The purpose of this investigation was to compare associative and dissociative psychological strategies of attentional focus for their effects on self - report ratings of perceived exertion (RPE), and heart rate during endurance exercise. Trained cyclists (n = 7) performed three 60 minute experimental rides on a bicycle ergometer which consisted of an association ride (attention focused on heart rate feedback), a dissociation ride (attention focused on responding to a cue word on a videotape), and a control condition ride in which focus of attention was not purposely manipulated. Results indicated that the deliberate application of a cognitive strategy designed to encourage an individual to associate or dissociate did not differentially effect either actual efficiency (heart rate) or perception of exercise intensity (RPE scores). Overall, it was concluded that there was a trend for the dissociation condition to result in higher RPE scores than the association condition or control condition. / School of Physical Education

The limited amount of normative information regarding speech motor development in the clinically important age range four to seven years served as motivation for this study. The main aim of the study was to collect normative information regarding sensorimotor speech control skills of pre-school children. The method of the study was designed and the results interpreted within the framework of the four-level model of speech production of Van der Merwe (1997). Basic qualitative and quantitative data were gathered for a variety of aspects of speech motor development in Afrikaans-speaking children aged 4;0 to 6;7 years in the following areas: 1) non-speech oral movements, 2) non-speech diadochokinesis, 3) speech diadochokinesis, 4) cluster production, 5) word syllable structure in spontaneous speech, 6) acoustic data regarding first-vowel duration and variability of first-vowel duration in repeated utterances of the same word, 7) acoustic voice onset time data, 8) acoustic data regarding first-syllable duration in words of increasing length. Results indicated that associated movements and accuracy errors occurred in some non-speech oral movement and non-speech diadochokinesis tasks. Normative, diadochokinetic rate data were gathered. Perceptual analysis indicated difficulty with glottal and three-place diadochokinesis tasks. Subjects produced 84% of initial clusters in isolation correctly and 79% of final clusters. Schwa-vowel insertions occurred in clusters in isolation, but not in spontaneously produced words. Subjects produced 163 different word syllable structures in spontaneous speech, with 18 structures occurring in all subjects’ data. Six-year-olds generally displayed the shortest first-vowel duration. Individual, non-age related trends occurred for variability of first-vowel duration. Mean voice onset times in voiced stop contexts ranged from -97ms to +12ms, with overall instances of mean voicing lead occurring in 27% of the four-year olds’ productions, 4% of the five-year-olds’ productions and 80% of the six-year-olds’ productions. Mean voice onset times in voiceless stop contexts ranged from +11ms to +37ms. Subjects adapted first-syllable duration to word length by decreasing it as the word length increased. Results indicated that a wide range of normal speech motor performance is possible for children this age, and that individuals can display different performance levels for different speech parameters. This emphasizes the complexity of speech motor development and the need to assess a variety of speech motor parameters. It is essential that quantitative (objective) analysis of children’s speech motor performance be supplemented with qualitative (descriptive) analysis. The study contributed knowledge to the understanding of certain aspects of speech motor development and to the speech production process in general. / Dissertation (MComm Path)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology / Unrestricted

A universal speech facilitation program was developed based on the principles, methods and long-term goals of an existing program, the Speech Motor Learning Program (Van der Merwe, 1985). The development of such a program was indicated because, to date, no systematized intervention program with the aim of general speech facilitation has been attempted to overcome the tremendous challenges of the current rehabilitative scenario in South Africa (shortage of services, untrained staff in the community and multiple language barriers to name a few). The suitability of the SMLP as a starting point for the compilation of a Speech Facilitation Program is illustrated by its clinical success in treating a variety of speech disorders and secondly because it is firmly based on normal speech development and motor learning principles. Based on the SMLP, the SFP was developed and applied to two paired subjects who exhibited general speech and language delay, to determine if the speech facilitation program would facilitate and indeed enhance speech development in the Subjects. The clinical application of the SFP was conducted in an alternating treatment design study using speech facilitation and language treatment respectively. During the treatment phase of the study, probe tests, consisting of ten selected aspects of speech and language, were conducted to determine the effect of the two treatment approaches on these aspects. Three of the aspects showed improvement following treatment with the Speech Facilitation Program. Four aspects showed gradual development throughout the duration of the study, irrespective of the type of treatment and it could possibly be attributed to general development by the subjects as well as regular intervention. Three aspects showed no change during the study. The obtained results seemed to indicate that the SFP influenced speech development positively and that it could be developed into a valuable clinical tool for the treatment of certain speech disorders. / Dissertation (MA (Communication Pathology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology / unrestricted

Audiologists are challenged with various neurological diseases, such as Multiple Sclerosis. This disease causes demyelination of the white matter in the central nervous system resulting in desynchronisation of neural impulses. Despite controversy in the literature many studies illustrated some degree of auditory involvement associated with this disease. The auditory brainstem response has dominated the field during the assessment of the auditory system of patients with Multiple Sclerosis. Although this objective test procedure is useful during the assessment of the auditory nerve on a brainstem level, it reveals its own set of limitations when used in isolation as a single test procedure. A multiple test battery approach has shown promise in addressing the limitations of any single test procedure. This approach aims to assess the auditory nervous system of patients with Multiple Sclerosis on different levels (sensory and neural). The aim of the current study was to determine the effectiveness of a clinically appropriate battery of test procedures during the assessment of the auditory nervous system of 25 adult subjects with Multiple Sclerosis. The subjects were divided into two groups: Group 1 consisted of fifteen (15) subjects without a history of noise exposure, whereas the ten (10) subjects in Group 2 had previously been exposed to noise. A combined experimental-descriptive research design was selected in order to describe both the qualitative and quantitative results obtained during the study. The following test procedures were included in the test battery: • A self-assessment questionnaire allowing subjects to report on hearing abilities, related auditory-vestibular symptoms and communicative competence during every day life; • Puretone audiometry, distortion product otoacoustic emissions as well as the cochlear microphonic; and • Auditory brainstem response recording using both the rarefaction and condensation click polarities consecutively. The results indicated that a high percentage of subjects experienced vestibular symptoms such as dizziness and vertigo by the time the study was conducted. The presence of tinnitus and hearing difficulties were uncommon among subjects. Despite this, more than half of the subjects experienced difficulty with communication in the presence of background noise. Puretone audiometry demonstrated that some of the subjects presented with mild high-frequency hearing losses. However other configurations with impaired hearing thresholds were also observed. Most of the subjects’ auditory brainstem response recordings displayed abnormalities using either the rarefaction or condensation click polarity. The use of the condensation click polarity displayed more ABR abnormalities compared to the rarefaction click polarity. Several subjects displayed additional cochlear involvement while a smaller percentage of subjects presented only with neural involvement. / Dissertation (M (Communication Pathhology))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology / unrestricted

Doctorat en sciences psychologiques / Vol. 1 :Examen de la littérature (TH-000218) ;Vol. 2 :Contribution expérimentale (TH-000219) / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The purpose of this study was to compare the visual-motor integrative abilities of preschool children with their articulatory and syntactical development. Two questions were posed: Do children having accelerated visual-motor integrative skills perform at a higher level than children having delayed visual-motor integration skills in 1) their articulation proficiency, and 2) their syntactical abilities?

The purpose of this study was to develop two tape-recorded synthetic speech discrimination test tapes and assess their intelligibility in order to determine whether or not synthetic speech was intelligible and if it would prove useful in speech discrimination testing. Four scramblings of the second MU-6 monosyllable word list were generated by the ECHO l C speech synthesizer using two methods of generating synthetic speech called TEXTALKER and SPEAKEASY. These stimuli were presented in one ear to forty normal-hearing adult subjects, 36 females and 4 males, at 60 dB HL under headphone&. Each subject listened to two different scramblings of the 50 monosyllable word list, one scrambling generated by TEXTALKER and the other scrambling generated by SPEAKEASY. The order in which the TEXTALKER and SPEAKEASY mode of presentation occurred as well as which ear to test per subject was randomly determined.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a 500 Hz and 3150 Hz one-third octave band augmentation on the speech discrimination ability of normal hearing listeners and whether such effects vary with signal presentation level. The augmented portion of monosyllabic words was systematically varied from 5-55dB above the intensity level of the unfiltered version of the words and presented simultaneously to one ear.

No description available.

This was an experimental study to compare the affective and cognitive responses of female and male college students to singleimage, multi-image and time compressed single-image presentations. Three initial sets of 120 images were produced so that each presentation contained the same visual information, and no narration or sound track was used with any of the presentations. Ninety-seven subjects, in intact classes, participated in the experiment. Each class was shown one of the three slide presentations in a special projection room. Immediately after viewing a particular presentation, subjects were asked to complete a semantic differential which was used to measure attitudes toward the method of presentation; next subjects completed a multiple choice test concerning the cognitive information presented in the program viewed. The two-way analysis of variance of the semantic differential scores indicated no significant difference in the attitude of the subjects toward any presentation format. The two-way analysis of variance of the test for the amount of cognitive information retained indicated that there was a significant difference between the males and females in the amount of cognitive information retained with the females retaining more than the males. There was a significant interaction between presentation format and sex of the subject on the amount of cognitive information retained. Females out-performed males for both the multi-image presentation and the single-image presentation, but males performed better on the time compressed single-image presentation. The Pearson product-moment correlation between scores on the test for amount of cognitive information retained and the scores on the semantic differential was -0.05. / Ed. D.