Different Patterns Of Performance Research Articles

Cognitive performance and mortality among patients receiving autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant

Objectives Patients undergoing autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HCT) are at risk for death and remain understudied relative to those undergoing allogeneic HCT. Cognitive functioning may be a useful indicator of mortality risk. We examined cognition among patients who underwent autologous HCT and its relationship to mortality. Methods Participants (N = 51; 11 patients deceased) completed tasks of processing speed, working memory, executive-mediated learning, and visual recall using the computerized CogState battery prior to HCT, 30 days post-autologous HCT, and 100 days post-autologous HCT. Results Slower processing speed (HR = 3.00) and more errors on an executive-mediated visual learning task (HR = 2.78) prior to HCT were associated with an increased risk of death following HCT. Our sample size limited longitudinal analyses of whether cognitive change predicted survival, however descriptive cognitive data of the deceased versus living patient’s performances over time suggested different patterns of performance across groups. Conclusions Pre-HCT cognition may have utility as an indicator of mortality risk following autologous HCT. More research is needed to examine whether cognitive changes after HCT could also predict mortality.

Social Functioning in Children and Adolescents with ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Cross-Disorder Comparison

ABSTRACT Objective Social functioning can be defined according to three main components: social perception, social performance, and social knowledge. Although they are important in daily life relationships and in children’s adaptation, these components have never been tested together in children and adolescents with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) using lab-based tasks. The present study used a cross-disorder approach to compare the performance of children with ADHD and ASD and non-diagnosed (ND) peers utilizing a task that involves these three fundamental social functioning components. Methods Two hundred and twenty-five Italian children (86% boys) aged between 8 and 16 (66 with a clinical diagnosis of ADHD; 51 with a clinical diagnosis of ASD, level 1; 108 ND children) were enrolled. The three groups were matched for age, gender, and IQ. Social functioning was assessed using a lab-based task, including videos of problematic interactions among peers, created ad hoc for the study, and a semi-structured interview based on the Social Information Processing model. Results Data were analyzed using one-way ANOVAs and multinomial mixed effects models. Our findings suggested that both groups with ADHD and ASD presented social functioning difficulties in comparison to ND children. However, a different pattern of performance emerged. Children with ADHD showed higher difficulties in social performance than those with ASD, whereas autistic children revealed more difficulties in social perception and in some aspects of social knowledge. Conclusions Our findings have important clinical implications for assessment, intervention, and differential diagnosis, and should encourage clinicians to investigate different aspects of social functioning and identify specific strengths and weaknesses in each social profile.

Preliminary evidence for two patterns of phonological similarity judgments of word-pairs by persons with Aphasia

ABSTRACT Background Phonological similarity judgments of word-pairs have been shown to reflect the structure of a phonological network of word-forms, where words are connected to each other if they differ by one phoneme. Word-pairs that are closer together in the phonological network are more likely to be rated as sounding similar than word-pairs that are farther apart in the network. This behavioral pattern indicates sensitivity to the underlying structure of the phonological network. Aims This study is an extended replication of previous research that seeks to identify if persons with aphasia (PWA), who often have phonological processing impairments, are sensitive to the large-scale structure of the phonological network. Methods and Procedures Seven PWA completed the phonological similarity judgment task. They heard two words aurally and made a binary indication if the words “sound similar”. Words in each pair differed in phonological similarity, as defined by the distance between the words in the phonological network, with values from 1 to 5. We analyzed the proportion of similar responses for word-pairs at each phonological network distance. Post-hoc analyses of individual-level performance and comparison to control samples (10 younger adults and 10 older adults) were conducted after examining the primary research question results. Outcomes and Results There were two patterns of performance. Four PWA performed similarly in ratings across all phonological network distances as younger and older adult control participants, and in concordance with previous research. There was a negative, nonlinear trend in the proportion of similar judgments as distance increased. Three PWA, however, had a different pattern of performance, such that word-pairs with distances of 3, 4, and 5 had higher proportions of similar judgments compared to the other samples of participants. Conclusion The two patterns of performance may point to clinically useful information, after further research, about phonological representations and processing in aphasia that may inform precision rehabilitation.

The temporal precision of audiovisual integration is associated with longitudinal fall incidents but not sensorimotor fall risk in older adults

Sustained multisensory integration over long inter-stimulus time delays is typically found in older adults, particularly those with a history of falls. However, the extent to which the temporal precision of audio-visual integration is associated with longitudinal fall or fall risk trajectories is unknown. A large sample of older adults (N = 2319) were grouped into longitudinal trajectories of self-reported fall incidents (i.e., decrease, stable, or increase in number) and, separately, their performance on a standard, objective measure of fall risk, Timed Up and Go (TUG; stable, moderate decline, severe decline). Multisensory integration was measured once as susceptibility to the Sound-Induced Flash Illusion (SIFI) across three stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs): 70 ms, 150 ms and 230 ms. Older adults with an increasing fall number showed a significantly different pattern of performance on the SIFI than non-fallers, depending on age: For adults with increasing incidents of falls, those aged 53–59 years showed a much smaller difference in illusion susceptibility at 70 ms versus 150 ms than those aged 70 + years. In contrast, non-fallers showed a more comparable difference between these SOA conditions across age groups. There was no association between TUG performance trajectories and SIFI susceptibility. These findings suggests that a fall event is associated with distinct temporal patterns of multisensory integration in ageing and have implications for our understanding of the mechanisms underpinning brain health in older age.

Effects of language background on executive function: Transfer across task and modality.

The relation between linguistic experience and cognitive function has been of great interest, but recent investigations of this question have produced widely disparate results, ranging from proposals for a "bilingual advantage," to a "bilingual disadvantage," to claims of no difference at all as a function of language. There are many possible sources for this lack of consensus, including the heterogeneity of bilingual populations, and the choice of different tasks and implementations across labs. We propose that another reason for this inconsistency is the task demands of transferring from linguistic experience to laboratory tasks can differ greatly as the task is modified. In this study, we show that task modality (visual, audio, and orthographic) can yield different patterns of performance between monolingual and multilingual participants. The very same task can show similarities or differences in performance, as a function of modality. In turn, this may be explained by the distance of transfer - how close (or far) the laboratory task is to the day to day lived experience of language usage. We suggest that embodiment may provide a useful framework for thinking about task transfer by helping to define the processes of linguistic production and comprehension in ways that are easily connected to task manipulations.

Perceptual cognitive abilities in young athletes: A gender comparison

To achieve optimal performance in sports, it is essential to have strong perceptual cognitive abilities. Evidence suggests that athletes have superior perceptual abilities compared to nonathletes. However, gender differences in athletes' perceptual cognitive abilities have not been previously reported. This project aims to evaluate perceptual cognitive abilities among male and female adolescents. To measure perceptual abilities, a 3-dimensional multiple-object tracking task was used. The findings confirm the superior perceptual cognitive abilities in young athletes relative to nonathletes. However, our results indicate differences in performance patterns between male and female athletes. These results demonstrate that sports engagement and perceptual cognitive abilities are strongly related during adolescence and that this relationship seems more prevalent in male athletes for this age group.

Tense and agreement in Moroccan Arabic agrammatism: Evidence for task effects

ABSTRACT Background Cross-linguistic studies on agrammatism have provided evidence that tense inflection is severely impaired while agreement inflection is relatively preserved (Friedmann & Grodzinsky 1997, Benedet et al., 1998). More recent evidence has suggested that the tense deficit is central, affecting comprehension as well. To account for this pattern of performance, a number of hypotheses have been suggested, making different predictions about the nature of the tense deficit in agrammatism. Objectives The purpose of this study was (1) to examine the centrality of a tense-agreement dissociation in Moroccan Arabic agrammatism, and (2) to determine task effects on agrammatic performance. Methods We presented results from a picture description, two sentence completion and a grammaticality judgement task with five Moroccan Arabic-speaking agrammatic patients and five matched neurologically normal adults. Results Control participants performed at ceiling across all the experimental tasks used. PWAA revealed different patterns of performance. Findings from both picture description and sentence completion tasks indicated a dissociation between tense and agreement production, with tense being more error-prone than agreement. The tense-agreement dissociation found in production extended to the comprehension modality in the sense that patients were less sensitive to tense than to agreement violations. Findings indicated task effects on performance with patients performing differently across different experimental tasks. Conclusions Findings of the present study argue in disfavour of a structural or representational account of the tense deficit in agrammatism. The interaction between task effects and tense accuracy suggests that the deficit can best be characterized in processing terms, particularly being a manifestation of limited working memory capacity.

The relative role of executive control and personality traits in grit.

Although grit is predictive of wellbeing, educational achievement, and success in life, it has been conceptualized as largely distinct from cognitive ability. The present study investigated the link between grit and executive functions since regulation abilities might underlie the expression of grit. A hundred thirty-four people were administered personality questionnaires (grit, impulsiveness, and mindfulness) and four experimental tasks tapping into Miyake’s and Braver’s models of executive functioning (including measures of flexibility, inhibition, working memory, and control mode dimensions). Multivariate analyses showed that two composite scores (trait and executive functioning) were reliably predictive of grit, although it was the trait composite (characterized by low impulsivity and high mindfulness) that explained more variance. Importantly, gritty participants did not demonstrate enhanced executive functioning. Instead, they exhibited a different pattern of performance that might be reflecting a cautious profile of control, characterized by paying attention to all available information, less reliance on previous contextual cues but sensitive to conflicting information of the current context. These findings converge with Duckworth’s idea that high grit people do not necessarily have a greater cognitive capacity. Rather, they use it in a different way.

You got rhythm, or more: The multidimensionality of rhythmic abilities.

Humans have a remarkable capacity for perceiving and producing rhythm. Rhythmic competence is often viewed as a single concept, with participants who perform more or less accurately on a single rhythm task. However, research is revealing numerous sub-processes and competencies involved in rhythm perception and production, which can be selectively impaired or enhanced. To investigate whether different patterns of performance emerge across tasks and individuals, we measured performance across a range of rhythm tasks from different test batteries. Distinct performance patterns could potentially reveal separable rhythmic competencies that may draw on distinct neural mechanisms. Participants completed nine rhythm perception and production tasks selected from the Battery for the Assessment of Auditory Sensorimotor and Timing Abilities (BAASTA), the Beat Alignment Test (BAT), the Beat-Based Advantage task (BBA), and two tasks from the Burgundy best Musical Aptitude Test (BbMAT). Principal component analyses revealed clear separation of task performance along three main dimensions: production, beat-based rhythm perception, and sequence memory-based rhythm perception. Hierarchical cluster analyses supported these results, revealing clusters of participants who performed selectively more or less accurately along different dimensions. The current results support the hypothesis of divergence of rhythmic skills. Based on these results, we provide guidelines towards a comprehensive testing of rhythm abilities, including at least three short tasks measuring: (1) rhythm production (e.g., tapping to metronome/music), (2) beat-based rhythm perception (e.g., BAT), and (3) sequence memory-based rhythm processing (e.g., BBA). Implications for underlying neural mechanisms, future research, and potential directions for rehabilitation and training programs are discussed.

Long-term impact of a geriatric prescribing context.

The medication-related death of a hospitalized older adult elucidated the inappropriateness of medication default doses in our electronic health record (EHR) for older adults. In response, we created and implemented the Geriatric Prescribing Context (GPC), an EHR-based set of age-specific dose and frequency defaults for patients 75 years and older, in July 2017. Inpatient medication orders aligned with GPC defaults and showed significant dose decreases at one year for nine of ten most commonly used medications. This follow-up investigation examined GPC alignment of dose and frequency over the 42-month time period after its implementation. Order data for the ten most commonly used medications at OHSU Hospital were collected retrospectively from July 2016 through December 2020. We used Statistical Process Control charts to assess the proportion of medication orders aligning with the GPC's recommendations. Signals of special cause were evaluated to identify time periods when shifts in process averages likely occurred and suspected shifts were assessed using binomial proportion tests. We used RStudio (RStudio, Inc., version 1.2.5001) and Microsoft Excel (2016) to perform statistical analyses and control charts, respectively. The preimplementation phase of all medications displayed no special causes. After significant initial improvement in 2017, control charts revealed three different patterns of performance. Eight medications maintained the initial improvement with one medication displaying a second significant improvement at a later date. Two medications showed a subsequent decline in performance not statistically different from baseline. Overall, eight of the ten medications were prescribed at more age-friendly doses and frequencies compared to baseline after 42 months. The GPC is an effective method to support safer prescribing for hospitalized older patients, but long-term impacts may be medication-specific. Further investigation is needed to ensure appropriate prescribing across drug classes and understand the GPC's impact on patient outcomes like adverse drug events.

Exploring GRE® and TOEFL® Score Profiles of International Students Intending to Pursue a Graduate Degree in the United States

The United States continues to be a top destination for international students pursuing an advanced degree. Some information about the characteristics of international students applying to graduate programs in the United States is available, but little is known about how these characteristics are related to test taker performance on graduate admissions tests and how performance may be related to graduate program characteristics. The purpose of this study was to investigate different patterns of performance of international test takers from four cultural regions and two large countries (China and India) on both the GRE® test and the TOEFL® test and the relationship with demographic and graduate program characteristics. Using finite mixture modeling, we investigated the most common score profiles using GRE and TOEFL for international students intending to pursue a graduate program within the United States; evaluated the demographic and college‐level factors related to the profiles; and evaluated whether the profiles were differentially associated with gender, intended field of study, and intended degree level. Results showed the following broad patterns of results: (a) Most countries and cultural regions, except for the Middle East, had three or four latent profiles representing low, medium, and high scores on the GRE and TOEFL sections; (b) two high‐performing profiles were found in Confucian Asia, one with higher GRE Quantitative Reasoning scores and the other with higher scores on GRE Verbal and TOEFL; (c) regardless of profile, test takers from China performed highest on the GRE Quantitative Reasoning section as compared to other GRE and TOEFL section scores; (d) in general, there was a relationship with students in the lower performing profiles taking the TOEFL and GRE multiple times; (e) regardless of country or cultural region, men were represented more than women overall and across most of the profiles; and (f) test takers showed a preference for science‐, technology‐, engineering‐, and mathematics‐based fields and master's degrees, but this varied across country and cultural region. Implications for future research are discussed.

Cognitive profiles of children with autism spectrum disorder with parent-reported extraordinary talents and personal strengths.

Previous research has suggested that focusing on impairments can be detrimental to the well-being of autistic individuals, yet little research has focused on strengths and positive qualities in autism. Some studies explored "savant skills" (herein referred to as "extraordinary talents"), that is, skills that stand out compared to the general population. These often group everyone who has a specific talent, rather than exploring subgroups with strengths in specific areas. There has been even less research focused on personal strengths (i.e. skills that stand out relative to the individual's other abilities, but not the general population). To expand this research, we use a sample of 1470 children (ages 4-18 years) from the Simons Simplex Collection without cognitive impairment to examine the relationship between having a parent-reported skill in a specific area and performance on a standardized cognitive test. Almost half (46%) had at least one parent-reported talent and an additional 23% without extraordinary talents had at least one personal strength. Children with these parent-reported skills had different patterns of performance on these standardized tests than children without skills in that area (i.e. visuospatial, drawing, computation, reading, and memory). Specific skills in computation or reading were associated with higher overall performance on the standardized tests. These results emphasize the importance of considering strengths separately by area, rather than combining individuals with different types of strengths. The high number of children with skills in this study underscores the need for more research in this area, particularly using instruments focused on understanding the nuances of these strengths. It is important for future studies to consider these skills in children with cognitive impairment.

An integrated view on society readiness and initial reaction to COVID-19: A study across European countries.

With the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the question of society's capability to deal with an acute health crisis is, once again, brought to the forefront. In the core is the need to broaden the perspective on the determinants of a country's ability to cope with the spread of the virus. This paper is about bringing together diverse aspects of readiness and initial reaction to a COVID-19 outbreak. We proposed an integrated evaluation framework which encapsulates six dimensions of readiness and initial reaction. Using a specific multi-level outranking method, we analysed how these dimensions affect the relative positioning of European countries in the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak. The results revealed that the order of countries based on our six-dimensional assessment framework is significantly reminiscent of the actual positioning of countries in terms of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality in the initial phase of the pandemic. Our findings confirm that only when a country's readiness is complemented by an appropriate societal reaction we can expect a less severe outcome. Moreover, our study revealed different patterns of performance between former communist Eastern European and Western European countries.

The Varying Effects of Dual Tasks on the Performance of Motor Skills across Practice

Numerous previous studies using the dual-task methodology have indicated that the effect of attentional direction on the performance of motor skill differs as a function of skill levels. Whereas previous studies relied mostly on inter-individual comparisons, this study focused on how the effects of different attentional conditions change within individuals with practice. Participants were instructed to learn a short and a long keying sequence (three versus six keys) and then practiced under two block-wise alternating dual-task conditions. In each trial, a tone, either low- or high-pitched, was presented at one of the three/six keys and participants had to indicate either the pitch of the tone (extraneous dual task) or the key with which the tone was presented (skill-focused dual task) after finishing the execution of the keying sequence. Motor task performance was assessed by reaction time (RT) and movement duration (MD), and the concurrent cognitive task performance was assessed by the error rate. RT was faster in the skill-focused dual-task condition at the beginning of practice, whereas a generally shorter MD was found in the extraneous dual-task condition. The error rate in the extraneous dual task decreased with practice, whereas in the skill-focused dual task, it increased with practice. These results show that the effects of attentional direction differ not only as a function of the amount of practice but also as a function of the stage of information processing. Furthermore, our results indicate that the direction of attention alone does not explain the different patterns of performance at different skill levels seen across dual-task studies; rather, the skill levels, the nature of cognitive demands, the difficulty level of dual tasks, and the complexity of the motor skill could all drive performance differences.

Differential patterns of internally generated responses in parkinsonian disorders

Internally generated responses are centrally affected in parkinsonian disorders. This study investigated the cognitive components crucial for response generation as reflected in performance on verbal and non-verbal fluency tasks, which require voluntary internal generation of multiple responses. Participants with parkinsonian disorders (N = 58: 29 Parkinson's disease [PD], 22 corticobasal syndrome [CBS], 8 progressive supranuclear palsy [PSP]) and 89 age-matched controls completed baseline cognitive assessments and eight fluency tasks of four types: word, design, gesture, and ideational. We analysed the total number of correct responses generated and error rates (including repetitions and rule breaks) for PD, CBS and Control groups. The small PSP patient group's performance is reported for comparative purposes only. CBS patients were significantly reduced in the number of correct responses generated across all fluency tasks, without incurring significant errors. The only exception was that CBS patients produced a significantly higher number of repetitions on one nonverbal task (design fluency). By contrast, PD patients' generation was reduced on only three fluency tasks (phonemic word, meaningless gesture, conventional idea). However, they also produced a high error rate on four fluency tasks (rule-break errors: phonemic/semantic word; repetitions: semantic word, meaningless gestures). Overall, the pattern of fluency task performance differs between patient groups. Specifically, the quantity of responses generated is differentially and primarily affected in CBS patients, whereas the quality of responses generated is primarily affected in PD patients. This suggests potentially different patterns of performance for parkinsonian disorders and has implications for the cognitive processes crucial for internally-guided response generation.

Distinguishing patterns of impairment on inhibitory control and general cognitive ability among bipolar with and without psychosis, schizophrenia, and schizoaffective disorder

BackgroundDeficits in inhibitory control on a Stop Signal Task (SST) were previously observed to be of similar magnitude across schizophrenia, schizoaffective, and bipolar disorder with psychosis, despite variation in general cognitive ability. Understanding different patterns of performance on the SST may elucidate different pathways to the impaired inhibitory control each group displayed. Comparing nonpsychotic bipolar disorder to the psychosis groups on SST may also expand our understanding of the shared neurobiology of this illness spectrum. MethodsWe tested schizophrenia (n = 220), schizoaffective (n = 216), bipolar disorder with (n = 192) and without psychosis (n = 67), and 280 healthy comparison participants with a SST and the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia (BACS), a measure of general cognitive ability. ResultsAll patient groups had a similar degree of impaired inhibitory control over prepotent responses. However, bipolar groups differed from schizophrenia and schizoaffective groups in showing speeded responses and inhibition errors that were not accounted for by general cognitive ability. Schizophrenia and schizoaffective groups had a broader set of deficits on inhibition and greater general cognitive deficit, which fully accounted for the inhibition deficits. No differences were found between the clinically well-matched bipolar with and without psychosis groups, including for inhibitory control or general cognitive ability. ConclusionsWe conclude that 1) while impaired inhibitory control on a SST is of similar magnitude across the schizo-bipolar spectrum, including nonpsychotic bipolar, different mechanisms may underlie the impairments, and 2) history of psychosis in bipolar disorder does not differentially impact inhibitory behavioral control or general cognitive abilities.

Production and processing of time reference in Moroccan Arabic agrammatism: evidence from a semitic language

ABSTRACT Background Several studies on agrammatic aphasia have suggested a selective deficit in the production and processing of temporal reference to the past. To account for this pattern of performance, the PAst DIscourse LIinking Hypothesis was formulated (PADILIH). The PADILIH assumes an impairment of discourse-linking operations in agrammatic aphasia, which manifests in greater difficulty with reference to the past than to the present and future, which do not rely on D-linking. Aims The first goal of the present study was to examine the validity of the PADILIH, drawing evidence from a morphologically rich Semitic language; Moroccan Arabic (MA). The second goal was to examine whether different experimental manipulations will yield different patterns of performance; hence, suggesting an interaction between task demands and accuracy. Methods & Procedures Five MA agrammatic participants and five non-brain-damaged participants (NBDs) took part in the present study. Production, processing, and comprehension of temporal reference were tested using a number of experimental tasks. For production, a picture description, and a transformational sentence completion were used. For processing, a grammaticality-judgment task was used. For comprehension, a sentence-picture matching task was used. Outcomes & Results NBDs performed at ceiling across all the tasks used. For agrammatic participants, different tasks revealed different patterns of performance. Both findings of the transformational sentence completion and the grammaticality-judgment tasks support the predictions of the PADILIH, in the sense that, at the group level, past reference was more compromised than present and future reference. Picture description data, however, suggested a tendency to supply more verbs in the past form. Comprehension data suggested asymmetries between the present and the future. Conclusion Sentence completion and grammaticality-judgment data provide cross-linguistic support for the PADILIH. To explain the findings of the picture description task, it was proposed that the high number of verbs supplied in the past reflects an economy-of-effort strategy whereby patients omitted present and future markers to avoid cognitive overload. To account for the findings of the comprehension task, it was suggested that the fact that the action denoted by the verb is not overtly displayed in pictures referring to past and future contexts, but rather inferred from the contextual clues, might have given rise to a future deficit as well. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

공간변이할당모형을 이용한 항만의 대중국 수출의 공간전염분석과 불변시장점유율과의 결합을 통한 수출변동의 예측

The decomposition of the exports of individual ports shows different patterns of performance. Some ports have a mediocre performance and experience a decrease in their share of exports, but other ports record a good export performance. This paper applies constant market share model and shift share model to export variation of individual ports. The constant market shares analysis shows that Incheon Port and Pyeongtaek Port suffering from poor export performance have negative value for the competitiveness effect, while the ports composed of Gwangyang Port, Busan Port, Ulsan Port, and Daesan Port experiencing export increase have positive values for the competitiveness effect between 2016 and 2018. The competitiveness effect has asymmetric effects on export variation since the competitiveness effect has a strong impact on the export decrease but exerts very weak influence for export increase. The shift share analysis also shows that Busan Port, Gwangyang Port, and Ulsan Port have comparative competitive advantage over the other three ports but their export increase is owing to world growth effect rather than their competitiveness.

Multilingualism in semantic dementia: language-dependent lexical retrieval from degraded conceptual representations

ABSTRACT Background: Patients with the semantic variant of Primary Progressive Aphasia (svPPA) offer a unique opportunity to study the relationship between lexical retrieval and semantics, as they are characterised by progressive degradation of central semantic representations. However, there are few studies of how lexical retrieval across languages is affected in multilingual speakers. Aims: We examine the impact of conceptual degradation in a trilingual patient (TC) with svPPA, to investigate whether the semantic memory breakdown affects her three languages similarly (English-Catalan-Spanish) in different linguistic tasks. Methods & Procedures: We followed up her performance over one year in several tasks including: (a) naming with or without semantic interference contexts, (b) word translation, (c) word- and sentence-picture matching, (d) associative semantic priming and (e) language switching. Outcomes & Results: There was significant response consistency between languages in the items that were relatively well-known and more semantically degraded, at least in a standard picture naming task. The patient’s sentence-to-picture matching did not show progressive deterioration in any language. However, some aspects of lexical retrieval showed language-dependency, as indexed by different patterns of performance in semantically-blocked cyclical naming task across languages. Conclusions: These data suggest that while degradation of central semantic representations affects all languages, this deficit can be amplified or ameliorated by the strength of conceptual to lexical mappings, which varies across languages.

Vowel Duration Discrimination of Children With Childhood Apraxia of Speech: A Preliminary Study.

Purpose The ability of 5- and 6-year-old male children (23 participants) between the chronological ages of 5;0 and 6;11 (years;months) with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS; n = 9) and with typical development (TD; n = 14) to detect differences in vowel duration of syllable pairs is explored. We asked whether the children with CAS show different patterns of performance on the vowel duration difference experimental task than those of their similarly aged peers with TD. Method A male adult audio-recorded the syllable /bɑ/. The /ɑ/ was digitally lengthened and shortened, while maintaining uniform fundamental frequency and amplitude of the vowel and duration of the consonant /b/ at 42 ms. Vowel lengths increased in 40-ms increments, ranging from 208 to 488 ms. Eight pairs of syllables, 1 with equal length and 7 with differing vowel lengths, were randomly presented to the children 10 times in blocks of 16 pairs via a computer application. Results Numerous complementary analyses indicated patterns of performance differed for children with CAS compared to the children with TD. The children with CAS were notably less accurate in their duration discrimination and evidenced greater variability in their performances across duration difference conditions than their peers with TD, signifying they were generally challenged to discriminate the vowel duration differences. Conclusion These results suggest that CAS, which is more generally considered a motor speech disorder, may have a perceptual component of CAS related to vowel duration discrimination. Further research directions and clinical implications are discussed. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.8411876.