The treatment of stammering in children by the shadowing method

There are very few reports about the application of behaviour therapy to child stammering and these are not encouraging. Remedial education treatment is followed by frequent relapses. The present work gives data about the methods, effects and long-term results in nineteen child stammerers treated by the shadowing technique. A discussion of some of the theoretical problems involved is given and shows how the theoretical analysis influences treatment procedures. Seventy per cent of the cases were successfully treated by the shadowing technique and subsidiary procedures; relapses occurred in only 12 per cent of the cases.     

Speech shadowing while driving: on the difficulty of splitting attention between eye and ear

Abstract - We investigated the role of cross-modal links in spatial attention in modulating the efficiency of dual-task performance. The difficulty of combining speech shadowing with a simulated driving task was modulated by the spatial location from which the speech was presented. In both single- and dual-task conditions, participants found it significantly easier to shadow one of two auditory streams when the relevant speech was presented from directly in front of them, rather than from the side. This frontal speech advantage was more pronounced when participants performed the demanding simulated driving task at the same time as shadowing than when they performed the shadowing task alone. These results demonstrate that people process auditory information more efficiently (with a lower overall dual-task decrement) when relevant auditory and visual stimuli are presented from the same, rather than different, spatial locations. These results are related to recent findings showing that there are extensive cross-modal links in spatial attention, and have clear implications for the design of better user interfaces.     

The relevance of generalization techniques to the treatment of stammering and phobic symptoms

This paper is presented as a further illustration of the important role which generalization techniques may play in the treatment of certain neurotic disorders. It also aims to provide a timely reminder that in one's concern with symptomatic treatment the historically earlier conditioned autonomic drive-casually related to these symptoms, may, in certain instances, be ignored. Treatment of the surplus motor, conditioned responses alone might thus result in only partial improvements and a failure either to make a positive or a lasting response to treatment.     

Modeling late-life adaptation in affective well-being under a severe chronic health condition: the case of age-related macular degeneration

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) was used as a case model to longitudinally study adaptation in affective well-being under a prevalent chronic health condition. Measures of positive and negative affect, obtained at 5 subsequent measurement occasions with 3-month intervals in between, were analyzed in 90 older adults diagnosed with AMD. The authors proposed a pattern of adaptation that shows initial decline in affective well-being after disease outbreak, followed by a turnaround into a restorative phase of increase, implying nonlinear intraindividual trajectories, with changes substantially related to disease duration. Analysis was conducted by means of a nonlinear mixed models approach. Results confirmed the hypothesized adaptation pattern for positive affect but not for negative affect, which was found more stable across measurement occasions.     

Speech disruption under delayed auditory feedback in multilingual speakers

The present study investigated the language familiarity hypothesis formulated by Mackay [(1970). How does language familiarity influence stuttering under delayed auditory feedback? Perceptual and Motor Skills, 30, 655-669] that bilinguals speak faster and stutter less under delayed auditory feedback (DAF) when speaking their more familiar language than a less familiar language. Thirty normally fluent native speakers of Dutch (17 males and 13 females, aged between 18;1 and 26;4 years) who were also proficient in French and English read meaningful and nonsense text under DAF in their mother tongue and in the two later acquired languages. The existence of a language familiarity effect was confirmed. The participants required significantly more time and showed significantly more speech disruptions under DAF in the later acquired languages than in the mother tongue, and reading time and number of speech disruptions was significantly higher for the nonsense texts than for the meaningful text for each of the three languages. An additional question addressed was whether or not there were any gender differences in the susceptibility to DAF. Results did not reveal a clear gender difference. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: The reader will be able to: (1) summarize the importance of language familiarity for the degree of speech disruption experienced by normally fluent multilingual speakers under delayed auditory feedback; and (2) describe gender differences in the susceptibility to delayed auditory feedback.     

The effect of adaptation on odor detection

The sensitivity of human Ss to a weak odor (hydrogen sulphide) following prior exposure to it varying in both duration (0–5 min) and concentration (4.05 × 10^?7 to 24.40 × 10^?7 mg/liter) was studied with a yes-no detection method and a specially designed olfactometer. The effect of adaptation was demonstrated, because the proportion of hits was lower the higher the concentration of the adaptation stimulus, when the response criterion, as measured by the proportion of false alarms, was fairly constant. By contrast, the proportion of hits was apparently independent of the duration of the exposure to the adaptation concentration. This finding suggests that the sense of smell is more stable than is usually believed. The paper ends with a discussion of the importance of considering adaptation in contemporary detection theory.     

The effect of familiarity on face adaptation

Face aftereffects can provide information on how faces are stored by the human visual system (eg Leopold et al, 2001 Nature Neuroscience 4 89-94), but few studies have used robustly represented (highly familiar) faces. In this study we investigated the influence of facial familiarity on adaptation effects. Participants were adapted to a series of distorted faces (their own face, a famous face, or an unfamiliar face). In experiment 1, figural aftereffects were significantly smaller when participants were adapted to their own face than when they were adapted to the other faces (ie their own face appeared significantly less distorted than a famous or unfamiliar face). Experiment 2 showed that this 'own-face' effect did not occur when the same faces were used as adaptation stimuli for participants who were unfamiliar with them. Experiment 3 replicated experiment 1, but included a pre-adaptation baseline. The results highlight the importance of considering facial familiarity when conducting research on face aftereffects.     

The effect of adaptation on taste jnds

The jnd for 0.1 M NaCl was measured under two different adapting conditions. Following adaptation to HOH the jnd was 0.009 M and after 0.1 M adaptation it was .018 M. The implications of this change in sensitivity with differing adaptation for Beidler’s theory are discussed.     

The effect of selective adaptation on the identification of speech sounds

An experiment was performed to determine the effect of selective adaptation on the identification of synthetic speech sounds which varied along the phonetic dimensionplace of articulation. Adaptation with a stimulus of a particular place value led to a reduction in the number of test stimuli identified as having that place value. An identification shift was obtained even when the acoustic information specifying place value for the adapting stimulus had virtually nothing in common with the information specifying place value for any of the test stimuli. Removing the vowel portion of an adapting stimulus eliminated identification shift only when the resulting stimulus was no longer perceived as speech-like. The results indicate that at least part of the adaptation effect occurs at a site of phonetic, not merely acoustic, feature analysis.

     

Short-term memory and the nature of interference from concurrent shadowing

Trigrams were presented visually or auditorily and followed by a 12 s retention interval filled with shadowing numbers or letters. Auditory memory letters followed by letter shadowing were recalled less than auditory memory letters followed by number shadowing or visual memory letters followed by either type of shadowing. The latter three conditions did not differ among themselves. An analysis of the recall intrusions suggested that forgetting of auditory memory letters followed by letter shadowing was caused mainly by a confusion between covert rehearsals and shadowing activity, while forgetting in the other three conditions was caused primarily by proactive interference from earlier memory trials.     

Hue discrimination in peripheral vision under conditions of dark and light adaptation

Rod interference is a possible factor contributing to the elevation of chromatic threshold in peripheral vision. It was found that light adaptation lowered peripheral chromatic thresholds. This result was interpreted as being due to the lowering of rod sensitivity. It was also found that light in the photochromatic interval appeared blue, indicating that rods may add a blue component to peripheral color vision.     

Speech treatment and support group experiences of people who participate in the National Stuttering Association

Support groups are rapidly becoming an important part of the recovery process for many people who stutter, and a growing number of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are encouraging their clients to participate in support groups. At present, however, little is known about the individuals who join stuttering support groups and the benefits they derive from their participation. This study surveyed members of the National Stuttering Association (NSA) to learn about their experiences in support groups, as well as their experiences in speech therapy. Respondents were 71 people who attended the 1999 NSA conference in Tacoma, WA. The majority of respondents had participated in treatment several times during their lives, using a variety of techniques. Respondents who had participated in fluency-shaping treatments were more likely to report that they had experienced a relapse than those who had participated in stuttering modification or combined treatments. Also, there was a strong positive correlation between respondents' satisfaction with treatment and their judgments of clinicians' competence, suggesting that improved training for SLPs should lead to improved treatment for people who stutter. Results will be used to provide a foundation for further evaluations of the benefits of support group participation for people who stutter. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: The reader will learn (a) that many people who participate in the NSA have had numerous and varied experiences with speech treatment throughout their lives, (b) which aspects of treatment and support group participation are seen as most beneficial for people who participate in the NSA.     

The apparent length of rotating arcs under conditions of dark adaptation

The apparent contraction of a rotating light arc occurred during the first 20 rain, but not after 25 min, of dark adaptation. Estimates of length obtained after 25 min were affected by the level of luminance of the arc but not by its speed of rotation, by dark gaps in the arc, or by instructions to estimate its length in terms of a brighter region. There was no tendency for a rotating dark arc to appear shorter at any stage of adaptation.     

Moray vs. the rest: The effects of extended shadowing practice

The processing requirements of the shadowing response have led to criticisms of its use in selective attention experiments. The present experiment tested a single highly skilled shadower (N. Moray) using a task requiring the detection of digits embedded in dichotic lists of letters, with attention being directed to one list by use of the shadow technique. This subject was able to detect considerably more digits in both the attended and unattended messages than were groups of unskilled shadowers previously tested. Although performance to the unattended message was high, it remained below performance to the attended message.     

Differences in the dissipation of the effect of adaptation to two kinds of field displacement during head movements

When Ss were simultaneously adapted to horizontal and to vertical target displacements of equal rate during head turning about a vertical axis, the adaptation effects measured by one-trial tests immediately after the adaptation period were about equal. But retests after a time lapse of 10 and 20 min, during which S sat immobile and with eyes closed, showed a greatly different rate of dissipation of the two adaptation effects. After a lapse of 20 min, the effect of adaptation to horizontal target displacements had been reduced to 37%, whereas the effect of adaptation to vertical displacements at this final test still stood at 80% of the initial measurement. The decline over 20 min in the latter case was so smail that it could readily be ascribed to an effect of the two tests that preceded the final test. These two tests represented an effective exposure to natural viewing conditions and hence caused an unlearning of the adaptation, an effect whose existence we had demonstrated in previous work with the one-trial test.     

Some observed differences in degree of concentration and their effects on shadowing

Three shadowing experiments investigated the hypothesis that difficulties in concentration are caused by internal factors as well as by the novelty, intensity or salience of background events. On the last trial of each experiment, a background message, which subjects had been instructed to ignore, changed unexpectedly. Most subjects noticed these changes and were disrupted by them (Experiments 1, 2 and 3). A smaller number of “concentrators” reported that they were unaware the changes had taken place. These concentrators were less disrupted by the background message than the non-concentrators both on the last trial and on earlier dichotic trials (Experiments 1 and 3). However, even concentrators were momentarily disrupted by the background changes (Experiment 3). Increased attended task difficulty increases the likelihood that subjects will fail to notice the changes (Experiment 2). The results support the view that good concentration consists in the ability to keep distracting events from consciousness.