Fluency Profiling System: An automated system for analyzing the temporal properties of speech

The temporal characteristics of speech can be captured by examining the distributions of the durations of measurable speech components, namely speech segment durations and pause durations. However, several barriers prevent the easy analysis of pause durations: The first problem is that natural speech is noisy, and although recording contrived speech minimizes this problem, it also discards diagnostic information about cognitive processes inherent in the longer pauses associated with natural speech. The second issue concerns setting the distribution threshold, and consists of the problem of appropriately classifying pause segments as either short pauses reflecting articulation or long pauses reflecting cognitive processing, while minimizing the overall classification error rate. This article describes a fully automated system for determining the locations of speech–pause transitions and estimating the temporal parameters of both speech and pause distributions in natural speech. We use the properties of Gaussian mixture models at several stages of the analysis, in order to identify theoretical components of the data distributions, to classify speech components, to compute durations, and to calculate the relevant statistics.     

A computerized system for analyzing linear locomotion

An accurate and reliable, yet simple and inexpensive electronic tracking device delivers voltages that denote changing positions of moving objects. In combination with an analog-to-digital converter, a microcomputer, and specific software, this device enables the depiction and analysia of linear or linearly represented locomotion. The system is particularly useful for laboratory analysis of animal movements. An application in preference-avoidance testing is described.     

ALICE: A system for manipulating and analyzing multidimensional data

The computer program ALICE solves the two major problems of data manipulation and analysis. First, ALICE allows the user to treat data from an experiment in the form they are generated. Second, mathematical calculations and statistical analyses are included as an intrinsic part of the multidimensional approach to data handling. ALICE accepts raw data in the form and order they were collected; reorganizes, partitions, or selects any subset of them (including a single entry), and arithmetically combines, transforms, or evaluates any formula involving them. Furthermore, learning to use ALICE is simple, even for those who are naive to both computers and data analysis.     

A real time multi-angle adjustable phased high intensity focused ultrasound system

High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) is identified as the truly non-invasive modality enabling tumor heating and ablation in treatment of breast tumor, uterine fibroid, bone tumor, prostate carcinoma, hepatic carcinoma, pancreatic neoplasm, and so on. However, as the conventional transducers are fixed on the probe relatively without position changes, there is a severely limit for the movable range of the focus. This article mainly introduced a real time multi-angle adjustable Phased High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (PHIFU) system, which could implement focusing at different positions by adjusting the angles between disparate transducers in real time under the driving of digital servos. The angle detectors are installed between two digital servos to acquire the precise angles in order to feed back to the system. In return, the angles could be also calculated if the position of the focus was given. This way improved the scope of the focused ultrasound therapy greatly from the results of the acoustic field simulations.     

A computer-compatible technique for recording binary events in real time

A technique is described for recording binary stimulus and response events on computer-compatible media mich as punched-paper tape and incremental magnetic tape. A specific implementation of the technique is presented along with a consideration of programming a computer to recover the recorded data. Various extensions and limitations of the technique are also included.     

A cheap telemetric system for analyzing gait.

This study presents a technique for gait analysis, developed for the assessment of footfall timing and speed. The system in question consists of a transmitter, a receiver, a conductive walkway and a PC with the appropriate software.The technique was first tested for accuracy and repeatability with known signals, and was validated with a group of 20 healthy male adults (mean age = 34 years, S.D. = 5.5). The results thus obtained were similar to those reported in the literature for corresponding groups. Then, measurements on 10 children suffering from cerebral palsy (spastic hemiplegia) were performed. Gait analysis was carried out just before surgery and one year post-operatively. The results confirm the validity of the technique for measurements on orthopedic patients and its efficiency for functional evaluation of gait improvement after surgery.     

A laboratory-based procedure for measuring emotional expression from natural speech

Despite dramatic advances in the sophistication of tools for measuring prosodic and content channels of expression from natural speech, methodological issues have limited the simultaneous measurement of those channels for laboratory research. This is particularly unfortunate, considering the importance of emotional expression in daily living and how it can be disrupted in many psychological disorders (e.g., schizophrenia). The present study examined the Computerized assessment of Affect from Natural Speech (CANS), a laboratory-based procedure that was designed to measure both lexical and prosodic expression from natural speech across a range of evocative conditions. The verbal responses of 38 male and 31 female subjects were digitally recorded as they reacted to separate pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral stimuli. Lexical and prosodic expression variables significantly changed across these conditions, providing support for using the CANS in further laboratory research. The implications for understanding the interface between lexical and prosodic expressions are also discussed.     

Content filtering human speech: A simple electronic system

The use of electronic bandpass filtering for content-masking speech samples in studies on expressive aspects of vocal behavior is discussed. A simple electronic filtering system, which can be built easily and which can be adopted readily for a variety of applications, is described.     

A low-cost system for measuring and analyzing human movement in three dimensions

This paper describes a system for measuring the three-dimensional movement of a point on the human body. The core components of the system are an ultrasonic computer mouse (The OWL), an IBM-compatible personal computer, and a suite of recording and analysis software written in National Instruments’ LabVIEW instrumentation programming language. The cost of these components is sufficiently low that we have been able to create a system for measuring human kinematics that is within the reach of a typical budget for student practical classes.     

Diminutives facilitate word segmentation in natural speech: Cross-linguistic evidence

Final-syllable invariance is characteristic of diminutives (e.g., doggie), which are a pervasive feature of the child-directed speech registers of many languages. Invariance in word endings has been shown to facilitate word segmentation (Kempe, Brooks, & Gillis, 2005) in an incidental-learning paradigm in which synthesized Dutch pseudonouns were used. To broaden the cross-linguistic evidence for this invariance effect and to increase its ecological validity, adult English speakers (n=276) were exposed to naturally spoken Dutch or Russian pseudonouns presented in sentence contexts. A forced choice test was given to assess target recognition, with foils comprising unfamiliar syllable combinations in Experiments 1 and 2 and syllable combinations straddling word boundaries in Experiment 3. A control group (n=210) received the recognition test with no prior exposure to targets. Recognition performance improved with increasing final-syllable rhyme invariance, with larger increases for the experimental group. This confirms that word ending invariance is a valid segmentation cue in artificial, as well as naturalistic, speech and that diminutives may aid segmentation in a number of languages.     

A system for programming experiments and for recording and analyzing data automatically

A system designed for use in complex operant conditioning experiments is described. Some of its key features are: (a) plugboards that permit the experimenter to change either from one program to another or from one analysis to another in less than a minute, (b) time-sharing of permanently-wired, electronic logic components, (c) recordings suitable for automatic analyses. Included are flow diagrams of the system and sample logic diagrams for programming experiments and for analyzing data.     

Verbal reaction time patterns in aphasic adults: consideration for apraxia of speech

Verbal reaction time patterns were compared in aphasic adults presenting anterior and posterior left hemisphere lesions. Reaction Times were measured from simultaneous recording of the subjects' verbal responses and electromyographic activity from three oral-facial sites. Total Reaction Time was fractionated into Premotor Time and Motor Time components to assess latencies associated with motor speech planning and execution. The results suggested that only anterior lesions result in deficits in motor speech planning and/or execution while posterior lesion patients perform no differently than normal. The evidence supports traditional concepts regarding apraxia of speech as being associated with frontal lobe lesions.     

A system for automatically analyzing and correcting real-time experiment control programs

A system is described that automatically analyzes the time constraints in a real-time experiment control program and automatically makes corrections to that program to provide any degree of temporal accuracy desired by the experimenter within the capabilities of the hardware. A generalized procedure is presented to allow similar systems to be developed for most common languages and hardware platforms.     

A dual system for producing self-repairs in spontaneous speech: Evidence from experimentally elicited corrections

This paper presents a cognitive theory on the production and shaping of self-repairs during speaking. In an extensive experimental study, a new technique is tried out: artificial elicitation of self-repairs. The data clearly indicate that two mechanisms for computing the shape of self-repairs should be distinguished. One is based on the repair strategy called reformulation, the second one on lemma substitution. W. Levelt's (1983, Cognition, 14, 41–104) well-formedness rule, which connects self-repairs to coordinate structures, is shown to apply only to reformulations. In case of lemma substitution, a totally different set of rules is at work. The linguistic unit of central importance in reformulations is the major syntactic constituent; in lemma substitutions it is a prosodie unit, the phonological phrase. A parametrization of the model yielded a very satisfactory fit between observed and reconstructed scores. © 1987 Academic Press, Inc.     

NEWSART: Negative binomial weighted spectral analysis in real time

In this paper, digital filters are described for concurrent adaptive estimation of the spectral powers at several target frequencies. Least-squares estimation is used, with a tapered weight function that discounts time-series data according to age. Frequency selectivity and reliability of spectral estimates are controlled by different parameters. The spectral windows are closely approximated by Student’st distribution, which is useful in the planning of experiments.     

Clarifying the linguistic signature: measuring personality from natural speech

In this study, we examined the viability of measuring personality using computerized lexical analysis of natural speech. Two well-validated models of personality were measured, one involving trait positive affectivity (PA) and negative affectivity (NA) dimensions and the other involving a separate behavioral inhibition motivational system (BIS) and a behavioral activation motivational system (BAS). Individuals with high levels of trait PA and sensitive BAS expressed high levels of positive emotion in their natural speech, whereas individuals with high levels of trait NA and sensitive BIS tended to express high levels of negative emotion. The personality variables accounted for almost a quarter of the variance in emotional expressivity.