Effects of errorless learning on the acquisition of velopharyngeal movement control

Session 1pSC - Speech Communication: Cross-Linguistic Studies of Speech Sound Learning of the Languages of Hong Kong (Poster Session)The implicit motor learning literature suggests a benefit for learning if errors are minimized during practice. This study investigated whether the same principle holds for learning velopharyngeal movement control. Normal speaking participants learned to produce hypernasal speech in either an errorless learning condition (in which the possibility for errors was limited) or an errorful learning condition (in which the possibility for errors was not limited). Nasality level of the participants’ speech was measured by nasometer and reflected by nasalance scores (in %). Errorless learners practiced producing hypernasal speech with a threshold nasalance score of 10% at the beginning, which gradually increased to a threshold of 50% at the end. The same set of threshold targets were presented to errorful learners but in a reversed order. Errors were defined by the proportion of speech with a nasalance score below the threshold. The results showed that, relative to errorful learners, errorless learners displayed fewer errors (50.7% vs. 17.7%) and a higher mean nasalance score (31.3% vs. 46.7%) during the acquisition phase. Furthermore, errorless learners outperformed errorful learners in both retention and novel transfer tests. Acknowledgment: Supported by The University of Hong Kong Strategic Research Theme for Sciences of Learning © 2012 Acoustical Society of Americapublished_or_final_versio

Electrophysiologic assessment of (central) auditory processing disorder in children with non-syndromic cleft lip and/or palate

Session 5aPP - Psychological and Physiological Acoustics: Auditory Function, Mechanisms, and Models (Poster Session)Cleft of the lip and/or palate is a common congenital craniofacial malformation worldwide, particularly non-syndromic cleft lip and/or palate (NSCL/P). Though middle ear deficits in this population have been universally noted in numerous studies, other auditory problems including inner ear deficits or cortical dysfunction are rarely reported. A higher prevalence of educational problems has been noted in children with NSCL/P compared to craniofacially normal children. These high level cognitive difficulties cannot be entirely attributed to peripheral hearing loss. Recently it has been suggested that children with NSCLP may be more prone to abnormalities in the auditory cortex. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether school age children with (NSCL/P) have a higher prevalence of indications of (central) auditory processing disorder [(C)APD] compared to normal age matched controls when assessed using auditory event-related potential (ERP) techniques. School children (6 to 15 years) with NSCL/P and normal controls with matched age and gender were recruited. Auditory ERP recordings included auditory brainstem response and late event-related potentials, including the P1-N1-P2 complex and P300 waveforms. Initial findings from the present study are presented and their implications for further research in this area —and clinical intervention—are outlined. © 2012 Acoustical Society of Americapublished_or_final_versio

New Indicators for the Assessment and Prevention of Noise Nuisance

This Special Issue was launched to promote a subject that is deserving of more attention: the study of new metrics, indicators or evaluation methods for noise exposure, and the relationship of noise with annoyance or other health effects, thus not relying only on an average noise exposure measure. This Special Issue on the theme of the New Indicators for the Assessment and Prevention of Noise Nuisance has attracted the interest of authors from all over the world, with the publication of two reviews and two communications, as well as original research papers. Progress has been made in the investigated topic; however, it is still necessary to increase the awareness of the population, both in geographical terms and for workers in specific sectors, such as the marine industry. It emerged that it is essential to carry out future studies that distinguish better between different sound sources with respect to their sound quality in terms of frequency, time pattern (fluctuation, emergence), and psychoacoustic indices, because a differential human reaction to sound sources is increasingly evident. More longitudinal studies are required. However, cross-sectional studies employing a more detailed soundscape description (including background) by competing sound indices are also useful to further the required knowledge to understand the human response in terms of the broad spectrum of potential adverse effects on health and quality of life

Development of Novel Techniques to Study Nonlinear Active Noise Control

Active noise control has been a field of growing interest over the past few decades. The challenges thrown by active noise control have attracted the notice of the scientific community to engage them in intense level of research. Cancellation of acoustic noise electronically in a simple and efficient way is the vital merit of the active noise control system. A detailed study about existing strategies for active noise control has been undertaken in the present work. This study has given an insight regarding various factors influencing performance of modern active noise control systems. The development of new training algorithms and structures for active noise control are active fields of research which are exploiting the benefits of different signal processing and soft- computing techniques. The nonlinearity contributed by environment and various components of active noise control system greatly affects the ultimate performance of an active noise canceller. This fact motivated to pursue the research work in developing novel architectures and algorithms to address the issues of nonlinear active noise control. One of the primary focus of the work is the application of artificial neural network to effectively combat the problem of active noise control. This is because artificial neural networks are inherently nonlinear processors and possesses capabilities of universal approximation and thus are well suited to exhibit high performance when used in nonlinear active noise control. The present work contributed significantly in designing efficient nonlinear active noise canceller based on neural network platform. Novel neural filtered-x least mean square and neural filtered-e least mean square algorithms are proposed for nonlinear active noise control taking into consideration the nonlinear secondary path. Employing Legendre neural network led the development of a set new adaptive algorithms such as Legendre filtered-x least mean square, Legendre vi filtered-e least mean square, Legendre filtered-x recursive least square and fast Legendre filtered-x least mean square algorithms. The proposed algorithms outperformed the existing standard algorithms for nonlinear active noise control in terms of steady state mean square error with reduced computational complexity. Efficient frequency domain implementation of some the proposed algorithms have been undertaken to exploit its benefits. Exhaustive simulation studies carried out have established the efficacy of the proposed architectures and algorithms