech Breathing: A Study Conducted With Cochlear Implant Users And Nf-2 Patients, Harlan Lane, Joseph Perkell, Jane Wozniak, Joyce Manzella, Peter Guiod, Melanie Matthies, Mia Maccollin, Jennell Vick

Harlan Lane

According to a dual-process theory of the role of hearing in speech production, hearing helps maintain an internal model used by the speech control mechanism to achieve phonemic goals. It also monitors the acoustic environment and guides relatively rapid adjustments in postural parameters, such as those underlying average speech sound level and rate, in order to achieve suprasegmental goals that are a compromise between intelligibility and economy of effort. In order to obtain evidence bearing on this theory, acoustic and aerodynamic measures were collected from seven adventitiously deaf speakers who received cochlear implants, three speakers who had severe reduction in …

Economy Of Effort In Different Speaking Conditions. I. A Preliminary Study Of Intersubject Differences And Modeling Issues, Joseph S. Perkell, Majid Zandipour, Melanie L. Matthies, Harlan Lane

Harlan Lane

This study explores the hypothesis that clear speech is produced with greater "articulatory effort" than normal speech. Kinematic and acoustic data were gathered from seven subjects as they pronounced multiple repetitions of utterances in different speaking conditions, including normal, fast, clear, and slow. Data were analyzed within a framework based on a dynamical model of single-axis frictionless movements, in which peak movement speed is used as a relative measure of articulatory effort (Nelson, 1983). There were differences in peak movement speed, distance and duration among the conditions and among the speakers. Three speakers produced the "clear" condition utterances with movements …

Time Course Of Speech Changes In Response To Unanticipated Short-Term Changes In Hearing State, Joseph Perkell, Harlan Lane, Margaret Denny, Melanie Matthies, Mark Tiede, Majid Zandipour, Jennell Vick, Ellen Burton

Harlan Lane

The timing of changes in parameters of speech production was investigated in six cochlear implant users by switching their implant microphones off and on a number of times in a single experimental session. The subjects repeated four short, two-word utterances, /dV₁n#SV₂d/ (S=/s/ or /ʃ/), in quasi-random order. The changes between hearing and nonhearing states were introduced by a voice-activated switch at V1 onset. "Postural" measures were made of vowel sound pressure level (SPL), duration, F0; contrast measures were made of vowel separation (distance between pair members in the formant plane) and sibilant separation (difference in spectral means). Changes in parameter …

Effects Of Masking Noise On Vowel And Sibilant Contrasts In Normal-Hearing Speakers And Postlingually Deafened Cochlear Implant Users, Joseph Perkell, Margaret Denny, Harlan Lane, Frank Guenther, Melanie Matthies, Mark Tiede, Jennell Vick, Majid Zandipour, Ellen Burton

Harlan Lane

The role of auditory feedback in speech production was investigated by examining speakers' phonemic contrasts produced under increases in the noise to signal ratio (N/S). Seven cochlear implant users and seven normal-hearing controls pronounced utterances containing the vowels /i/, /u/, /ε/ and /æ/ and the sibilants /s/ and /ʃ/ while hearing their speech mixed with noise at seven equally spaced levels between their thresholds of detection and discomfort. Speakers' average vowel duration and SPL generally rose with increasing N/S. Average vowel contrast was initially flat or rising; at higher N/S levels, it fell. A contrast increase is interpreted as reflecting …

Note On The Variability Hypothesis In Category Scaling, B. Schneider, H. Lane

Harlan Lane

The "variability hypothesis" attributes the nonlinear relation between category and magnitude scales to the growth of variability along the psychological continuum. The findings of some earlier research seemed to contradict the hypothesis. Now, an alternative interpretation of these findings is presented.

Speech Of Cochlear Implant Patients: A Longitudinal Study Of Vowel Production, Joseph Perkell, Harlan Lane, Mario Svirsky, Jane Webster

Harlan Lane

Acoustic parameters were measured for vowels spoken in /hVd/ context by four postlingually deafened recipients of multichannel (Ineraid) cochlear implants. Three of the subjects became totally deaf in adulthood after varying periods of partial hearing loss; the fourth became totally deaf at age four. The subjects received different degrees of perceptual benefit from the prosthesis. Recordings were made before, and at intervals following speech processor activation. The measured parameters included F1, F2, F0, SPL, duration, and amplitude difference between the first two harmonic peaks in the log magnitude spectrum (H1–H2). Numerous changes in parameter values were observed from pre- to …

A Preliminary Study Of The Effects Of Cochlear Implants On The Production Of Sibilants, Melanie L. Matthies, Mario A. Svirsky, Harlan L. Lane, Joseph S. Perkell

Harlan Lane

The potential influence of auditory information in the production of /s/ and /ʃ/ was explored for postlingually deafened adults with four-channel Ineraid cochlear implants. Analyses of the spectra of the sibilant sounds were compared for speech obtained prior to implant activation, after early implant use and after 6 months of use. In addition, the output of the Ineraid device (measured at each of the four electrodes) was analyzed with pre- and postactivation speech samples to explore whether the speech production changes were potentially audible to the cochlear-implant user. Results indicated that subjects who showed abnormally low or incorrect contrast between …

Speech Deterioration In Postlingually Deafened Adults, Harlan Lane, Jane Webster

Harlan Lane

Postlingually deafened adults reading the Rainbow Passage differed from hearing-control subjects in producing greater pitch variability and mean pitch on stressed and unstressed vowels, greater fluctuations in pitch within sentences, less correlation of intrinsic pitch with vowel height and slower temporal parameters. When reading the Phonetic Inventory Sentences, they revealed less differentiation of place of articulation in fricative and plosive consonants. The present findings, taken together with those of longitudinal and implant studies, are applied to constraining models of the role of self hearing in the elaboration of speech.