We sought to profile the voice acoustical correlates of simulated, or feigned depression by neurologically and psychiatrically healthy control subjects. We also sought to identify the voice acoustical correlates of feigned sleepiness for these same subjects. Twenty-two participants were asked to speak freely about a cartoon, to count from 1 to 10,…

This study investigated the effects of noise and filtering on the intelligibility of speech produced during simultaneous communication (SC). Four normal hearing, experienced sign language users were recorded under SC and speech alone (SA) conditions speaking Boothroyd's forced-choice phonetic contrast material designed for measurement of speech…

Purpose: Increased speaking rate is a commonly reported perceptual characteristic among males with fragile X syndrome (FXS). The objective of this preliminary study was to determine articulation rate--one component of perceived speaking rate--and vowel space characteristics of young males with FXS. Method: Young males with FXS (n = 38), …

The monograph contains two papers. The first presents a generative grammar for verbal forms in French. It consists of an ordered set of rewrite rules and a set of tables. It generates all existing verbal forms without generating any non-existing ones. The departure from an ordinary generative grammar lies in the use of a tabular form for…

Consonant mastery is one of the most widely used metrics of typical phonological acquisition and of phonological disorder. Two fundamental methodological questions concerning research on consonant acquisition are (1) how to elicit a representative sample of productions and (2) how to analyse this sample once it has been collected. This paper…

Purpose: To determine the rankings of 6 input-output functions for understanding low-level, conversational, and high-level speech in multitalker babble without manipulating volume control for listeners with normal hearing, flat sensorineural hearing loss, and mildly sloping sensorineural hearing loss. Method: Peak clipping, compression limiting,…

Purpose: To explore the sensitivity of children with specific language impairment (SLI) to amplitude-modulated and durational cues that are important for perceiving suprasegmental speech rhythm and stress patterns. Method: Sixty-three children between 7 and 11 years of age were tested, 21 of whom had a diagnosis of SLI, 21 of whom were matched for…

There are very few acoustic studies reflecting on the localization of speech function within the different loci of the cerebellum. Task based performance profile of subjects with lesion in different cerebellar loci is not reported. Also, the findings on nonfocal cerebellar lesions cannot be generalized to lesions restricted to the cerebellum.…

It is well documented that aging adversely affects the ability to perceive time-varying acoustic cues. Here we review how physiological measures are being used to explore the effects of aging (and concomitant hearing loss) on the neural representation of temporal cues. Also addressed are the implications of current research findings on the…

This study investigated vocal cues that differentiate sarcastic utterances from non-sarcastic utterances. Utterances were drawn from videotapes of participant interviews and arranged on a master tape for analysis. Utterances that were identified as sarcastic by speakers and recognized as sarcastic by listeners were randomly arranged with…

Purpose: This article integrates published acoustic data on the development of vowel production. Age specific data on formant frequencies are considered in the light of information on the development of the vocal tract (VT) to create an anatomic-acoustic description of the maturation of the vowel acoustic space for English. Method: Literature…

The velocity of sound in a gas depends on its temperature, molar mass, and [lambda] = C[subscript p]/C[subscript v], ratio (heat capacity at a constant pressure to heat capacity at constant volume). The [lambda] values for air, oxygen, nitrogen, argon, and carbon dioxide were determined by measuring the velocity of the sound through the gases at…

Given the interest in comparing speech production development in children with normal hearing and hearing impairment, it is important to evaluate how variables within speech elicitation tasks can differentially affect the acoustics of speech production for these groups. In a first experiment, children (6-14 years old) with cochlear implants…

Recent studies of rising intonation contours in French, in particular the acoustical differences that serve to distinguish Yes/No questions from other rising intonations are reviewed. The preliminary results of a pilot study of rising intonations in French, in which average curves were obtained from spectrographic measurements of fundamental…

Presents the fourth in a series of articles on high fidelity sound reproduction. Discusses high fidelity sound systems, including the acoustics of the listening room. (Author/SK)