Hearing & Speech Sciences
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Item Evaluating listener bias introduced by two speaker groups on VAS ratings: A methodological investigation(2019-12-18) Higgins, Rebecca; Edwards, Jan; Fourakis, Margaritis; Johnson, Allison; Novick, JaredObjectives: The goal of this experiment was to determine whether listeners rate /t/ and /k/ consonants produced by 3 to 5-year-old children with cochlear implants (CIs) differently when in a blocked condition that did not include productions by children with normal hearing (NH) compared to an unblocked condition which did include such productions. Blocking has been shown to influence results on categorical tasks. Some research suggests that judgments made using continuous a visual analog scale (VAS) are less susceptible to bias than judgments made using a categorical system. However, the research on VAS and bias is sparse, with no research on the interaction of VAS ratings and perceptual bias when bias is introduced to an experiment via a comparison of two groups. This study used word-initial /t/ and /k/ CV sequences produced by children with NH and children with CIs to investigate the effect of blocking on VAS judgments. Design: 48 adult participants were recruited at the University of Maryland. Each participant rated 500 CV tokens in a VAS experiment. Half of the participants were assigned to the blocked condition, and half to the unblocked condition. Mixed-effects models were used to analyze the ratings of the tokens produced by children with CIs to see if there was a significant change from the blocked to the unblocked condition. Results: For both the t-like and k-like tokens, models showed significant effects of intercept and transcription category. Ratings for production by children with CIs were not significantly different across the two conditions. Conclusions: The VAS ratings of tokens from children with CIs did not differ in the blocked and unblocked condition. This result supports the finding that VAS may be less susceptible to bias than categorical judgments. In future studies, researchers may choose blocked or unblocked designs to compare these two groups of speakers, depending on which design is better suited to answer individual research questions.Item Supportive Messages Perceived and Recevied in a Therapeutic Setting(1994) Barr, Jeanine Rice; Freimuth, Vicki S.; Speech Communication; University of Maryland (College Park, Md); Digital Repository at the University of MarylandThis study examines how communication of social support influences the behavioral change process in a particular environment. Specifically, the research question is: How is social support related to commitment to recovery from alcoholism/addiction? A one group pre-test/post-test research design was used with subjects in two addictions treatment centers. Questions were designed to measure changes that took place in individual's perception of supportiveness of messages received, the network support available to them, changes in uncertainty and self-esteem. Finally, how these variables predict commitment to recovery was examined. Results showed no relationship between strength of network at time 1 and the supportiveness of messages received. Strength of network support, self-esteem, and uncertainty reduction improved from time 1 to time 2. The major predictor of a patient's commitment to recovery was the level of self esteem at time 2. However, a strong correlation was found between self-esteem and strength of network at time 2.Item Age-Related Temporal Processing Deficits in Word Segments in Adult Cochlear-Implant Users(Sage, 2019-12-06) Xie, Zilong; Gaskins, Casey R.; Shader, Maureen J.; Gordon-Salant, Sandra; Anderson, Samira; Goupell, Matthew J.Aging may limit speech understanding outcomes in cochlear-implant (CI) users. Here, we examined age-related declines in auditory temporal processing as a potential mechanism that underlies speech understanding deficits associated with aging in CI users. Auditory temporal processing was assessed with a categorization task for the words dish and ditch (i.e., identify each token as the word dish or ditch) on a continuum of speech tokens with varying silence duration (0 to 60 ms) prior to the final fricative. In Experiments 1 and 2, younger CI (YCI), middle-aged CI (MCI), and older CI (OCI) users participated in the categorization task across a range of presentation levels (25 to 85 dB). Relative to YCI, OCI required longer silence durations to identify ditch and exhibited reduced ability to distinguish the words dish and ditch (shallower slopes in the categorization function). Critically, we observed age-related performance differences only at higher presentation levels. This contrasted with findings from normal-hearing listeners in Experiment 3 that demonstrated age-related performance differences independent of presentation level. In summary, aging in CI users appears to degrade the ability to utilize brief temporal cues in word identification, particularly at high levels. Age-specific CI programming may potentially improve clinical outcomes for speech understanding performance by older CI listeners.Item Effects of Age, Cognition, and Neural Encoding on the Perception of Temporal Speech Cues(Frontiers Media, 2019-07-19) Roque, Lindsey; Karawani, Hanin; Sandra, Gordon-Salant; Anderson, SamiraOlder adults commonly report difficulty understanding speech, particularly in adverse listening environments. These communication difficulties may exist in the absence of peripheral hearing loss. Older adults, both with normal hearing and with hearing loss, demonstrate temporal processing deficits that affect speech perception. The purpose of the present study is to investigate aging, cognition, and neural processing factors that may lead to deficits on perceptual tasks that rely on phoneme identification based on a temporal cue – vowel duration. A better understanding of the neural and cognitive impairments underlying temporal processing deficits could lead to more focused aural rehabilitation for improved speech understanding for older adults. This investigation was conducted in younger (YNH) and older normal-hearing (ONH) participants who completed three measures of cognitive functioning known to decline with age: working memory, processing speed, and inhibitory control. To evaluate perceptual and neural processing of auditory temporal contrasts, identification functions for the contrasting word-pair WHEAT and WEED were obtained on a nine-step continuum of vowel duration, and frequency-following responses (FFRs) and cortical auditory-evoked potentials (CAEPs) were recorded to the two endpoints of the continuum. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to determine the cognitive, peripheral, and/or central mechanisms that may contribute to perceptual performance. YNH participants demonstrated higher cognitive functioning on all three measures compared to ONH participants. The slope of the identification function was steeper in YNH than in ONH participants, suggesting a clearer distinction between the contrasting words in the YNH participants. FFRs revealed better response waveform morphology and more robust phase-locking in YNH compared to ONH participants. ONH participants also exhibited earlier latencies for CAEP components compared to the YNH participants. Linear regression analyses revealed that cortical processing significantly contributed to the variance in perceptual performance in the WHEAT/WEED identification functions. These results suggest that reduced neural precision contributes to age-related speech perception difficulties that arise from temporal processing deficits.Item Auditory Temporal Processing Ability in Cochlear-Implant Users: The Effects of Age and Peripheral Neural Survival(2019) Shader, Maureen Joyce; Goupell, Matthew J; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Cochlear implants (CIs) are a valuable tool in the treatment of hearing loss and are considered a safe and effective option for adults of all ages. Nevertheless, older adults with CIs do not always achieve comparable speech recognition performance to younger adults following implantation. The mechanism(s) underlying this age limitation are unknown. It was hypothesized that older CI users would demonstrate age-related deficits in auditory temporal processing ability, which could contribute to an age limitation in CI performance. This is because the ability to accurately encode temporal information is critical to speech recognition through a CI. The current studies were aimed at identifying age-related limitations for processing temporal information using a variety of electrical stimulation parameters with the goal of identifying parameters that could mitigate the negative effects of age on CI performance. Studies 1 and 2 measured auditory temporal processing ability for non-speech signals at the single-electrode level for various electrical stimulation rates. Specifically, Study 1 measured gap detection thresholds, which constitutes a simple, static measurement of temporal processing. Study 2 measured amplitude-modulation detection thresholds, which utilized relatively more complex and dynamic signals. Peripheral neural survival was estimated on each electrode location that was tested in Studies 1 and 2. Study 3 measured phoneme recognition ability for consonant contrasts that varied in discrete temporal cues at multiple stimulation rates and envelope modulation frequencies. Results demonstrated significant effects of age and/or peripheral neural survival on temporal processing ability in each study. However, age and the degree of neural survival were often strongly correlated, with older participants exhibiting poorer neural survival compared to younger participants. This result suggested that a substantial reduction in peripheral neural survival accompanies aging in older CI users, and that these factors should be considered together, rather than separately. Parametric variation in the stimulation settings impacted performance for some participants, but this effect was not consistent across participants, nor was it predicted by age or peripheral neural survival.Item Intelligibility in Children with Cochlear Implants: The /t/ vs. /k/ Contrast(2019) Leonard, Elinora C; Edwards, Jan; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Previous research has found that the speech of children with cochlear implants (CI) is less intelligible than the speech of peers with normal hearing (NH). This claim has been supported by research showing that children with CIs have difficulty with the late-acquired spectral contrast of /s/ vs. /ʃ/: correctly produced words containing these initial-consonants are less intelligible when produced by children with CIs relative to children with NH. The current study examined whether a similar result is observed with the early-acquired spectral contrast of /t/ vs. /k/. Crowd-sourced data were used to evaluate intelligibility of /t/- and /k/-initial words correctly produced by children with CIs and children with NH embedded in multi-talker babble. Results indicated that whole-word productions of children with CIs were less intelligible than productions of children with NH for words beginning with this early-acquired contrast. However, results also indicated this difference in intelligibility was not dependent on the intelligibility of the initial consonant alone.Item AN INVESTIGATION OF NEURAL MECHANISMS UNDERLYING VERB MORPHOLOGY DEFICITS IN APHASIA(2019) Pifer, Madeline R; Faroqi-Shah, Yasmeen; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Agrammatic aphasia is an acquired language disorder characterized by slow, non-fluent speech that include primarily content words. It is well-documented that people with agrammatism (PWA) have difficulty with production of verbs and verb morphology, but it is unknown whether these deficits occur at the single word-level, or are the result of a sentence-level impairment. The first aim of this paper is to determine the linguistic level that verb morphology impairments exist at by using magnetoencephalography (MEG) scanning to analyze neural response to two language tasks (one word-level, and one sentence-level). It has also been demonstrated that PWA benefit from a morphosemantic intervention for verb morphology deficits, but it is unknown if this therapy induces neuroplastic changes in the brain. The second aim of this paper is to determine whether or not neuroplastic changes occur after treatment, and explore the neural mechanisms by which this improvement occurs.Item Role of Processing Speed and Cognitive Control during Word Retrieval in Persons with Aphasia(2019) Gehman, Megan; Faroqi-Shah, Yasmeen; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)It is possible that word retrieval is not associated with general processing speed but is associated with a highly specific cognitive process - that of inhibiting competing alternative words. This study aims to measure domain general processing speed, domain general cognitive control, domain specific linguistic processing, and domain specific linguistic selection control. Twelve PWA and 15 neurotypical controls completed all four tasks. Results: domain general processing speed and domain general cognitive control response times differed between the groups but were nonsignificant. In neurotypical adults, word retrieval response time was predicted by domain general measures. However, this pattern was not observed in PWA – rather, word retrieval was predicted by domain specific linguistic measures. The implications of these findings indicate that aphasia is ultimately defined by language deficits, and increased word retrieval times in PWA cannot be attributed to a generalized processing speed deficit.Item INVESTIGATING THE EFFECT OF PARENTAL QUESTION INPUT ON CHILDREN WITH ASD(2019) Curdts, Lydia Leslie; Bernstein-Ratner, Nan; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The current study analyzed individual mechanisms of language gains following the Solomon et al. (2014) randomized control trial (RCT) of the Play and Language for Autistic Youngsters (PLAY) Project, a DIR/Floortime based early intervention program for children with autism spectrum disorder. 80 parent-child play interactions from the original RCT were analyzed to assess the relationship between various forms of parental question input, as taught in PLAY parent trainings, and child language measures. While high parental question input did correlate with high child language measures, one targeted intervention component, parental Asked/Answered question input, did not increase following parent training and did not improve child language measures. We consider other mechanisms responsible for successful child language gains following PLAY intervention.Item The effect of child gender on parental nonverbal communication(2019) Booth, Tiara; Newman, Rochelle; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Previous work has studied parental verbal communication and found differences based on child gender. The current study was designed to better understand any differences in maternal nonverbal communication based on child gender. The nonverbal parameters analyzed were eye contact/joint attention, gestures, positive and negative facial expressions, and open and closed body language. Previously recorded mother-child play sessions when the children were 7 months (n=103) and 24 months (n=73) were coded to assess three main questions: a) Does maternal nonverbal communication differ with child gender? b) Does maternal nonverbal communication change over time? c) Does maternal nonverbal communication effect vocabulary outcomes at 24 months? Mothers used more positive facial expressions with girls at 7 months and more gestures with boys at 24 months. Mothers were consistent in their use of positive facial expressions and gestures over time. Finally, there was no apparent relationship between maternal nonverbal communication and vocabulary.