The purpose of this study was to examine the affective semantics of stuttering and non-stuttering individuals. Overall affective semantics, its component elements of evaluation, activity, and potency and the relationships between these factors and age and severity of stuttering were investigated. / A 2 x 3 x 3 x 17 nested factor design was used. The 21 male stuttering subjects were matched to 21 male non-stuttering subjects with regard to age and intelligence in addition to pre-established criteria concerning language history, visual and hearing abilities, and reading level skills. The 42 subjects were further divided into three age groups: child, adolescent and adult. Subjects who stuttered were rated mild-moderate or moderate-severe. / The subjects were administered a 17 concept, 14 scale semantic differential. The data were examined by an analysis of variance, the T-test, cell means, and the Distance statistic. / The results indicated that: / (1) No significant difference was found between stuttering and non-stuttering individuals regardless of age with respect to overall affective semantics. The adolescent group, however, showed a significant difference when the D-statistic was applied. / When comparisons were made by age for stutterers only, a T-test revealed no significant differences between the child and adolescent, and child and adult groups. There was, however, a significant difference between the adolescent and adult group. The average score for the older group showed more extreme reactions. This apparent conflict was discussed. / (2) There was a significant difference between stuttering and non-stuttering individuals with respect to the evaluative semantic factor. / (3) Although no significant difference was found between stutterers and non-stutterers with regard to the factors of potency and activity, when an analysis of variance was applied, the D-statistic revealed a significant difference at the adolescent level with regard to the activity factor. / (4) Severity did not produce a significant difference between the mild-moderate and moderate-severe stuttering groups when a T-test was applied. / Implications for both future research and clinical applications were discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-07, Section: B, page: 2126. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 31-10, Section: B, page: 6321. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1970.

Forty-eight females, sixteen in each of three age groups (20 to 30 years, 40 to 50 years, and 60 to 70 years), performed a series of diotic competing message subtests under two different response formats (recognition and recall). The diotic subtests were constructed to emphasize either a semantic (body parts or colors) or a phonemic (releasing or arresting consonant contrasts) relationship among the diotic word pairs. Results of the experiment suggest that age of the listener, nature of the stimuli, and response paradigm all influence diotic performance. Each age group differed in performance, and semantic subtests were easier than phonemic subtests. A hierarchy of subtest difficulty was established (body parts or colors < releasing consonant contrasts < arresting consonant contrasts), but this hierarchy varied some according to age group. Recognition performance was better than recall performance, but only on phonemic subtests; and no age-related differences in recognition and recall were found. Different error patterns were also identified among different aged listeners. Results were discussed in terms of auditory processing/perceptual changes that occur with increasing age. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 42-10, Section: B, page: 4030. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1981.

This study investigated the phonological and grammatical characteristics of Black American English Dialect, and the congruence between three popular assessment procedures: spontaneous discourse, elicited imitation and sentence completion. Codeswitching was also observed using a researcher designed sentence completion task and a uniform narrative sample. 10 black male and 10 black female 5th grade subjects were from three predominantly black elementary schools in two North Florida Counties were used. Nineteen (10 phonological and 9 grammatical) constructions were observed on all tasks throughout this investigation. The results of this investigation suggest that while some of the elements of BAD reported in previous literature still persist, others did not occur frequently enough or were too subject specific (even when the opportunity for them to occur was high) to be considered characteristic of the speech/language pattern of an entire culture or community. It was also found that males used more BAED constructions than females on all tasks, and that difference was statistically significant. This investigation also suggests that there is some level of congruence between the subjects' performances on spontaneous discourse, elicited imitation and sentence completion tasks. These subjects performed comparably on all three tasks. This congruency, was found to be highly variable and specific to certain phonological and grammatical constructions. Possible reasons for the apparent change in the characteristics of BAED, the variability in the results in congruence and their implications for future research are offered. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-08, Section: B, page: 3430. / Major Professor: Virginia Walker. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.

The purpose of this study was to describe the narrative and conversational discourse of a group of adults with right hemisphere damage (RHD). Seven RHD subjects with a median age of 61 years (Range = 65-68 years) and seven normal control subjects with a median age of 65 years (Range = 55-69 years) participated in the study. RHD subjects suffered a stroke in the distribution of the middle cerebral artery at least four weeks but not more than five months prior to data collection. Narrative discourse samples included retellings of two single-episode narratives and production of a personal experience narrative. Conversational samples included two 15-minute samples (i.e., one with a familiar interactor and one with an unfamiliar interactor). Fourteen persons who were familiar to the respective RHD and normal control subjects served as familiar interactors during conversational samples. / Findings revealed that the RHD subjects recalled less information from spoken narratives than did the normal control subjects. The RHD subjects' recall differed significantly with the two passages used, even though the passages were of similar length and syntactic complexity. The narrative composition (i.e., scripted versus nonscripted) may have influenced recall. RHD subjects recalled significantly fewer a priori propositions in the narrative superstructure categories of complicating action and evaluation for the nonscripted narrative. The personal experience narratives of both groups of subjects were similar. Results indicated that the narratives of the RHD subjects were schema-driven (i.e., demonstrated narrative superstructure organization), but some impairment was evident relative to the normal subjects. / There were no significant differences between the RHD and normal subjects on measures of turn-taking, topic manipulation, or communicative informativeness during conversation samples. Unfamiliar interactions resulted in both groups of subjects engaging in longer speaking turns, providing more new information, and requesting less information. Results of a questionnaire administered to significant others of the RHD subjects provided information for determining whether conversational profiles displayed by the RHD subjects were typical of pre-stroke abilities. Clinical implications are discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-12, Section: B, page: 5833. / Major Professor: Amy M. Wetherby. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 40-06, Section: B, page: 2624. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1979.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 32-11, Section: B, page: 6717. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1971.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 33-02, Section: B, page: 0950. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1969.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 36-06, Section: B, page: 2741. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1975.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 38-05, Section: B, page: 2135. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1977.