The research reported in these papers covers a variety of communication problems. The first paper covers research on sound navigation by the blind and involves echo perception research and relevant aspects of underwater sound localization. The second paper describes a research program in acoustic phonetics and concerns such related issues as…

Considers demands on the reader of printed material displayed on the video screen. Ways that electronic media can engender and foster reading skills are discussed, including use of graphics in video displays and ways educationalists may contribute to development of videotext and software to teach reading. (40 references) (MBR)

Compares the empirical performance of C-tests with other representatives of the family of reduced redundancy tests--classical cloze, cloze-elide, multiple-choice cloze--using the Duisburg English Language Test for Advanced Students as the criterion for empirical validity. Findings reveal that the C-Test emerges as the most economical and reliable…

Asked adults and children ages 7 to 15 to detect changes in an unaccompanied drumbeat. Found significant differences in performance as a function of age when drumbeats fluctuated. Found musical training more influential than age when drumbeat was constant. Discusses a multiprocess model for the perception of tempo. (NL)

Focuses on factors influencing the mastery of a foreign language and one's native tongue. Both the child-mother relationship and the teacher-student relationship greatly influence the desire and propensity of an individual to acquire fluency in the language being taught. To learn to speak signifies a wish to use a language and become immersed in…

Reports on a study where subjects were asked to evaluate the level of musical intensity expressed in various music excerpts. Defines musical intensity as that which conveys strong, ardent, or concentrated emotion. Compares subjects' ongoing evaluation (continuous) with a single concluding (summative) evaluation. Includes a list of orchestral…

We describe two experiments on signaling and detecting uncertainty in audiovisual speech by adults and children. In the first study, utterances from adult speakers and child speakers (aged 7-8) were elicited and annotated with a set of six audiovisual features. It was found that when adult speakers were uncertain they were more likely to produce…

Joseph, a student with autism in Ms. Mendez's inclusion kindergarten class, experienced difficulty attending during group activities. He spent a significant amount of time looking at his hands and quoting parts of his favorite videos. Attempts to engage Joseph resulted in vocal protests and, at times, mild aggression. Ms. Mendez realized that she…

Background: In a previous study from our lab, adult males with non-syndromic cleft lip and/or palate (NSCLP) were shown to have significantly lower temporal lobe gray matter volume than matched controls. The current study was designed to begin a regional analysis of specific subregions of the temporal lobe. The superior temporal plane (STP) is a…

It has long been recognized that from the first months of life auditory perception plays a crucial role in speech and language development. Only in recent years, however, is the precise mechanism of auditory development and its interaction with the acquisition of speech and language beginning to be systematically revealed. This paper presents the…

This case study focuses on a bilingual, older man who spoke Polish and English and showed weaknesses on clinical measures of dichotic listening in English. It was unclear whether these test results were influenced by the participant's facility with his second language or by other nonauditory factors. To elucidate the nature of this deficit, the…

A study investigated lexical decision-making among Dutch-English bilinguals in the auditory modality. Subjects, bilinguals at three proficiency levels (intermediate, high, and near-native) were presented with 40 cognate and 40 non-cognate word pairs, a similar number of English and Dutch distractors, and a similar number of nonsense words in each…

A study examined whether retention of sight vocabulary words could be increased by implementing the tactile modality to a visual, auditory, and kinesthetic based lesson. A total of 10 first-grade remedial reading students in Elizabeth, New Jersey, were assigned to control and experimental groups, with 5 students in each group. Upon completion of 7…

This paper presents the development of the Arabic Picture Vocabulary Test (APVT), derived from the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised, for use in assessing the aural-vocabulary of newly arrived limited English proficiency children, from kindergarten through grade three, whose first language is Arabic. The APVT, an individually administered…

THREE EXPERIMENTS WERE CONDUCTED ON THE USE OF PROGRAMED INSTRUCTION TO TEACH GENERAL SCIENCE TO EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS. THREE VISUAL STIMULUS MODES AND THREE AUDIO STIMULUS MODES WERE USED WITH EITHER LINEAR OR BRANCHING PROGRAMS AND SUBJECT CONTENT WHICH WAS EITHER NON-CONCRETE, CONCRETE, OR ACTION-PROCESS. LEARNER CHARACTERISTICS VARIED WERE IQ,…