The effect of syntactic encoding on sentence comprehension in aphasia.

This study compared two levels of syntactic encoding with respect to their effect on aphasics' auditory comprehension. The same informational content was presented either as an embedded sentence or as two contiguous simplé propositions. A similar contrast was utilized to compare sentences containing relational terms of time, comparison, instrumentality, as well as sentences involving conjunction reduction, with parallel messages expressed in expanded, simplified form. A picture-verification paradigm was used. Comprehension was significantly enhanced only in the case of embedded sentences, with a tendency for Broca's aphasics to show the maximum effects.     

What is right with “deep” dyslexic patients?

Two aphasic adults with a specific acquired dyslexia were given tests requiring the processing of written words and sentences. Despite the general severity of the patients' deficits, some aspects of such processing appear to be relatively well preserved. The patients have particular difficulty reading aloud function words and abstract words; yet in word/nonword discrimination tests, both patients showed normal recognition of function words and one showed normal performance with abstract words. The patients do have a deficit in comprehension of visually presented words and sentences; yet their performance on comprehension tests was considerable and, moreover, showed meaningful relationships with their ability to read aloud.     

Experimentally induced phonological paraphasias.

A motor aphasic patient had to repeat word lists that contained, among other things, words with the sequences r - r - l and l - l - r. These sequences were often repeated as l - r - l (anticipatory distant assimilation) and r - l - r (same type, but less frequently), respectively. These assimilations violate the cross-over constraint (or relevancy condition or adjacency principle) and thus represent another instance of a flagrant contradiction between pathological and normal (natural) phonological processes.     

Outcome predictors in the behavioral treatment of stuttering

The MMPI and subscales of the Stuttering Severity scale were utilized to predict motivation and success in the behavioral treatment of 32 stutterers. Subjects spent a mean of 10 individual sessions in criterion-oriented learning of fluent speech based on speech-muscle relaxation aided by EMG visual biofeedback. Judged motivation and judged success were strongly related to each other and significantly related to MMPI K and Es scores and negatively to F and Sc. Actual success was negatively related to Sc and Pd, completely unrelated to Es, and (if anything) negatively related to K. Results are consistent with previous studies, and show that global judgements of progress were only minimally related to a measure of actual progress.     

Bibliography of literature pertaining to the onset,development, and treatment of stuttering during the preschool years

This bibliography consists of clinical, experimental, and theoretical papers pertaining to the onset, development, and treatment of stuttering in children five- years old and younger. It is a downward extension of Silverman, F.H., Bibliography of literature pertaining to stuttering in elementary-school children, Journal of Fluency Disorders, 1978, 3, 87–102.     

Pathological left-handedness: Evaluation of a model

This study investigated the relationship between manifest handedness and the localization of EEG abnormalities in a large group of mentally retarded persons. Persons who had abnormal EEG recordings, regardless of whether the dysfunction was bilateral or asymmetric, exhibited approximately twice the incidence of left-handedness than persons who had normal EEG's. Data for persons having asymmetric damage support a model of pathological left-handedness, with left-handers showing a substantially higher probability of having left brain dysfunction than right-handers.     

Cortical involvement in the semantic processing of coarticulated speech cues

Auditory evoked responses (AER) were recorded from scalp locations over the left and right temporal regions in response to CVC words and nonsense syllables. Various components of the AER were found to vary systematically with changes in stimulus meaning. One such component reflected subcortical involvement in semantic processing. Other components reflected changes in voicing and place of articulation as well as hemisphere differences.     

Auditory processing and anxiety in stutterers

This study utilized the Synthetic Sentence Identification/Ipsilateral and Contralateral Competing Message subtests and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory to examine auditory processing deficits, anxiety levels, and the interaction of these two components in 15 adult stutterers and 15 nonstutterers. Results support brainstem auditory processing deficits in stutterers and equalization of cortical functioning between groups. Group differences were not found in anxiety levels. Nonsignificant correlations between anxiety levels and auditory processing were revealed.     

Memory scanning,introversion-extraversion,and levels of processing

Individual differences in information processing were studied in the form of the hypothesis that arousal, as indexed by a personality measure of introversion-extraversion, affects the speed with which certain kinds of processing are completed. The Sternberg paradigm was used, and the results suggested that introverts and extraverts scanned for physical features equally rapidly, but that introverts were slower than extraverts at scanning for the semantic features of category membership. There was limited support for the hypothesis that introverts, thought to be more aroused than extraverts, are less able to engage in shared or parallel processing. It was concluded that information processing in introverts and extraverts may differ qualitatively as well as quantitatively.     

Differences in human ability to judge veracity from the audio medium

The few past studies in this topic area have consistently found that human subjects, as a group, are able to judge veracity better than chance; but no findings have been published relating individual differences to judgmental accuracy. Thus the present study was designed as a first step in filling this knowledge gap. To create a stimulus set of lies and truths, which listeners would later judge for veracity, a method was employed that generated 10 audio-tape recorded lies and 10 audio-tape recorded truths. Each of 100 subject-listeners judged each audio-tape for veracity, and also provided information on a set of personological variables. Listener, as a group, were significantly better than chance in accurately judging veracity (p < .001). In addition, a set of personological variables (social intelligence, field dependence/independence, number of siblings, TV viewing habits, and confidence in judgments) was identified that accounted for 22% of the variance in accuracy (p < .0002). It is acknowledged that these findings are tentative and will require replication before they can be regarded as reliable or valid.