Five young adult females with mild mental retardation were given match-to-sample training to develop four classes of equivalent stimuli. All subjects demonstrated development of all possible equivalence classes involving these stimuli. For four of five subjects, the classes that included auditory stimuli developed more rapidly than those that did…

The study compared the effectiveness of using the Sonicguide, a device using echoes to aid orientation and mobility, with five blind children aged 5-48 months. Results found that children at all age levels were able to use the guide. These results conflict with previous results suggesting a critical age for device usefulness. (DB)

The hypothesis that tactile presentation of voice fundamental frequency is as effective as auditory presentation in aiding speechreading was proven through auditory stimulation experiments, psychophysical studies, phonetic-level tactile studies, and sentence-level studies. After training with the device, three postlingually deafened adults…

Ninety-six fifth-grade students studied a map of a fictitious island while twice listening to a related narrative with target feature and nonfeature items, cued by varying iconic and verbal stimuli in four map cue conditions. Memory for feature information and pictorial retrieval cues appeared to activate memory for nonfeature information. (SLD)

Describes The Audio Interactive Tutor (TAIT), an interactive audio/oral computer-assisted study device. TAIT's output consists of explanations and examples along with commands and questions requiring responses from the user. It uses speech recognition to determine the responses made by the user and constructs an evolving model of what the user…

Reviews studies in which perceptual cue trading data have been compared with computational models and examines the perception of contrast between the voiceless fricative "s" and the voiceless affricate "ts." Nine subjects listened to a total of 6 tokens each of 193 stimuli and labeled each stimulus as containing either of the…

Five studies examined the contributions of syllable-ordering and rhythmic properties of syllable strings to 6- and 9-month-old infants' speech segmentation. Results indicate that the capacity for integrating multiple sources of information in speech perception emerges between 6 and 9 months, in rough synchrony with the emergence of integration in…

Twenty subjects (ages 7-13) with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder were administered a battery of tests (including the Auditory Continuous Performance Test and the Token Test for Children) twice, first when not taking and then when taking methylphenidate. Results indicated significant improvement in performance on all measures when subjects…

In a study of 24 preterm and 24 full-term infants at 8 months, infants who reacted to a novel stimulus with increased vagal tone showed more focused examination and exhibited greater exploratory play range than those whose vagal tone decreased with the stimulus. (LB)

This study examined the abilities of 18 adults with familial dyslexia to use steady state, dynamic, and temporal cues in synthetic speech continua. Although subjects were able to label and discriminate the continua, they did not necessarily use acoustic cues in the same manner as did normal readers, and their overall performance was less accurate.…

Three psychophysical auditory processing tests, varying in emphasis on speed of processing and pitch discrimination, and tests of verbal and nonverbal ability were administered to 108 13-year olds. A structural equation model suggests that information processing speed and pitch discrimination ability are significantly associated with nonverbal and…

First and fifth graders and college students were presented with pictures or spoken names of common objects and asked to make judgments about the comparative size of the objects. Judgment response times were faster with pictures than with words and varied with the ratio of the sizes of the objects. (BC)

Describes several ways to demonstrate the relationship between various aspects of auditory stimulation and sensation. Discusses the equipment required to hear and to visualize simultaneously a variety of auditory signals. States that these demonstrations allow students to learn more about sensory processing in general and auditory function in…

This article discusses findings concerning the plasticity of auditory cortical processing mechanisms in adults, including the effects of restricted cochlear damage or behavioral training with acoustic stimuli on the frequency selectivity of auditory cortical neurons and evidence for analogous injury- and use-related plasticity in the adult human…

A bird study found that with sufficient time and training after hair cell and hearing loss and hair cell regeneration, the mature avian auditory system can accommodate input from a newly regenerated periphery sufficiently to allow for recognition of previously familiar vocalizations and the learning of new complex acoustic classifications.…