Purpose: This study explored clear speech (CS) and noise-adapted speech (NAS) intelligibility benefits for native and nonnative English listeners. It also examined how the two speaking style adaptations interact with maskers that vary from purely energetic to largely informational at different signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Method: Materials…

Purpose: Oral diadochokinesis (DDK) is a standard dysarthria assessment task. To extract automatic and semi-automatic DDK measurements, numerous DDK analysis algorithms based on acoustic signal processing are available, including amplitude based, spectral based, and hybrid. However, these algorithms have been predominantly validated in individuals…

Critical thinking in children is a growing concern for early childhood educators; however, few studies have examined children's critical thinking in an out-of-class context. This case study aimed toward filling this research gap by examining the critical thinking of a Mandarin-speaking child aged 5 years and 8 months in an out-of-class context.…

A critical question in the study of language development is to understand lexical and syntactic acquisition, which play different roles in speech to the extent it would be natural to surmise they are acquired differently. As measured through the comprehension and production of closed-class words, syntactic ability emerges at roughly the 400-word…

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of speech recognition performance, working memory capacity (WMC), and a noise reduction algorithm (NRA) on listening effort as measured with pupillometry in cochlear implant (CI) users while listening to speech in noise. Method: Speech recognition and pupil responses (peak dilation, peak latency,…

Individual differences in infants' native phonological development have been linked to the quantity and quality of infant-directed speech (IDS). The effects of parental and infant bilingualism on this relation in 131 five- and nine-month-old monolingual and bilingual Spanish and Basque infants (72 male; 59 female; from white middle-class…

Purpose: The study aimed to assess the relationship between (a) speech recognition in noise, mask type, working memory capacity (WMC), and inhibitory control and (b) self-rated listening effort, speech material, and mask type, in older adults with and without hearing impairment. It was of special interest to assess the relationship between WMC,…

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting mandate that everyone wear a mask affected communication and the accessibility of human speech. According to an article in "Audiology Today" (Atcherson et al., 2020), up to 20dB of the human voice can be lost due to wearing a clear face mask and even more if a shield is worn in…

Purpose: This research examined the expression of cortical auditory evoked potentials in a cohort of children who received cochlear implants (CIs) for treatment of congenital deafness (n = 28) and typically hearing controls (n = 28). Method: We make use of a novel electroencephalography paradigm that permits the assessment of auditory responses to…

Purpose: This study aims to translate the English version of the Trans Woman Voice Questionnaire (TWVQ) to simplified Chinese (TWVQ-SC) and to examine its reliability and validity. Method: Standardized translation procedures were strictly followed for the translation of the TWVQ. Two hundred sixty trans woman and 128 cis woman subjects completed…

A language 'test' is a systematic procedure for observing a person's behavior and describing it with the aid of a numerical scale or category system (Cronbach LJ 1971: 26). A test cannot be based on a selection of items chosen on linguistic grounds alone, and that to devise an effective test, it is necessary to specify how an examinee requires to…

Perceptual restoration occurs when the brain restores missing segments from speech under certain conditions. It is investigated in the auditory modality, but minimal evidence has been collected during speechreading tasks. The authors measured perceptual restoration in speechreading by individuals with hearing loss and compared it to perceptual…

Rationale: With knowledge of Special Educational Needs and Disability and systemic practice, Educational Psychologists (EPs) have a distinct role working in Youth Justice Services (YJS). The Taylor Review (2016) identified the need for a multi-agency approach, training and understanding of Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN) in YJS.…

Academic criticism is a fundamental feature of scholarly discourse. It plays a key role in scientific theory building, whereby ideas are iteratively challenged and redrafted (Kuhn, 1962, 1970). It is also how individual scholars create a research space (see the CARS model, Swales, 1990) and establish themselves as members of the research…

Purpose: Contemporary motor theories indicate that well-practiced movements are best performed automatically, without conscious attention or monitoring. We applied this perspective to speech production in school-age children and examined how dual-task conditions that engaged sustained attention affected speech fluency, speech rate, and language…