This dissertation explored the ways faculty at two- and four-year institutions with articulation agreements collaborate to improve the retention rates of transfer students, using the Wilder Collaboration Factors (WCF) as a theoretical lens. This research was conducted to analyze the level of collaboration, and differentiate among the perceptions of collaboration among university and community college faculty. The purpose of the study was to build upon the limited amount of research on postsecondary collaboration. Nonparametric statistical analyses were performed to provide answers to the research questions. Analysis of the data revealed that the participants demonstrated strength in 18 of the 20 WCF. The analysis also indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between the perceptions of collaboration among university and community college faculty. A principal components analysis led to the development of a modified conceptual framework joining the WCF and stages of collaboration that may be used to inform practice and policy. Recommendations include allocating faculty release time or incentives for collaboration, expanding articulation agreements to include K-12 alignment and policies on faculty collaboration, and using the Wilder Collaboration Factors Inventory (WCFI) as a tool to continue to assess the strengths, weaknesses, and differences in perception among university and community college faculty as they advance in collaborative stages.

This study examined the effect of speaking contexts on articulatory kinematics in habitual and clear speech conditions. Ten male and 10 female participants (ages 18"“29) completed speaking tasks in three contexts and two conditions. The contexts were word, phrase, and passage, with both mid-sentence and end of-sentence stimuli in the phrase and passage contexts. The two conditions were habitual and clear speech. Participants had sensors attached to the mid-tongue, jaw, lower lip, and upper lip, and an electromagnetic articulograph tracked their movements. Three tokens for each stimulus were analyzed for duration, displacement, and velocity. Articulatory coordination was measured through absolute and percent jaw contribution, and displacement correlations. Statistical analysis revealed significant changes across both conditions and contexts. Generally, the articulator movements were larger for clear versus habitual speech and decreased progressively in size from word to phrase to passage. Duration significantly increased in the clear speech condition and decreased from word to phrase to passage, which likely underlies the changes seen in the other measures. Percent jaw contribution to lower lip movement was significantly higher in the clear speech condition, percent jaw contribution to tongue movement was significantly higher for the passage compared to the other contexts, and jaw and lower lip correlations with the tongue were higher in the clear condition and lower in the passage context. Incidental rate variation and motor equivalence across speakers limit the degree to which we can interpret these results in terms of articulatory coordination. Overall, this study demonstrates significant changes in speech kinematics across contexts in both clear and habitual conditions, indicating that researchers should exercise caution when generalizing findings from studies using short, contrived stimuli.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / PROBLEM: The purpose of the research was to examine the relationships of auditory discrimination to articulatory proficiency as observed in kindergarten children; and secondarily, to examine the relationships of these variables to those of intelligence, selected personality factors, and speech muscular coordination. SCOPE: The sample population of 132 kindergarten children was selected from eight elementary schools in one city, with a ninth school for pilot testing. A four-point socioeconomic level instrument devised for the study and the Short Form. of the Templin-Darley Tests of Articulation were used to select the sample. PROCEDURE: From the articulation score and socioeconomic designation determined for every kindergarten child in the elementary schools available for study, 132 children were randomly selected and randomly assigned to either a pretest or experimental group. The pretest group was first administered the Auditory Discrimination Test. Results were then analyzed, and the test was revised and administered to the experimental group. Data on the other variables of intelligence, speech muscular coordination, and selected personality factors were obtained through a single administration to each child of the Pintner-Cunningham Primary Test, the Averell Speech Muscular Coordination Test, the Children's Apperception Test, and the Long Form of the Templin-Darley Tests of Articulation. As a final step, correlations of the variables were computed, studied, and interpreted. MAJOR FINDINGS: Auditory discrimination and articulatory proficiency are not significantly related. Also, the auditory discrimination scores are not related to the change in the articulation performance of the kindergarten children after they entered the first grade of school. Auditory discrimination did not correlate significantly with selected personality factors. The correlations of auditory discrimination and speech muscular coordination are positive and significant at the .01 level of confidence. Auditory discrimination and intelligence correlated significantly. This is an indication that the two variables are closely related for this age group. Articulatory proficiency did not correlate significantly with intelligence, selected personality factors, or speech muscular coordination. CONCLUSIONS: It is concluded that the variables studied are not significantly related, even though clinical impressions of individual children and some past studies suggest positive relationships. In general, the findings indicate that kindergarten children as a group who have numerous misarticulations in their speech, as compared with kindergarten children with few or no misarticulations, will not display (1) more difficulty with auditory discrimination tasks, or (2) more incoordination in the performance of movements considered to be basic for successful production of speech sounds; nor will the kindergarten children as a group (3) display abnormal degrees of feelings, or (4) have lower intelligence quotients. It is felt that the data do not preclude the possibility that these variables are significantly related for individual children, since there seems to be a disparity between clinical impressions and the research instruments used for this study. It is possible that the research instruments are invalid or that the clinical impressions are misleading. The means of assessing these variables must be studied further, both experimentally and clinically. In particular, experimentation with the auditory discrimination measure has suggested modifications that can be made in the test. Since it is known that this type of test has been effective with kindergarten children, future research should be devoted to studying pre-kindergarten children with the same or similar model. For example, individual children should be studied longitudinally over an extended period of time, sampling their performance for auditory discrimination tasks, as well as sampling changes in verbalizations of feelings, and their speech muscular coordination growth. Both experimental and clinical approaches will be desirable. / 2999-01-01

This study investigated the effects of delayed auditory feedback (DAF) on speech kinematics during tongue twisters and monologues. Participants were 20 adults (10 men, 10 women) aged 18-29 with typical speech and hearing abilities. A smartphone app provided DAF latencies of 50 ms, 100 ms, and 150 ms. Kinematic measures were made of peak speed, stroke distance, and hull area for the tongue front, jaw, and lower lip under typical and the three DAF conditions. Results indicated that DAF significantly reduced peak speed and stroke distance for all articulators during tongue twisters (p < .01), with the effect magnitude increasing with longer delays. No significant DAF effects were observed in monologues (p > .05). Sex differences were noted, with women showing higher speeds and longer stroke distances across both tasks (p < .05). These findings suggest that DAF disrupts motor performance, particularly in structured tasks, and that sex differences are present in speech kinematics. Future research could explore the perceptual impacts of DAF and the cognitive load associated with speech under altered feedback conditions.