Measuring cognitive factors in speech comprehension: The value of using the Text Reception Threshold test as a visual equivalent of the SRT test

The ability to comprehend speech in noise is influenced by bottom-up auditory and top-down cognitive capacities. Separate examination of these capacities is relevant for various purposes. Speech-Reception-Threshold (SRT) tests measure an individual's ability to comprehend speech. This paper addresses the value of the Text-Reception-Threshold (TRT) test (a visual parallel of the SRT test) to assess the cognitive capacities allocated during speech comprehension. We conducted a secondary data analysis, including 87 normally-hearing adults (aged 18 to 78 years). Correlation coefficients between age, TRT, working memory (Spatial Span) and SRT were examined. The TRT and SRT correlated significantly ( r  =   0.30), supporting the value of TRT in explaining inter-individual differences in SRTs. The relations between age and TRT and between SSP and TRT were non-significant. The results indicate that the current TRT test does not fully cover the cognitive aspects relevant in speech comprehension. Adaptation of the test is required before clinical implementation can be considered.     

Cognition and aided speech recognition in noise: Specific role for cognitive factors following nine-week experience with adjusted compression settings in hearing aids

The working memory model for Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) proposes that language understanding under taxing conditions is related to explicit cognitive capacity. We refer to this as the mismatch hypothesis, since phonological representations based on the processing of speech under established conditions may not be accessed so readily when input conditions change and a match becomes problematic. Then, cognitive capacity requirements may differ from those used for processing speech hitherto. In the present study, we tested this hypothesis by investigating the relationship between aided speech recognition in noise and cognitive capacity in experienced hearing aid users when there was either a match or mismatch between processed speech input and established phonological representations. The settings in the existing digital hearing aids of the participants were adjusted to one of two different compression settings which processed the speech signal in qualitatively different ways ("fast" or "slow"). Testing took place after a 9-week period of experience with the new setting. Speech recognition was tested under different noise conditions and with match or mismatch (i.e. alternative compression setting) manipulations of the input signal. Individual cognitive capacity was measured using a reading span test and a letter monitoring test. Reading span, a reliable measure of explicit cognitive capacity, predicted speech recognition performance under mismatch conditions when processed input was incongruent with recently established phonological representations, due to the specific hearing aid setting. Cognitive measures were not main predictors of performance under match conditions. These findings are in line with the ELU model.     

Slowed Speech Input has a Differential Impact on On-line and Off-line Processing in Children’s Comprehension of Pronouns

The central question underlying this study revolves around how children process co-reference relationships—such as those evidenced by pronouns (him) and reflexives (himself)—and how a slowed rate of speech input may critically affect this process. Previous studies of child language processing have demonstrated that typical language developing (TLD) children as young as 4 years of age process co-reference relations in a manner similar to adults on-line. In contrast, off-line measures of pronoun comprehension suggest a developmental delay for pronouns (relative to reflexives). The present study examines dependency relations in TLD children (ages 5–13) and investigates how a slowed rate of speech input affects the unconscious (on-line) and conscious (off-line) parsing of these constructions. For the on-line investigations (using a cross-modal picture priming paradigm), results indicate that at a normal rate of speech TLD children demonstrate adult-like syntactic reflexes. At a slowed rate of speech the typical language developing children displayed a breakdown in automatic syntactic parsing (again, similar to the pattern seen in unimpaired adults). As demonstrated in the literature, our off-line investigations (sentence/picture matching task) revealed that these children performed much better on reflexives than on pronouns at a regular speech rate. However, at the slow speech rate, performance on pronouns was substantially improved, whereas performance on reflexives was not different than at the regular speech rate. We interpret these results in light of a distinction between fast automatic processes (relied upon for on-line processing in real time) and conscious reflective processes (relied upon for off-line processing), such that slowed speech input disrupts the former, yet improves the latter.     

发展性口吃的脑机制

口吃是一种常见的言语障碍,对此曾提出过大脑半球言语功能偏侧化异常假设。近期,发展性口吃的神经成像研究在支持这一经典假设的同时,还发现负责言语监控的颞叶系统和负责言语运动控制的额叶系统与皮层下脑结构存在功能失调,这可能损害言语产生时的精确时间控制。据此,研究者开始用神经网络的观点来解释发展性口吃产生的脑机制,认为患者可能存在由多个言语产生相关脑区构成的“双通路”网络的功能障碍     

Perceptual Bias in Speech Error Data Collection: Insights from Spanish Speech Errors

This paper studies the reliability and validity of naturalistic speech errors as a tool for language production research. Possible biases when collecting naturalistic speech errors are identified and specific predictions derived. These patterns are then contrasted with published reports from Germanic languages (English, German and Dutch) and one Romance language (Spanish). Unlike findings in the Germanic languages, Spanish speech errors show many patterns which run contrary to those expected from bias: (1) more phonological errors occur between words than within word; (2) word-initial consonants are less likely to participate in errors than word-medial consonants, (3) errors are equally likely in stressed and in unstressed syllables, (4) perseverations are more frequent than anticipations, and (5) there is no trace of a lexical bias. We present a new corpus of Spanish speech errors collected by many theoretically naïve observers (whereas the only corpus available so far was collected by two highly trained theoretically informed observers), give a general overview of it, and use it to replicate previous reports. In spite of the different susceptibility of these methods to bias, results were remarkably similar in both corpora and again contrary to predictions from bias. As a result, collecting speech errors “in the wild” seems to be free of bias to a reasonable extent even when using a multiple-collector method. The observed contrasting patterns between Spanish and Germanic languages arise as true cross-linguistic differences.     

汉语词汇产生中语义、字形和音韵激活的时间进程

通过图画－词汇干扰实验范式探索汉语单字词产生中语义、字形和语音激活的时间进程。实验一和实验二的结果综合表明：当SOA为-300 ms~0 ms时,存在语义抑制效应,当SOA为-100 ms~100 ms时,存在字形促进效应,当SOA为100 ms时,存在语音促进效应。实验结果支持交互激活理论的观点。实验成功地分离了字形促进效应和语音促进效应,确定了语义、字形和语音这三种信息在汉语口语词汇产生中通达的先后次序,讨论了字形信息在词汇产生中的重要作用,以及被试是否在实验中使用了策略。     

The Influence of Phonological Context on the Sound Errors of a Speaker with Wernicke's Aphasia

A corpus of phonological errors produced in narrative speech by a Wernicke's aphasic speaker (R.W.B.) was tested for context effects using two new methods for establishing chance baselines. A reliable anticipatory effect was found using the second method, which estimated chance from the distance between phoneme repeats in the speech sample containing the errors. Relative to this baseline, error-source distances were shorter than expected for anticipations, but not perseverations. R.W.B.'s anticipation/perseveration ratio measured intermediate between a nonaphasic error corpus and that of a more severe aphasic speaker (both reported in Schwartz et al., 1994), supporting the view that the anticipatory bias correlates to severity. Finally, R.W.B's anticipations favored word-initial segments, although errors and sources did not consistently share word or syllable position.     

The effects of differential vowel prolongations on perceptions of speech naturalness

Prolongation of speech sounds is currently used to modify stuttering and enhance fluency. Prolonged speech (PS) (e.g., prolonged vowels, prolongation throughout utterances) is, however, often perceived as unnatural by listeners. This study examined at which durations and in which contexts 52 college students (primary language was American English) perceived PS to be unnatural. Stimuli were limited to controlled variation in prolongation of the vowel in the middle single-syllable word of a carrier phrase (i.e., say word again). The prolongation was effected by digital waveform manipulation within the Kay Elemetrics Computerized Speech Laboratory (CSL). The listeners judged if they strongly agreed, agreed, or disagreed that the phrases sounded natural. Results indicated that the extent of vowel duration (and possibly context) does influence listener's perception of speech naturalness, findings which can be applied to facilitate fluency therapy.

Educational objectives: (1) The reader will learn about and be able to summarize the digital waveform manipulation procedure in the study. (2) The reader will learn about and be able to describe the effects of differential vowel prolongation on listener's perception of speech naturalness. (3) The reader will learn about and evaluate how differential vowel prolongation can be used to enhance fluency.     

INCREASING AUTISTIC CHILDREN'S SPONTANEOUS VERBALIZATIONS OF AFFECTION: AN ASSESSMENT OF TIME DELAY AND PEER MODELING PROCEDURES

We assessed the efficacy of time delay and peer modeling procedures in increasing autistic children's spontaneous verbalizations of affection. Four autistic children were taught to spontaneously say “I like (love) you” in response to a hug from a familiar person and their mother. Generalization from a free play training setting to free play outdoors and at home was assessed. Ancillary social and affection behaviors were also observed. Results indicated that the time delay was a quick and effective procedure for all the children. Peer modeling was unsuccessful in teaching the target behavior.