Measuring the coherence of normal and aphasic discourse production in Chinese using rhetorical structure theory (RST)

The study investigated the difference in discourse coherence between healthy speakers and speakers with anomic aphasia using Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST). The effect of genre types on coherence and potential factors contributing to the differences were also examined. Fifteen native Cantonese participants of anomic aphasia and their control matched in age, education and gender participated. Sixty language samples were obtained using the story-telling and sequential description tasks of the Cantonese AphasiaBank protocol. Twenty naïve listeners provided subjective ratings on the coherence, completeness, correctness of order, and clarity of each speech sample. Results demonstrated that the control group showed significantly higher production fluency, total number of discourse units, and fewer errors than the aphasia group. Controls used a richer set of relations than the aphasic group, particularly those to describe settings, to express causality, and to elaborate. The aphasic group tended to omit more essential information content and was rated with significantly lower coherence and clarity than controls. The findings suggested that speakers with anomic aphasia had reduced proportion of essential information content, lower degree of elaboration, and more structural disruptions than the controls, which may have contributed to the reduced overall discourse coherence.published_or_final_versionSpeech and Hearing SciencesBachelorBachelor of Science in Speech and Hearing Science

Sonic Interactions in Virtual Environments

This open access book tackles the design of 3D spatial interactions in an audio-centered and audio-first perspective, providing the fundamental notions related to the creation and evaluation of immersive sonic experiences. The key elements that enhance the sensation of place in a virtual environment (VE) are: Immersive audio: the computational aspects of the acoustical-space properties of Virutal Reality (VR) technologies Sonic interaction: the human-computer interplay through auditory feedback in VE VR systems: naturally support multimodal integration, impacting different application domains Sonic Interactions in Virtual Environments will feature state-of-the-art research on real-time auralization, sonic interaction design in VR, quality of the experience in multimodal scenarios, and applications. Contributors and editors include interdisciplinary experts from the fields of computer science, engineering, acoustics, psychology, design, humanities, and beyond. Their mission is to shape an emerging new field of study at the intersection of sonic interaction design and immersive media, embracing an archipelago of existing research spread in different audio communities and to increase among the VR communities, researchers, and practitioners, the awareness of the importance of sonic elements when designing immersive environments

Language and auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia

Historically, and more recently, language has been considered as a key feature in the description of schizophrenia. However, there is widespread dissatisfaction with currently available descriptions. In this study, a linguistic model is used to develop objective and comprehensive measures of the language of twelve individuals with schizophrenia as compared with twelve individuals without mental illness. The measures are shown to have high intra- and inter-rater reliability. Moreover, they are suitable for clinical practice due to the limited training required for their use, and the ease of administration of these measures. In the literature on schizophrenia, it is proposed that language and auditory hallucinations may be related. Within the study, rhis relationship is investigated, with a finding of a number of correlations between measures of language as developed earlier in the study and aspects of study participants' hallucinatory experiences. Possible cognitive explanations for the findings are discussed. Due to the significance of the linguistic difficulties and hallucinations for persons with schizophrenia, the linguistic measures developed earlier in the study are used as a basis for a therapy programme. Therapy is described for two of the study participants. The participants are shown to benefit from therapy as demonstrated in their improvement on the linguistic measures at the end of the therapy programme and in the comments by participants themselves as well as staff working with them. Participants retained some of the benefits at reassessment six weeks post therapy. It is proposed that the measures developed in the study provide the basis for the description of spontaneous discourse samples of persons with schizophrenia and possibly related disorders. It is also suggested that these measures are potentially useful as a basis for hypothesis-driven therapy for the linguistic difficulties described in persons with schizophrenia