This study investigated the effect of hearing six background noise conditions (silent baseline, pink noise, monologue, lively conversation, one-sided phone call, and cocktail noise) on acoustic measures of speech production during story retells in people with aphasia. Eleven individuals with aphasia and 11 age- and gender-matched control participants took part in the study. Participants heard the background noise conditions through open-back headphones while they retold six short stories. The examiner calculated mean and standard deviation of intensity, mean and standard deviation of fundamental frequency (F0), and speech rate in words per minute. A Matlab application that identified pauses (i.e., periods of silence greater than 200 ms) computed a speaking time ratio measure (i.e., time speaking versus time pausing). With the exception of the monologue and one-sided phone call condition, both people with aphasia and control participants significantly increase their intensity and F0 in the presence of background noise. Additionally, participants with aphasia have significantly lower speaking time ratios and speaking rates when compared to control participants. Participants make acoustic changes while hearing background noise; speech intensity rises in an effort to increase the signal-to-noise ratio, while mean F0 increases due to a presumed rise in subglottal pressure. Further research is suggested to investigate other acoustic differences, possibly at the segmental level, between speech produced in informational and energetic background noise.

Auditory maskers, whether intelligible speech or unintelligible noise, can make it difficult to hear and/or process a target sentence. These maskers can present challenges to peripheral processing as well as central processing. Change in pupil size is a physiological index of listening effort and can be measured using eye tracking technology. The aim of the study was to compare listening effort, as measured by changes in pupil size in individuals with normal hearing, between the conditions of Intelligible Speech Masker (ISM), Speech Shaped, Speech Envelope-Modulated Noise Maskers (SSSNM), and Stationary Noise Masker (SNM). Spatial separation between target and maskers was used throughout all conditions. The study design used adaptive tracks that varied the Target to Masker Ratios (TMRs) in each of the 3 conditions in order to identify the TMR corresponding to the 75% correct point on the psychometric function for each participant. Once the TMR corresponding to the 75% correct point was identified, this TMR was held constant for 24 trials while pupil size was recorded. The results show that the ISM condition elicited a higher degree of listening effort compared to either of the noise conditions (SNM and SSSNM). These results reveal that more effort is required to ignore background speech than to ignore background noise at equivalent TMRs. Understanding the amount of effort that young, normal-hearing listeners must exert in these different types of situations will provide a foundation for later measuring the amount of effort that individuals with hearing loss and/or cognitive-linguistic deficits (e.g., aphasia) must exert in the same situations. / 2023-05-19T00:00:00Z

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Current research supports the effectiveness of embedding explicit vocabulary instruction within the preschool classroom read-aloud. However, much of the book reading research has made use of story books rather than informational text. This study was conducted to understand the outcomes of using informational books to teach targeted vocabulary to preschool children during book reading. A quasi-experimental design was used to investigate the effects of two read-aloud strategies, using informational books, on preschoolers’ acquisition of novel vocabulary words. The results revealed statistically significant differences in the amount of words learned during the read aloud of an informational book in which vocabulary instruction was embedded. As a result of participating in vocabulary instruction embedded within an informational book read-aloud, preschoolers were able to learn the targeted words. Results indicate the effectiveness of teachers using an interactive approach with informational books when planning read-alouds to support vocabulary development. / Teaching & Learning

A recent study by Polka, Rvachew, and Molnar (2008) found that 6- to 8-month-old infants do not discriminate a simple native consonant-vowel contrast when familiarized to it in the presence of distraction noise (i.e., recordings of crickets and birds chirping), even when testing was conducted in quiet. Because the distraction noise did not overlap with the phonemes' frequencies, failure to encode the familiarization phoneme could be due more to a disruption in infant attention than to direct masking effects. Given that infants learn speech under natural conditions involving noise and distraction, it is important to identify factors that may 'protect' their speech perception under non-ideal listening conditions. The current study investigated three possible factors: speech register, face information, and speaker gender. Six-month-old infants watched a video of a female speaker producing a native phoneme in either an adult-directed or infant-directed manner accompanied by the same background noise as in Polka et al. (2008). After habituation, infants were tested with alternating trials of the familiar phoneme and a novel phoneme in quiet. Phoneme discrimination was measured by recording infants' heart rate and looking times during familiar and novel trials. Discrimination was poor in infants who viewed a female speaker using adult-directed speech but was significantly improved (as seen in both dependent measures of attention) when the female speaker used infant-directed speech. Results indicate that common factors in the typical environment of infants can promote speech perception abilities in noise. / Master of Science

Yes / Advertising nudges consumers along several steps to purchase, and each step necessitates that advertisers set different objectives and message strategy. This study offers a framework for the appropriate choice of advertising appeals based on advertisers’ objectives and target group demographics. The study differentiates magazine advertisements’ effects for five marketing objectives along the hierarchy-of-effect model, while accounting for moderating effects of age and gender. Results show that emotional appeals are superior to informational appeals for most marketing objectives, but not for achieving integration into the evoked set. Consumers’ age and gender significantly influence the effects of advertising appeals and reveal interaction effects.

Yes / Despite quick response (QR) codes’ prominence, little is known about their embedding in pullbased communications. This study aims to measure QR code effects in print advertising along five different stages of consumer decision making, using advertisement appeals with moderating effects of product category involvement. Data were derived from a German market research initiative with 326,212 consumer evaluations for 792 real print advertisements from 26 product categories. Multinomial logit models were used to investigate the effects of QR code presence on consumer reactions. QR codes steer purchase intention in a low-involvement product category if used alongside an emotional appeal. Advertisements for high-involvement products benefit if QR codes are combined with an overall informational appeal. QR codes do not enhance the persuasive effects of advertisements’ informational appeals in a low-involvement product category. The effects of QR codes on consumers’ responses cannot be analysed in isolation but depend on advertisement context. They interact with advertisements’ informational and emotional appeals and product category involvement. Marketers should not use QR codes indiscriminately but should carefully consider advertisement context. QR codes should be used alongside an emotional appeal if the marketer’s objective is to induce purchase intention in low-involvement settings. Advertisements for high-involvement products need to combine QR codes with an informational appeal. This study highlights the interplay of effects in print advertisements, which are typically considered push-based when they are combined with QR codes as pull-based communications in the digital marketing area.