George Rosen. / "February 10, 1960." "Submitted to the Department of Electrical Engineering, M.I.T., January 25, 1960, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Science." / Bibliography: p. 86-88. / Army Signal Corps Contract DA36-039-sc-78108 Dept. of the Army Task 3-99-20-001 and Project 3-99-00-000. Air Force Contract AF19(604)-6102.

In dieser Arbeit wird in mehreren Experimenten untersucht, wie gut junge und alte Erwachsene Sätze mit unterschiedlich komplexer syntaktischer Struktur verstehen können. Zentrales Thema dabei sind die Schwierigkeiten, die ältere Erwachsene mit der Objekt-vor-Subjekt-Wortstellung haben. Untersucht wird, inwiefern diese beobachteten Altersunterschiede durch eine reduzierte verbale Arbeitsgedächtniskapazität der älteren Erwachsenen erklärt werden können. Dabei stellt sich die Frage, ob die Defizite ein generelles verbales Arbeitsgedächtnis betreffen oder ob es ein eigenes Verarbeitungs-system für syntaktische Informationen gibt, dessen Kapazität mit dem Alter abnimmt. Es wurde versucht, die postulierte reduzierte Arbeitsgedächtniskapazität der älteren Erwachsenen an jungen Erwachsenen zu simulieren, indem deren Arbeitsgedächtniska-pazität durch eine Zusatzaufgabe künstlich eingeschränkt wurde. Weiterhin wurden die Altersunterschiede bei syntaktisch komplexen zentraleingebetteten Relativsätzen mit denen bei syntaktisch einfacheren koordinierten Hauptsätzen verglichen. Um die Studienteilnehmer mit den seltenen objektinitialen Strukturen zu konfrontieren und ihre Erfahrung mit solchen Sätzen zu verändern, wurden schließlich sowohl junge als auch alte Erwachsene mit Sätzen mit Objekt-vor-Subjekt-Wortstellung trainiert. / In this paper several experiments about age differences in comprehension of sentences with different syntactical structure are reported. The main focus is on the difficulties old adults experience when a sentence starts with an object. Can the age differences be explained by differences in working memory capacity? Have old adults less working memory capacity, or does there exist a separate working memory for syntactic information which declines with age? In an age simulation, young adults working memory capacity was reduced by an additional digit load. Age differences in comprehension of syntactical complex sentences were compared with age differences in sentences with less complex syntactical structure. To change their experience with the rare object initial word order participants were trained with object initial sentences.

Throughout our history, the singing voice has been a fundamental tool for musical expression. While analysis and digital synthesis techniques have been developed for normal speech, few models and techniques have been focused on the singing voice. The central theme of this research is the development of models aimed at the characterization and synthesis of the singing voice. First, a spectral model is presented in which asymmetric generalized Gaussian functions are used to represent the formant structure of a singing voice in a flexible manner. Efficient methods for searching the parameter space are investigated and challenges associated with smooth parameter trajectories are discussed. Next a model for glottal characterization is introduced by first presenting an analysis of the relationship between measurable spectral qualities of the glottal waveform and perceptually relevant time-domain parameters. A mathematical derivation of this relationship is presented and is extended as a method for parameter estimation. These concepts are then used to outline a procedure for modifying glottal textures and qualities in the frequency domain. By combining these models with the Analysis-by-Synthesis/Overlap-Add sinusoidal model, the spectral and glottal models are shown to be capable of characterizing the singing voice according to traits such as level of training and registration. An application is presented in which these parameterizations are used to implement a system for singing voice enhancement. Subjective listening tests were conducted in which listeners showed an overall preference for outputs produced by the proposed enhancement system over both unmodified voices and voices enhanced with competitive methods.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2001. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 215-239). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (M.S.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 121-128).

Thesis (M.S. in Information Systems and Operations)--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2003. / Thesis advisor(s): Michael T. McMaster, Kenneth J. Hagan. Includes bibliographical references (p. 47-49). Also available online.

published_or_final_version / Speech and Hearing Sciences / Master / Master of Science in Audiology

No description available.

Computer speech recognition techniques were investigated. This investigation included a study of the hearing and speech process. An algorithm was developed that used nine features to identify the phonemes in speech signals. Two of these features, the total energy and the number of zero crossings in a specific section of the speech signal, were obtained directly from the digitized speech signal. The other features, frequency energy bands and formant frequencies, were measured from a spectral analysis of the signal. A Hewlett Packard mini-computer was used for the development of the necessary software in FORTRAN. For the testing of the algorithm ten words, "zero" through to "nine" were used. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, 1985.