The Epidemiology of Hearing Loss Study (EHLS) conducted in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, was a population-based study that focused on the prevalence of hearing loss among 3,753 participants between 1993 and 1995. This article reports the results of several auditory measures from 999 veteran and 590 nonveteran males 48 to 92 years of age included in the EHLS. The auditory measures included pure tone thresholds, tympanometry and acoustic reflexes, word recognition in quiet and in competing message, and the Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly-Screening (HHIE-S) version. Hearing loss in the auditory domains of pure tone thresholds, word recognition in quiet, and word recognition in competing message increased with age but were not significantly different for the veterans and nonveterans. No significant differences were found between participant groups on the HHIE-S; however, regarding hearing aid usage, mixed differences were found.

No description available.

The design of a machine which reads unconstrained words still remains an unsolved problem. For example, automatic interpretation of handwritten documents by a computer is still under research. Most systems attempt to segment words into letters and read words one character at a time. However, segmenting handwritten words is very difficult. So to avoid this words are treated as a whole. This research investigates a number of features computed from whole words for the recognition of handwritten words in particular. Arabic text classification and recognition is a complicated process compared to Latin and Chinese text recognition systems. This is due to the nature cursiveness of Arabic text. The work presented in this thesis is proposed for word based recognition of handwritten Arabic scripts. This work is divided into three main stages to provide a recognition system. The first stage is the pre-processing, which applies efficient pre-processing methods which are essential for automatic recognition of handwritten documents. In this stage, techniques for detecting baseline and segmenting words in handwritten Arabic text are presented. Then connected components are extracted, and distances between different components are analyzed. The statistical distribution of these distances is then obtained to determine an optimal threshold for word segmentation. The second stage is feature extraction. This stage makes use of the normalized images to extract features that are essential in recognizing the images. Various method of feature extraction are implemented and examined. The third and final stage is the classification. Various classifiers are used for classification such as K nearest neighbour classifier (k-NN), neural network classifier (NN), Hidden Markov models (HMMs), and the Dynamic Bayesian Network (DBN). To test this concept, the particular pattern recognition problem studied is the classification of 32492 words using ii the IFN/ENIT database. The results were promising and very encouraging in terms of improved baseline detection and word segmentation for further recognition. Moreover, several feature subsets were examined and a best recognition performance of 81.5% is achieved.

published_or_final_version / Psychology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The present dissertation aims to evaluate the phenomenon of visual masking as a tool for studying visual awareness focusing on two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) discrimination tasks. Two existing theories of masking - Bachmann's (1984) perceptual retouch theory and Marcel's (1983) recovery theory - are discussed along with the global neuronal workspace theory of awareness (Baars. 1989; Dehaene, Kerszberg, & Changeux, 1998). Performance accuracy on Semantic discrimination is compared to that on Orthographic discrimination as an indication of a potential difference between semantic and orthographic processing of masked word stimuli presented for 40 ms and 50 ms. This is further compared to an e-detection task previously used as an indicator of awareness in some masked priming experiments. Together, these tasks are further evaluated in terms of their relationship with participants' subjective reports collected in the form of confidence ratings. The implications and predictions drawn from the theories of masking and visual awareness as well as the notion of partial awareness (Kouider & Dupoux, 2001) are assessed taking into account the data obtained in the current experiments.The relevance of these data for masked priming is determined by performing a comparison between 2AFC discrimination and detection tasks, and the lexical decision task. An ERP study is also presented, in which Semantic and Orthographic discrimination as well as e-detection are paired with confidence ratings and electrophysiological recordings in search of an ERP component that can be correlated with both subjective (confidence) and objective (performance) measures of awareness. A binding account of visual awareness with special attention paid to visual masking is proposed and compared to the three existing theories.

The present study investigated the effects of concurrent reading and listening--in the form of the Reading While Listening (RWL) technique--as a means of improving word recognition and reading comprehension among intermediate L2 readers and compared these effects to a distinct top-down reading pedagogy in the form of Extensive Reading (ER) approach, an integrated pedagogy of both RWL and ER and a Control pedagogy of silent in-class reading. Drawing upon innate acquisitional mechanisms of phonological recoding as articulated by Jorm & Share's (1983) Self-Teaching Hypothesis (STH), the present research suggested the simultaneous presentation of identical orthographic and aural input as an ideal protocol for the exploitation of such a route to fluent word recognition in reading. Drawing upon innate acquisitional mechanisms of cognitive inferencing and whole language development as proposed by Goodman (1967, 1988), Krashen (1995, 2007) and Day & Bamford (1998), the present study also proposed the ER pedagogical approach as an effective top-down mechanism for cognitive inferencing in reading and whole language development as well as a tool for addressing L2 reader affect. In order to investigate the efficacy of RWL and ER respectively, while also as an integrated composite pedagogy of both RWL and ER, the present study employed a mixed-methods quasi-experimental design incorporating longitudinal classroom treatments of RWL, ER, RWL-ER and Control reading pedagogies over five weeks and among 51 intermediate ESL readers. Univariate and multivariate statistical analyses, alongside qualitative data reduction and display, supported the respective and significant efficacy of RWL and ER reading pedagogies over Control treatments on measures of reading rate, comprehension, vocabulary and grammatical knowledge gains as well as reader affect. Moreover, the composite RWL-ER treatment group demonstrated superlative gains above all other treatment types in a manner that supports the distinct advantages of such an integrated reading pedagogy, which pairs acquisitional approaches to both bottom-up word recognition and top-down cognitive skills development in tandem. Pedagogical implications for these findings are discussed alongside limitations and area for future research.

Since it was introduced in Forster and Davis (1984), masked priming has been widely adopted in the psycholinguistic research on visual word recognition, but there has been little consensus on its actual mechanisms, i.e. how it occurs and how it should be interpreted. This dissertation addresses two different interpretations of masked priming, one based on the Interactive Activation Model (McClelland & Rumelhart, 1981), in which priming is seen as a result of persisting activation from the prime, the other based on the Entry Opening Model (Forster & Davis, 1984), which sees priming as a savings effect. Five experiments are reported testing contrasting hypotheses about the role of prime duration and prime-target asynchrony (SOA) in masked priming using both identity and form priming. Overall, this dissertation lends support to the Entry Opening Model, demonstrating that masked priming is essentially a savings effect, and that as such, it is determined by the SOA, not the prime duration per se.

This thesis describes basic research into visual word recognition and decision making. Determining the best matching lexical representation for a given stimulus involves interactions between representations. The standard task for studying these processes is the lexical decision task (LDT), but there is still debate regarding the factors that affect how individuals make lexical decisions. The nature of lexical interactions and the processes underlying lexical decision-making were addressed here by testing response congruency effects in the masked priming variant of the LDT. The results of seven masked priming experiments showed a robust response congruency effect that depends on the difficulty of the word-nonword discrimination. This finding resolved apparent inconsistencies in previous research. The experiments were simulated using the Bayesian Reader and the Spatial Coding Model (SCM). The probability based Bayesian Reader model failed to accommodate the findings. However, a good fit to the data was provided by a modified version of the SCM in which the assumptions regarding the nature of lexical interactions were changed such that word nodes inhibit only (closely) related competitors. The model also assumes that the difficulty of the word-nonword discrimination affects the degree to which stimulus typicality informs lexical decisions. A critical issue for these experiments involved the definition of orthographic typicality. An algorithm for measuring orthographic typicality and for generating nonwords with a specific level of orthographic typicality (OT3) was developed. An unprimed LDT experiment showed that OT3 affected decision latency even when other standard measures of orthographic typicality were controlled. Two additional masked priming experiments showed that highly typical primes lead to faster word responses and slower nonword responses than less typical primes. Overall, the results of this research enhance our understanding of the processes underlying visual word recognition and lexical decision making, and also have important methodological implications for the field.

Nous avons examiné à travers cinq études le rôle de la phonologie dans la reconnaissance de mots écrits chez des enfants tout-venant plus ou moins avancés dans l’apprentissage de la lecture. Pour cela, nous avons utilisé le paradigme de l’amorçage dans des versions visuelles, auditives et intermodales. Ce paradigme, à ce jour peu utilisé dans les études chez l’enfant, permet d’étudier, en temps réel et de manière précise, les processus phonologique et orthographiques engagés dans la reconnaissance de mots. Les études 1 et 2 montrent que chez les jeunes lecteurs, les représentations phonologiques du langage oral sont impliquées dans la lecture silencieuse de pseudomots, dans un format trait phonétique et dans la reconnaissance de mots familiers écrits, dans un format phonémique. L’étude 3 indique que le code phonologique contribue à la reconnaissance des mots de manière stable entre le CE2 et le CM2. Néanmoins, lorsque les représentations orthographiques sont peu spécifiées, la contribution du code phonologique est plus importante. Les études 4 et 5, en amorçage masqué visuel phonologique (O-P+ vs O-P-) et ortho-phonologique (O+P+ vs O+P-), montrent qu’au cours de la reconnaissance de mots familiers, les représentations phonologiques sont activées de manière automatique et ce dès le CE2. En revanche, l’activation automatique des représentations orthographiques semble apparaître plus tardivement dans le développement (CM2). Nos résultats suggèrent que lorsque le processus orthographique est fonctionnel mais pas encore pleinement efficace (CE2), la reconnaissance des mots écrits bénéficie de l’activation phonologique alors que, lorsque le processus est pleinement efficace (CM2), la reconnaissance des mots bénéficie de l’activation orthographique. Il semble donc que le développement du processus d’activation automatique des représentations phonologiques et le développement du processus d’activation automatique du lexique orthographique soient indépendants, le premier se développerait pleinement avant le second. / We conducted five studies to examine the role of phonological code in visual word recognition in children more or less advanced in learning to read. For that, we used the priming paradigm (in visual, auditory and inter modalities). This paradigm allows to study on-line and in precise manner, phonological and orthographic processes engaged in visual word recognition. The studies 1 and 2 indicate that, in Grade 3 and Grade 5, speech representations are involved in silent reading of pseudowords, in phonetic feature format and in visual familiar word recognition, in phonemic format. The study 3 indicates that phonological code contributes to visual word recognition in stable manner through Grade 3 and Grade 5. Nevertheless, when lexical orthographic representations are not well specified, phonological contribution is greater. The studies 4 and 5, in phonological (O-P+ vs O-P-) and ortho-phonological (O+P+ vs O+P-) visual masked priming, show that familiar visual word recognition involves phonological representations in automatic manner from Grade 3 to Grade 5. In contrast, automatic activation of orthographic representations seems to develop later (Grade 5). These results suggest that when orthographic process is functional but not fully effective (Grade 3), visual word recognition benefits from phonological activation whereas when orthographic process is fully effective (Grade 5), visual word recognition benefits from orthographic activation. That suggests that development of phonological automatic activation and development of orthographic automatic activation are independent. The process of phonological automatic activation is entirely developed earlier than the process of orthographic automatic activation.

Kin Fai Ellick Wong. / "July 2000." / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 121-130). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.