Syllable Test Research Articles

Abstract processing of syllabic structures in early infancy

Syllables are one of the fundamental building blocks of early language acquisition. From birth onwards, infants preferentially segment, process and represent the speech into syllable-sized units, raising the question of what type of computations infants are able to perform on these perceptual units. Syllables are abstract units structured in a way that allows grouping phonemes into sequences. The goal of this research was to investigate 4-to-5-month-old infants' ability to encode the internal structure of syllables, at a target age when the language system is not yet specialized on the sounds and the phonotactics of native languages. We conducted two experiments in which infants were first familiarized to lists of syllables implementing either CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) or CCV (consonant-consonant-vowel) structures, then presented with new syllables implementing both structures at test. Experiments differ in the degree of phonological similarity between the materials used at familiarization and test. Results show that infants were able to differentiate syllabic structures at test, even when test syllables were implemented by combinations of phonemes that infants did not hear before. Only infants familiarized with CVC syllables discriminated the structures at test, pointing to a processing advantage for CVC over CCV structures. This research shows that, in addition to preferentially processing the speech into syllable-sized units, during the first months of life, infants are also capable of performing fine-grained computations within such units.

Test-retest reliability of dichotic listening test in younger adults with normal hearing

BackgroundDichotic listening refers to simultaneously stimulating both ears but with two different stimuli. Dichotic listening tasks were used in the audiological test battery to assess auditory processing abilities in children and adults. Studies have reported the dichotic consonant-vowel syllable test’s test-retest reliability in different attentional manipulation conditions. The objectives are to measure the intra- and inter-test reliability of dichotic consonant vowel tests in young, healthy individuals.MethodsSixty participants aged 18–28 with normal hearing sensitivity were recruited for the study. To measure the intra- and inter-test reliability, the dichotic consonant-vowel test was conducted within and between days. The single correct and double correct scores were calculated.ResultsThe analysis of the study showed good test-retest reliability for the single correct and double correct scores of the dichotic consonant-vowel test based on Cronbach’s alpha values and Friedman’s tests.ConclusionThis study’s findings indicate that the dichotic test is a stable measure that can be clinically used for evaluation and can be used for research studies.

Differential advantages of musical backgrounds on binaural integration and interaction skills in instrumentalists, vocalists, and non-musicians

BackgroundMusical perception requires a host of skills. Instrumental musicians place greater emphasis on motor coordination, whereas vocal musicians rehearse vocal sounds. The study explored the differential advantages of musical background on binaural integration and interaction in musicians (instrumentalists, vocalists) and compared them with age-matched non-musicians. MethodsEight six participants aged 20–40 y with normal hearing sensitivity were subjected to binaural tests using a standard group comparison research design. The participants were segregated into three groups – Group 1 included instrumentalists (n = 26, mean age: 17.73 ± 2.83 y), while Group 2 and Group 3 consisted of vocalists (n = 30, mean age: 19.30 ± 2.47 y) and non-musicians (n = 30, mean age: 18.20 ± 3.02 y) respectively. The binaural processes namely integration (Dichotic syllable test, DST; and virtual acoustic space identification - VASI) and interaction (Interaural difference thresholds for time and level: ITD & ILD), were administered on all the participants. ResultsStatistical analyses showed the main effect of musicianship. Bonferroni pair-wise test revealed that the musicians (instrumentalists and vocalists) outperformed (p < 0.05) non-musicians in all the tests. The differential advantage of the musical background was seen on the binaural integration test with instrumentalists performing better in the VASI test compared to vocalists, and vice-versa for DST. No difference was observed in interaction tasks (ITD & ILD) between vocalists and instrumentalists (p > 0.05). ConclusionMusical background-induced differential advantages can be reasonably noted in the binaural skills of instrumentalists and vocalists (compared to non-musicians).

Consonant and vowel confusions in well-performing adult cochlear implant users, measured with a nonsense syllable repetition test

Objective The study’s objective was to identify consonant and vowel confusions in cochlear implant (CI) users, using a nonsense syllable repetition test. Design In this cross-sectional study, participants repeated recorded mono- and bisyllabic nonsense words and real-word monosyllables in an open-set design. Study sample Twenty-eight Norwegian-speaking, well-performing adult CI users (13 unilateral and 15 bilateral), using implants from Cochlear, Med-El and Advanced Bionics, and a reference group of 20 listeners with normal hearing participated. Results For the CI users, consonants were confused more often than vowels (58% versus 71% correct). Voiced consonants were confused more often than unvoiced (54% versus 64% correct). Voiced stops were often repeated as unvoiced, whereas unvoiced stops were never repeated as voiced. The nasals were repeated correctly in one third of the cases and confused with other nasals in one third of the cases. The real-word monosyllable score was significantly higher than the nonsense syllable score (76% versus 63% correct). Conclusions The study revealed a general devoicing bias for the stops and a high confusion rate of nasals with other nasals, which suggests that the low-frequency coding in CIs is insufficient. Furthermore, the nonsense syllable test exposed more perception errors than the real word test.

Correlation between head tremble and the severity of Parkinson's disease.

IntroductionParkinson's (PD) is a common degenerative disease of the central nervous system. It affects more than 6 million individuals worldwide. The typical clinical manifestations include static tremor, slow movement, and unstable posture. However, the correlation between head tremor and the severity of PD remains unclear.MethodsIn the current study, 18 patients and 18 healthy subjects were recruited to undergo a phonation test. Noldus facereader 7.0 software was used to analyze the range of head trembling between the two groups.ResultsThe data revealed that patients with PD had significant differences in the x‐, y‐, and z‐axis of head movement with respect to the specific pronunciation syllables compared with the normal group. Moreover, the head movement of the patients with PD was positively correlated with the severity of the disease in the single, double, and multiple syllable tests. In the phonetic test, the head displacement of patients with PD was significantly greater than that of healthy individuals, and the displacement range was positively correlated with the severity of the disease.ConclusionThese pieces of evidence suggested that the measurement of head displacement assists the early diagnosis and severity of the disease.

New Evidence-based Fitting Paradigm for Over-the-Counter Hearing Aids

New Evidence-based Fitting Paradigm for Over-the-Counter Hearing Aids

The Association of Phonological Awareness with Chinese Character Writing Among Mainland Chinese Primary School Students

Phonological awareness is related to multiple language skills. However, the effect of phonological awareness on Chinese character writing has not been fully addressed. This paper aims to discover the relationship of phonological awareness with Chinese character writing, and how such relation varies according to learners’ grade levels. 260 primary school students from Grades 2 to 5 were tested using an onset-rime test, a syllable awareness test and a character dictation test. Results indicated a moderate positive association between phonological awareness and character writing. Two levels of phonological awareness (onset-rime and syllable awareness) showed different and independent influences on character writing with a graded effect, which extend current understanding of the development of phonological awareness in relation to Chinese character learning.

The physical significance of acoustic parameters and its clinical significance of dysarthria in Parkinson\u2019s disease

Dysarthria is universal in Parkinson’s disease (PD) during disease progression; however, the quality of vocalization changes is often ignored. Furthermore, the role of changes in the acoustic parameters of phonation in PD patients remains unclear. We recruited 35 PD patients and 26 healthy controls to perform single, double, and multiple syllable tests. A logistic regression was performed to differentiate between protective and risk factors among the acoustic parameters. The results indicated that the mean f0, max f0, min f0, jitter, duration of speech and median intensity of speaking for the PD patients were significantly different from those of the healthy controls. These results reveal some promising indicators of dysarthric symptoms consisting of acoustic parameters, and they strengthen our understanding about the significance of changes in phonation by PD patients, which may accelerate the discovery of novel PD biomarkers.

EQUIVALENCE OF WORD TEST AND CONSONANT-VOWEL SYLLABLES TEST OF DICHOTIC LISTENING

Relevance. Development and improvement of methodological tools to solve scientific and practical problems is an important issue in modern neuropsychology. This study examines consonant-vowel (СV) syllable test and word test, considers their different functional orientation and shows relevance of the dichotic listening task development. For the first time in Russian neuropsychology the authors developed the dichotic listening consonant-vowel syllables test taking into account the phonetic features of the Russian language. Objective. Comparison of the equivalence of two dichotic listening tests: the word test that was first tested by B. S. Kotik and the two CV-syllable dichotic listening tests. Method. Two groups of respondents participated in the study. The first group of the participants (N = 88; M = 21.08; SD = 2.32) performed the word test and the first CV-syllable test. Participants of the second group (N = 44; M = 24.52; SD = 1.86) were presented with the word test and the second version of CV-syllable dichotic listening test. Results. The results confirmed the differences between the word test and the two CV-syllable dichotic listening tests. The differences and nonequivalence of the word test and the CV-syllable tests in laterality index (LI) and productivity coefficients (general productivity, right- and left-ear accuracy scores) are amplified as the stimulus material of CV-syllable dichotic listening is improved and modified. The increase of the load on working memory enhances right ear advantage (LI) and reduces performance with an increase in the influence of working memory on the results of dichotic listening. Conclusion. The study shows nonequivalence of the word test and the CV-syllable tests and their different functional orientation for the estimation of hemispheric specialization in audio-verbal domain.

The Acoustic Effect of Speaking Rate, Focus And Prosodic Position on Syllables in Chinese

In this experiment the effects of speaking rate, focus and prosodic position on duration, F0, intensity and vowel quality are analyzed. The test syllables are /p‘i, p‘a, p‘u/, which are designed to be in disyllabic words. It is found that there is an effect of rate on the formants of the vowels of the key syllable, with vowels more fully realized in slow speaking rate, and there is a tendency for pitch range to be expanded in slow rate. Intensity may be affected by focus, and vowels under focused condition may be maximally realized to highlight the phonemic contrasts. There is no effect of prosodic position on voice onset time, while its effect on fundamental frequency (F0) is obvious. The influence of prosodic position on intensity is similar to that on F0. Its effect on vowel quality is weak, and the effect is in line with enhancement of the place feature rather than with sonority expansion.

How Thai EFL Learners Deal With English Regular Past Forms: A Case Study of a Speech Sound Perspective

The pronunciation of regular past tense verbs seems to be difficult for most L2 learners, especially in L2 learners whose first language phonological system is different from the English one. It is predicted that Thai EFL students could encounter difficulties perceiving English coda clusters like the ‘-ed’ ending sounds. For this reason, this research investigates the extent to which the first-year and the third-year English major undergraduate students in a public university perceive the English regular past tense verbs. To be precise, this study compares the ability to perceive the regular past tense of the first-year and third-year students. In addition, the strategies they use to perceive the ‘-ed’ ending verbs among the three different allomorphs ([t], [d] and [ɪd]) are investigated. The data collection was derived from the perception tests of 30 first-year and 30 third-year students and a Pronunciation Learning Strategy (PLS) questionnaire. The perception tests were divided into two subtests: perception test and perception syllable identification test. The PLS questionnaire was employed to find out the strategies they used in English pronunciation learning. The overall results show that the third-year students demonstrated a better performance than the first-year students in both tests (t=-2.778; p&lt;.01 in the perception test; t=-1.466; p&gt;.05 in the syllable identification test). However, the syllable identification test’s results do not show consistency with Solt et al.’s (2004) model, while the perception test’s do. Moreover, the findings from the questionnaire reveal no statistically significant difference between the first and the third-year students in terms of pronunciation learning strategies (p&gt;.05).

Northern Kurdish As A Stress-Accent Language

Languages vary in terms of whether they are stress or non-stress accent languages. Concerning whether Northern Kurdish is a stress or non-stress accent language, there is no experimental investigation which has ever examined the phonetic correlates of word-level prominence. This study aims to establish the acoustic correlates of word-level prominence in Northern Kurdish. It is based on the production of pairs of segmentally parallel syllables occurring in stressed vs. unstressed positions. The materials are produced by 30 native speakers. Measurements of F0, duration and intensity of the test syllables in each token were extracted. The hypothesis is that if Northern Kurdish is a stress-accent language, the values of all the variables will be higher in the stressed condition than in the unstressed condition, whereas if it is a non-stress-accent language, only F0 values are predicted to be higher in the stressed condition. The results indicate that Northern Kurdish is a stress-accent language in that it employs both tonal and non-tonal correlates, especially duration, cues to word-level prominence. Additionally, stress influences the durations of the segmental material of the stressed syllables, i.e. consonants and vowels.

Northern Kurdish As A Stress-Accent Language

Languages vary in terms of whether they are stress or non-stress accent languages. Concerning whether Northern Kurdish is a stress or non-stress accent language, there is no experimental investigation which has ever examined the phonetic correlates of word-level prominence. This study aims to establish the acoustic correlates of word-level prominence in Northern Kurdish. It is based on the production of pairs of segmentally parallel syllables occurring in stressed vs. unstressed positions. The materials are produced by 30 native speakers. Measurements of F0, duration and intensity of the test syllables in each token were extracted. The hypothesis is that if Northern Kurdish is a stress-accent language, the values of all the variables will be higher in the stressed condition than in the unstressed condition, whereas if it is a non-stress-accent language, only F0 values are predicted to be higher in the stressed condition. The results indicate that Northern Kurdish is a stress-accent language in that it employs both tonal and non-tonal correlates, especially duration, cues to word-level prominence. Additionally, stress influences the durations of the segmental material of the stressed syllables, i.e. consonants and vowels.

Reading Performance Profile of Children with Dyslexia in Primary and Secondary School Students

The purpose of the present research was to provide information to the community about the reading subskill profiles of children with dyslexia in primary and secondary school students. 175 children (aged 7-15 yrs) were examined on a varied set of phonological coding, spelling and fluent reading tasks. For this purpose, students’ fluent reading were determined using The Informal Reading Inventory. The student’s letter recognition and phonetics were measured by the alphabet test. The syllable test was used to measure the learner’s ability to read syllables. Results have shown that most of the dyslexic students have the spelling problem (35%) and fluent reading problem (51%). The proportion of students who can only learn letters (5%) and students who never learn to read (7%) is very small. Results revealed that dyslexic students do not have any significant problems in the phonological coding process but these students at each grade level have problems especially in spelling and fluent reading processes.

Evaluation of a Wind Noise Attenuation Algorithm on Subjective Annoyance and Speech-in-Wind Performance.

Wind noise is a common problem reported by hearing aid wearers. The MarkeTrak VIII reported that 42% of hearing aid wearers are not satisfied with the performance of their hearing aids in situations where wind is present. The current study investigated the effect of a new wind noise attenuation (WNA) algorithm on subjective annoyance and speech recognition in the presence of wind. A single-blinded, repeated measures design was used. Fifteen experienced hearing aid wearers with bilaterally symmetrical (≤10 dB) mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss participated in the study. Subjective rating for wind noise annoyance was measured for wind presented alone from 0° and 290° at wind speeds of 4, 5, 6, 7, and 10 m/sec. Phoneme identification performance was measured using Widex Office of Clinical Amplification Nonsense Syllable Test presented at 60, 65, 70, and 75 dB SPL from 270° in the presence of wind originating from 0° at a speed of 5 m/sec. The subjective annoyance from wind noise was reduced for wind originating from 0° at wind speeds from 4 to 7 m/sec. The largest improvement in phoneme identification with the WNA algorithm was 48.2% when speech was presented from 270° at 65 dB SPL and the wind originated from 0° azimuth at 5 m/sec. The WNA algorithm used in this study reduced subjective annoyance for wind speeds ranging from 4 to 7 m/sec. The algorithm was effective in improving speech identification in the presence of wind originating from 0° at 5 m/sec. These results suggest that the WNA algorithm used in the current study could expand the range of real-life situations where a hearing-impaired person can use the hearing aid optimally.

Subcortical encoding of speech cues inchildren with congenital blindness.

Congenital visual deprivation underlies neural plasticity in different brain areas, and provides an outstanding opportunity to study the neuroplastic capabilities of the brain. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of congenital blindness on subcortical auditory processing using electrophysiological and behavioral assessments in children. A total of 47 children aged 8-12 years, including 22 congenitally blind (CB) children and 25 normal-sighted (NS) control, were studied. All children were tested using an auditory brainstem response (ABR) test with both click and speech stimuli. Speech recognition and musical abilities were tested using standard tools. Significant differences were observed between the two groups in speech ABR wave latencies A, F and O (p≤0.043), wave amplitude F (p = 0.039), V-A slope (p = 0.026), and three spectral magnitudes F0, F1 and HF (p≤0.002). CB children showed a superior performance compared to NS peers in all the subtests and the total score of musical abilities (p≤0.003). Moreover, they had significantly higher scores during the nonsense syllable test in noise than the NS children (p = 0.034). Significant negative correlations were found only in CB children between the total music score and both wave A (p = 0.039) and wave F (p = 0.029) latencies, as well as nonsense-syllable test in noise and the wave A latency (p = 0.041). Our results suggest that neuroplasticity resulting from congenital blindness can be measured subcortically and has a heightened effect on temporal, musical and speech processing abilities. The findings have been discussed based on models of plasticity and the influence of corticofugal modulation in synthesizing complex auditory stimuli.

Brain laterality, depression and anxiety disorders: New findings for emotional and verbal dichotic listening in individuals at risk for depression

ABSTRACTStudies using dichotic listening tests and electroencephalographic (EEG) measures of hemispheric asymmetry have reported evidence of abnormal brain laterality in patients having depressive disorders. We present new findings from a multigenerational study of risk for depression, in which perceptual asymmetry was measured in dichotic listening tests of emotional and verbal processing. Biological offspring and grandchildren of probands with a major depressive disorder (MDD) who were at high risk and those of nondepressed controls who were at low risk were tested on dichotic emotional recognition and consonant–vowel syllable tests. In the emotion test, individuals with a lifetime diagnosis of MDD had a smaller right hemisphere advantage than those without a MDD, but there was no difference between high- and low-risk groups or between those with or without an anxiety disorder. In the syllable test, a smaller left hemisphere advantage was found in individuals with an anxiety disorder compared to those without an anxiety disorder, but there was no difference between high- and low-risk groups or between those with or without a MDD. This double dissociation indicates that lifetime diagnosis of MDD and anxiety disorders have a differential impact on lateralized hemispheric processing of emotional and verbal information.

Evaluation of wideband frequency responses and nonlinear frequency compression for children with cookie-bite audiometric configurations.

Previous research has suggested that use of nonlinear frequency compression (NLFC) can improve audibility for high-frequency sounds and speech recognition of children with moderate to profound high-frequency hearing loss. Furthermore, previous studies have generally found no detriment associated with the use of NLFC. However, there have been no published studies examining the effect of NLFC on the performance of children with cookie-bite audiometric configurations. For this configuration of hearing loss, frequency-lowering processing will likely move high-frequency sounds to a lower frequency range at which a greater degree of hearing loss exists. The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the effects of wideband amplification and NLFC on high-frequency audibility and speech recognition of children with cookie-bite audiometric configurations. This study consisted of a within-participant design with repeated measures across test conditions. Seven children, ages 6-13 yr, with cookie-bite audiometric configurations and normal hearing or mild hearing loss at 6000 and 8000 Hz, were recruited. Participants were fitted with Phonak Nios S H2O III behind-the-ear hearing aids and Oticon Safari 300 behind-the-ear hearing aids. The participants were evaluated after three 4-to 6-wk intervals: (1) Phonak Nios S H2O III without NLFC, (2) Phonak Nios S H2O III with NLFC, and (3) Oticon Safari 300 with wideband frequency response extending to 8000 Hz. The order in which each technology was used was counterbalanced across participants. High-frequency audibility was evaluated by assessing aided thresholds (dB SPL) for warble tones and the high-frequency phonemes /sh/ and /s/. Speech recognition in quiet was measured with the University of Western Ontario (UWO) Plurals Test, the UWO Distinctive Features Difference (DFD) Test, and the Phoneme Perception Test vowel-consonant-vowel nonsense syllable test. Sentence recognition in noise was evaluated with the Bamford-Kowal-Bench Speech-In-Noise (BKB-SIN) Test. Repeated-measures analyses of variance were used to analyze the data collected in this study. The results across the three different conditions were compared. No difference in performance across conditions was observed for detection of high-frequency warble tones and the speech sounds /sh/ and /s/. No significant difference was seen across conditions for speech recognition in quiet when measured with the UWO Plurals Test, the UWO-DFD Test, and the Phoneme Perception Test vowel-consonant-vowel nonsense syllable test. Finally, there were also no differences across conditions on the BKB-SIN Test. These results suggest that NLFC does not degrade or improve audibility for and recognition of high-frequency speech sounds as well as sentence recognition in noise when compared with wideband amplification for children with cookie-bite audiometric configurations.

Acoustic analysis of initial consonants in the California Syllable Test

The goal of the present study is to conduct an acoustic analysis of onset consonants to identify the spectrotemporal features that distinguish them from each other and to identify acoustic consonant variations that produce the observed patterns of perceptual confusions seen in young- and older-normal-hearing listeners [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 127, 1609–1623 (2010); JRRD 49, 1277–1292 (2012)]. We used the California Syllable Test (CaST) token set, which includes 40 exemplars of each initial consonant for each of three vowels and six talkers. The CaST measures recognition of 20 initial and 20 final consonants in speech-spectrum noise with each consonant presented at a 67%-correct signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Time-normalized spectrograms are computed for each exemplar (from consonant onset to the end of the formant transition) by varying the time-spacing of the FFT spectral lines in proportion to the exemplar duration. Quantitative comparisons among normalized spectrograms of correctly recognized and confused exemplars at a range of SNRs suggest explanations for specific consonant confusions. The long-term goal is to apply this analysis to understand the effects of hearing loss and HAs on consonant perception and to predict consonant confusion patterns obtained with the CaST in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners.

Effect of the Inter-aural Level Differences on the Speech Intelligibility Depending on the Room Absorption in Classrooms

본 논문은 교실 및 회의실과 같은 소규모 공간에서 건축 마감재료에 의해 발생할 수 있는 좌우귀의 음량 차이가 사람의 청각적 음성명료도에 미치는 영향에 대하여 규명하고자 하였다. 이를 위해 대학교 강의실의 좌,우 측벽에 흡음재를 설치하였으며, 양이 녹음 시스템을 이용하여 좌측귀와 우측귀의 음압레벨을 각각 측정하였다. 또한 흡음재를 설치하기 전과 후 강의실에서 정상 청력의 대학생 20명을 대상으로 음절테스트를 수행하여 양이간 음량차이에 따른 음성명료도를 조사하였다. 그 결과 측벽에 흡음재를 설치 한 후 벽체에 가까워질수록 양이간 음량차가 크게 발생한다는 점을 알 수 있었으며 일부 수음점에서는 최소변화감지폭인 3 dB 이상 차이가 발생하는 곳도 있었다. 또한 측정점별 양이간 음량차와 음절테스트 점수의 상관관계를 분석한 결과 상관관계 계수가 약 -0.441로 유의한 결과를 나타내었다. 따라서 양이간 음량차가 강의실의 음성명료도에 영향을 미칠 수 있음을 알 수 있었다. The present study investigates the effect of the inter-aural level difference(ILD) on the syllable articulation test in classrooms which can be occurred by the absorption of interior surfaces. In order to do this, the sound absorbing materials were installed in the classroom and sound pressure level(SPL) at each ear was measured using binaural recording systems. Also, syllable articulation tests were carried out at a classroom with and without sound absorption materials by 20 students who have normal hearing condition, in order to investigates the effect of the ILD on the speech intelligibility. As a result, it was found that the larger inter-aural level differences was occurred at the nearer positions to lateral walls after sound absorptions were applied to lateral walls in the classroom. At some places, the measured ILD was lager than JND of sound level (3dB). Also, it was shown that the correlation coefficient of inter-aural level difference with the score of syllable test has the significant result(-0.441). Thus, It is concluded that ILD can affect the subjective speech intelligibility in classrooms.