Three categories of vocal music--children's songs, popular, and classic--were analyzed to study repetition of tones. It appeared that the repetition of tones is a function of recency. Results can be explained by an hypothesis of availability. (Author)

Language is not, as commonly believed, a biologically arbitrary assemblage of processes that are not themselves linguistic. Rather, language consists of specialized processes of phonetic perception that conform to the acoustic consequences of the way that articulatory movements are regulated. (Author/GC)

Preliminary results indicated that the binaural sensory aid is useful within a regular program of developmental intervention, but that positive effects cannot be attributed to the device alone. (Author/DLS)

Discusses a study comparing children's perception of temporal acoustic cues to that of adults. Subjects were asked to identify voiced or voiced CVC words with uniformly voiceless final obstruents but in which vowel duration was systematically varied. Results show that subject age and vowel duration of test stimuli affect identification processes.…

Background noise and reverberation were reduced at the Weston, Massachusetts, indoor swimming pool by installing aluminum insulated panels. (Author/MLF)

A new addition at the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, is much quieter because of the special sound-absorbing wall louvers in the air intake and exhaust system. (Author)

Describes activities that test the preferences of stimuli of small insects such as light, sound, smell, and temperature. Experiments are carried out through the use of controlled and independent variables and a simple inexpensive apparatus. (DKM)

Analyzed the acoustic properties of spontaneous speech to 14-month olds by English- and Japanese-speaking mothers in the United States. Found that utterance- and phrase-level acoustic regularities were large enough to be detected without correcting for other influences. These findings suggest that a naive listener could estimate a prosodic…

Discusses the new classroom acoustics standard, ANSI Standard S12.60, which specifies maximum sound level limits that are significantly lower than currently typical for classrooms. Addresses guidelines for unducted HVAC systems, ducted single-zone systems, and central VAV or multizone systems. (EV)

States the position of the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (ARI) toward ANSI Standard 12.60, which addresses classroom acoustics. Explains why it believes the standard creates an overly stringent requirement. (EV)

Acoustic measures and stress judgments were made of spondaic words with alternating syllabic stress produced by three profoundly hearing-impaired adolescents and a hearing control. The data suggested that there are important between-speaker differences in the overall hierarchy of cues adopted to convey lexical stress. (Author/DB)

Presents an activity designed for introductory physics courses that enhances students' understanding of the concept of waves, especially the superposition of waves. Uses two different approaches that end with the same result and enable students to see the connection between spatial and temporal properties of waves and their superposition. (JRH)

Addresses the concept of adding sound to existing personal computers. Describes hardware and software options and explores uses of computers equipped with sound. Sidebars summarize the development of stereo sound in multimedia products and describe the two major forms of computer sound: Musical Instrument Digital Interface and digital sound waves.…

Explains the properties of the Aborigine musical instrument, the bullroarer. Describes how to make one out of a wooden tongue depressor and dental floss. (MVL)

The importance of phonology in assigning words to the correct grammatical category in language processing is discussed. Correlations between phonology and grammatical class are discussed. Experiments demonstrating that adults and children have learned these correlations are proposed and evaluated. (SLD)