Acoustical analyses have been utilized to ascertain the functional status of the laryngeal mechanism for clinical management of communication disorders (Gilbert and Weismer, 1974). In particular, the modal frequency level (MFL), defined as the fundamental frequency most often used by an individual in the act of spontaneous speech (Travis, 1971), is one measurement used to determine if a person's pitch level is adequate. Two other pitch measurements used in the voice assessment are the maximum frequency range (MFR) and the optimum pitch level (OPL). Information is needed to provide guidelines for pitch levels as part of the voice evaluation for adult females of different ages. It is not clear from the literature if there is a statistically significant MFL difference between White female nonsmokers and cigarette smokers as determined by different phonatory tasks. The purpose of this investigation was to compare the MFLs of nonsmoking and cigarette smoking White females between the ages of forty and fifty years. The primary research question was: Does smoking significantly affect the modal frequency level of forty to fifty year old White females as compared with forty to fifty year old White females who do not smoke?

The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of measuring the insertion loss (attenuation) provided by cannon earplugs using the Knowles Electronics Manikin for Acoustic Research. Five earplugs were tested in a 90 dB sound field at discrete frequencies matching those published by NIOSH. Each plug was exposed to 10 trials. Results indicate an approximation between values obtained in the study and NICSH published values. Some consistent differences tend to indicate that NIOSH values may overrate low frequency attenuation.

This study investigated the following questions: 1) What is the spectra of human heart sounds when transmitted to the listener's ear through amplified and acoustic stethoscopes? 2) How does the acoustic spectrum of normal heart sounds compare to the threshold of audibility for normal hearing sensitivity? 3) Do normal hearing listeners elect to listen to heart sounds at a higher intensity than the acoustic stethoscope is able to transmit?

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The purpose of this investigation was to examine the influence of three instructional conditions (encouraging, discouraging, and neutral) on eighteen aphasic adults' performance on a naming task. Each subject listened to each audiotaped instructional condition followed by a 20 picture naming task presented with a slide projector for a total of three tasks and 60 pictures. Subjects' mean scores were combined and averaged to derive a grand mean score for each instructional condition. A repeated measures analysis of variance was applied to determine if the differences were significant at the .01 level. No significant differences were found.

Word learning implies learning of both a phonological form and its referent. For nouns, the referent is typically a category of objects, with variability between objects within the category but an overlying similarity that allows them to be categorized together, to function similarly, and to be called by the same label. We hypothesized that by strengthening knowledge of the category of referents a word refers to, we could strengthen learning and use of the word. Three-year old children were provided with elaborated referent category information in the form of multiple exemplars of the referent category. In the first manipulation, children were trained on identical exemplars or variable exemplars. A second manipulation provided children with variable exemplars that had been distributed to support a prototype. Children in the third condition, who were provided with a prototype plus variants, learned words best in expressive and receptive tasks, when tested on trained and untrained items, and at two time points. In a second manipulation, we asked if simultaneous presentation of multiple exemplars leads to better learning of the object label than sequential presentation. Results indicated little difference. We conclude that 3-year-olds learn words best in the presence of variability distributed to highlight both invariant elements of the referent category and those elements that are allowed to vary.

Over 3 million Americans are disfluent due to developmental stuttering. Current evidence-based treatments typically consist of a rigorous schedule of intensive therapy, followed by the need for maintenance of skills, placing high demands on self-monitoring of one’s speech at all times. Relapse after treatment is very common, at 84%. The demand for further research into treatment possibilities for stuttering is on the forefront. Previous research has connected neural activations in people who stutter (PWS) and people with chronic nonfluent aphasia. The aim of this study was to determine if a novel intervention, based on a treatment for anomia, would change the frequency of stuttering during two speech tasks. A focal point of the treatment was the inclusion of a complex left-handed movement throughout tasks, targeting a proposed lateralization of neural activation into the right hemisphere of PWS, in order to promote fluent speech. Based on the results from the aphasia treatment study, a decrease in the frequency of stutter events was expected as a result of the adapted treatment for fluency. Two participants received treatment over the course of three weeks. Measurements of fluency during two speech tasks were obtained for pre-treatment, post-treatment, and follow-up analysis. Results from treatment indicated a general decrease in the frequency of stutter events in both participants. Further research is warranted in order to determine if this type of treatment could help to initiate a shift in focus to intervention approaches that deliver fluency gains with much less intensive treatment.

Attention impairments are well documented in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Under associative accounts of early word learning, the attention impairments in children with ASD preclude them from developing effective learning strategies. In this study we examined whether children with ASD utilize the same attention cues for learning as their unaffected receptive-vocabulary mates. In a word-learning task, we asked: 1) whether hearing novel and attention-grabbing words cued children to shift their attention to the speaker, and 2) whether the children followed the gaze of the speaker to determine the speaker's focus of attention. We taught novel words in two conditions. One condition provided maximal social-attention scaffolding; the examiner followed the focus of the child's attention. The other was less scaffolded; the examiner directed the child's attention to the target using eye gaze. We manipulated the number of objects present during teaching, two versus four, to examine the effect of non-social attention scaffolding with scaffolding here defined as a reduction in distractions. Fifteen-children with ASD (ages 36-91 months) were matched to fifteen unaffected children (ages 16-92 months) on the basis of receptive vocabulary (RVM group). The ASD group's performance differed from the RVM group's performance on one measure: shifting attention to the speaker upon hearing a novel or attention-grabbing word on the initial trial. On all other measures, the ASD group's performance did not significantly differ from the RVM group's performance. Although there was not a significant effect of condition, closer analysis revealed that in the RVM and ASD groups, only the consistent-gaze followers' performed better than chance on the word-learning tasks. We hypothesize that, when all else is equal, providing a label does not make the target distinct enough to support word-referent pairings for children who are not consistently attending to the speaker. Overall, the ASD group demonstrated greater within group variability in their attention than the RVM group. Gaze following was variable across (and within) the ASD group. The within subject variability suggests some children with ASD are slow to appreciate eye gaze cues in unfamiliar contexts.

Background: Vocal tremor affects over half a million Americans. Tremor can affect structures within the respiratory, laryngeal, velopharyngeal, or oral regions (Critchley, 1949). No study has related the of tremor severity in structures in all four of these regions to the severity of vocal tremor. Purpose: The purpose of this study was (a) to describe the distribution and severity of tremor throughout the vocal tract and (b) to relate that to the severity of the voice tremor. We hypothesized that tremor would be widespread throughout the vocal tract, but most prevalent in the larynx, specifically in the true vocal folds. Additionally, we expected vocal tremor severity to be directly related to the distribution and severity of tremor in structures of the vocal tract. Method: Twenty adults with vocal tremor and two age-matched controls participated in the study. Two judges, experienced in assessment of laryngeal movement disorders, rated the tremor severity in each of 15 structures during sustained /i/, /s/, /h/, and rest breathing, and the severity of the voice tremor during sustained /i/, /s/, and /h/. Results: A novel finding of this study was the identification of distribution and severity of tremor in vocal tract structures associated with mild, moderate, and severe vocal tremor. Participants with mild voice tremor tended to show tremor limited to structures of the larynx, and in some cases, the velopharynx, and on average, had three structures affected (most commonly true vocal folds, supraglottic structures, and hypopharynx). Participants with moderate voice tremor tended to show tremor in the larynx and velopharynx, and on average, had five structures affected (most commonly true vocal folds, supraglottic structures, hypopharynx, vertical laryngeal movement, and some other velar, oral, or respiratory structure). Those with severe voice tremor showed tremor in the larynx, velopharynx, and beyond and on average, had eight structures affected (most commonly true vocal folds, supraglottic structures, hypopharynx, vertical laryngeal movement, anterior and lateral chest movement, velum, and jaw). A second novel finding, obtained through regression analyses, was that tremor severity of the supraglottic structures and vertical laryngeal movement contributed the most to the voice tremor severity during sustained phonation (r=0.77, F=16.17, p<0.0001). A strong positive correlation (r=0.72) was found between the Tremor Index, a composite value of the distribution and severity of structural tremor, and the severity of the voice tremor during sustained phonation. The correlation between the severity of tremor in the true vocal folds and the voice tremor was moderate (r=0.46). Mean voice tremor severity was greater in participants over age 75 (mean=2.25) than those between 66 and 75 years (mean=1.5) and under age 65 (mean=1.8). Mean Tremor Index, was greater in participants over age 65 (mean TI=68) than those under age 65 (mean=41). In this group of 20 participants, laryngeal/hypopharyngeal structures were most frequently (95%) and severely (rated 1.7 out of 3) affected, followed by velopharyngeal (40% occurrence, 1.3 severity), respiratory (40% occurrence, 1.1 severity), and oral (40% occurrence, 1.0 severity) regions during sustained phonation. Tremor was also identified more often and with greater severity in the larynx for sustained /s/ (70% occurrence, 1.7 severity), /h/ (40% occurrence, 1.7 severity), and rest breathing (45% occurrence, 1.6 severity) than other regions. During the voiceless and rest breathing tasks, the greatest tremor severity was noted in the true vocal folds. Conclusion: Evaluation of the distribution and severity of tremor may be useful in guiding behavioral and medical treatment of voice tremor and for providing prognostic information regarding response to laryngeal botulinum toxin injection.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether individual communication behavior can be simulated by a digital model.