A decisional component of holistic encoding

human faces are used in cognition as undifferentiated wholes. General recognition theory (GRT; F. G. Ashby & J. T. Townsend, 1986) is used to represent hypotheses regarding the possible sources for the behavioral evidence supporting holistic representation. Specifically, it is suggested that holism can be understood in terms of violations of informational independence, informational separability, or decisional separability, as these constructs are defined in GRT. Stimuli were presented upright, inverted, and in an encoding task that emphasized the meaningful nature of the stimuli. Patterns of performance (recognition hit rates) were consistent with prior studies. However, there were only a handful of violations of informational separability. Instead, consistent violations of decisional separability suggested a decisional basis for holistic effects. One of the most compellingly unitary visual experiences is that of the sight of a human face. A single glimpse of a single face can leave an observer with a myriad of associations, inferences, and judgments. Small wonder, then, that the visual experience of the human face has become the focus of extensive empirical (e.g., Bruce, 1991) and theoretical (e.g., Wenger & Townsend, 2001a

Perception-production relationships for /r-l/ by native Japanese speakers

We examined the possible relationship between perception and production of /r–l/ by native Japanese speakers. Little evidence of a relationship between the cues used for perception and those for production was found for native Japanese and native English speakers. However, we found evidence of a shift from a reliance on conjunctive cues to single cues as listeners progressed from relatively naïve to fully native English speakers</p

Comparing Scores on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test and Receptive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test in Preschoolers With and Without Hearing Loss

PURPOSEWe sought to compare raw scores, standard scores, and age equivalences on two commonly used vocabulary tests, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) and the Receptive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test (ROWPVT). METHODSixty-two children, 31 with hearing loss (HL) and 31 with normal hearing (NH), were given both the PPVT and ROWPVT as part of an ongoing longitudinal study of emergent literacy development in preschoolers with and without HL. All children were between 3 and 4 years old at administration, and the two tests were administered within 3 weeks of each other. Both tests were given again 6 months later. Standard scores and age equivalencies were calculated for both tests using published guidelines. RESULTSThere was no significant effect of test for any of our analyses. However, there was a main effect of time, with both standard scores and age equivalencies being significantly higher at the second test. Children with NH had significantly higher standard scores and age equivalencies than children with NH, but there was no interaction between hearing status and time, suggesting that the two groups were growing at the same rate. CONCLUSIONSClinicians can be comfortable administering both the PPVT and ROWPVT to estimate children's vocabulary levels, but there may be practice effects when administering the tests twice within a calendar year. These data also indicate that children with HL continue to lag behind their peers with NH on vocabulary development. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALhttps://doi.org/10.23641/asha.23232848

Effects of Familiarization on Intelligibility of Dysarthric Speech in Older Adults With and Without Hearing Loss

PURPOSE: Familiarization tasks offer a promising platform for listener-targeted remediation of intelligibility disorders associated with dysarthria. To date, the body of work demonstrating improved understanding of dysarthric speech following a familiarization experience has been carried out on younger adults. The primary purpose of the present study was to examine the intelligibility effects of familiarization in older adults. METHOD: Nineteen older adults, with and without hearing loss, completed a familiarization protocol consisting of three phases: pretest, familiarization, and posttest. The older adults\u27 initial intelligibility and intelligibility improvement scores were compared with previously reported data collected from 50 younger adults (Borrie, Lansford, & Barrett, 2017a). RESULTS: Relative to younger adults, initial intelligibility scores were significantly lower for older adults, although additional analysis revealed that the difference was limited to older adults with hearing loss. Key, however, is that irrespective of hearing status, the older and younger adults achieved comparable intelligibility improvement following familiarization (gain of roughly 20 percentage points). CONCLUSION: This study extends previous findings of improved intelligibility of dysarthria following familiarization to a group of listeners who are critical to consider in listener-targeted remediation, namely, aging caregivers and/or spouses of individuals with dysarthria

Rethinking Emergent Literacy in Children With Hearing Loss

Long-term literacy outcomes for children with hearing loss, particularly those with severe-to-profound deafness who are fitted with cochlear implants (CIs) lag behind those of children with normal hearing (NH). The causes for these long-term deficits are not fully clear, though differences in auditory access between children who use CIs and those with NH may be a partial cause. This paper briefly reviews the emergent literacy model as proposed by Whitehurst and Lonigan (1998) . We then examine the development of each of Whitehurst and Lonigan’s identified factors in children who use CIs and how the extant knowledge of language and literacy development in children who use CIs may bear on the emergent literacy model. We then propose to modify the model for children who use CIs based on their unique developmental trajectories, influenced at least in part by their unique auditory access. We conclude with future directions for further development of an evidence-based emergent literacy model for children who use CIs and how this model could be used to inform intervention

Can native Japanese listeners learn to differentiate/r-l/on the basis of F3 onset frequency?

<p>Many attempts have been made to teach native Japanese listeners to perceptually differentiate English/r-l/(e.g. rock-lock). Though improvement is evident, in no case is final performance native English-like. We focused our training on the third formant onset frequency, shown to be the most reliable indicator of/r-l/category membership. We first presented listeners with instances of synthetic/r-l/stimuli varying only in F3 onset frequency, in a forced-choice identification training task with feedback. Evidence of learning was limited. The second experiment utilized an adaptive paradigm beginning with non-speech stimuli consisting only of/r/and/l/F3 frequency trajectories progressing to synthetic speech instances of/ra-la/; half of the trainees received feedback. Improvement was shown by some listeners, suggesting some enhancement of/r-l/identification is possible following training with only F3 onset frequency. However, only a subset of these listeners showed signs of generalization of the training effect beyond the trained synthetic context.</p

The effect of the menstrual cycle on dichotic listening.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the menstrual cycle on responses to a dichotic listening task. It was hypothesized that participants would exhibit a stronger right ear advantage during the menstrual cycle days when estrogen levels are at their peak. It was also hypothesized that the women not taking oral contraceptives would exhibit greater variations in ear advantage over the course of their menstrual cycle than those taking oral contraceptives. Finally, it was hypothesized that the error response rates would remain similar across different listening conditions and over the menstrual cycle. The participants were 30 women who took oral contraceptives and 15 who did not. They completed nine listening sessions comprised of three dichotic listening tasks: forced-left, forced-right, and open. The data were analyzed using a mixed effects models. The participants exhibited a reduction in right ear responses on the days that corresponded to when the level of estrogen would begin to increase. This response was different from what had been hypothesized. The analysis also indicated no response differences between the two groups of women. In addition, the women exhibited fewer errors over the course of the sessions, implying that they adapted to the task. The results indicate that the women's hormone fluctuation across the menstrual cycle affected their responses to the forced-left, cognitive control, task only

Training to improve language outcomes in cochlear implant recipients

Cochlear implants (CI) have brought with them hearing ability for many prelingually deafened children. Advances in CI technology have brought not only hearing ability but speech perception to these same children. Concurrent with the development of speech perception has come spoken language development, bringing with it the hopes that prelingually deafened CI recipient children will develop spoken language capabilities on par with those of normal hearing (NH) children. Unfortunately, this has not been the case, and many CI recipient children lag behind their NH peers with large variability in outcomes. It is likely that CI recipient children struggle to develop spoken language at NH-like levels because they have deficits in both auditory and cognitive skills that underlie the development of language. Fortunately, both the auditory and cognitive training literature indicate an improvement of auditory and cognitive functioning following training. It therefore stands to reason that if training improves the auditory and cognitive skills that support language learning, language development itself should also improve. In the present manuscript we will review the auditory and cognitive training and their potential impact on speech outcomes with an emphasis on the speech perception literature