Harvey R. Gilbert

The effects of smoking on the speaking fundamental frequency of adult women

The present study sought to investigate the effects of smoking on the speaking fundamental frequency of adult women. The results indicated that, in the reading condition, fundamental frequency for the smokers was significantly lower than fundamental frequency for the nonsmokers. Eighty-seven percent of the smokers examined by an otolaryngologist exhibited some abnormality in appearance of the vocal folds. The results also suggest that menopause may contribute to a lowering of the speaking fundamental frequency of adult women.

Nasal airflows in Parkinsonian speakers

Velopharyngeal control in individuals with Parkinsons disease (PD) was studied by obtaining rates of nasal airflow during syllable repetitions. Nasal airflows were described with respect to disease progression, phonetic context, and speaking rate. Significant differences in nasal airflows were obtained for disease progression and phonetic context. The data suggested that velopharyngeal control deteriorates systematically with disease progression. Parkinsons patients at mild and moderate levels of disease progression differentiated the nasal consonant from the oral consonants with increased nasal airflow associated with the nasal consonant. Differences, while not significant, were also observed in nasal flow rate values when the PD patients increased speaking rate from 1 to 5 syllables per second.

Dichotic speech perception: A comparison between stuttering and nonstuttering children

Abstract A stop consonant-vowel dichotic listening task was administered to 90 right- handed boys, 30 in each age group of 5, 7, and 9 yr. Half in each group were stutterers, half nonstutterers. Two and a half times as many stutterers as nonstutterers were found to display either a left-ear advantage (LEA) or no ear advantage (NEA). This finding suggested a greater tendency on the part of stutterers, as opposed to nonstutterers, for reversed or bilateral representation of the auditory speech areas of the brain. In addition, both stutterers and nonstutterers displayed significant developmental increases in the number of times they were able to identify both dichotic speech stimuli, thereby supporting the hypothesis of an age-related increase in childrens total information processing capacity. The results are discussed in terms of the differences between stutterers and nonstutterers with respect to the issues of motor representation, cognitive modes, and higher-order linguistic processes.

Speaking fundamental frequency in three groups of hearing-impaired individuals.

The purpose of the present investigation was to provide speaking fundamental frequency data for three groups: 4-6, 8-10, and 16-25-yr-old hearing-impaired individuals. The hearing-impaired children between the ages of 4 to 6 and 8 to 10 yr exhibited mean speaking fundamental frequency values that were 55 Hz and 41 Hz higher, respectively, than values obtained for normally hearing children of similar ages. Fundamental frequency values for postpubescent hearing-impaired males and females were 20 Hz and 30 Hz higher, respectively, when compared to values reported in the literature for normally hearing individuals of similar age and sex.

Relation between voice profile ratings and aerodynamic and acoustic parameters

The present study sought to examine the relation between Wilson Voice Profile ratings and certain aerodynamic and acoustic variables. Subjects in this study were 20 adults with voice disorders and five adults with no voice disorders. A series of stepwise multiple correlations were used. The variance in perceptual ratings accounted for by aerodynamic and acoustic variables included in the present study ranged from 29% for tension ratings of connected speech to 81% for pitch ratings of connected speech for the female speakers. It is clear from the present findings that ratings on the Wilson Voice Profile are only partially accounted for by the variables included in the present study.

Speech characteristics of miners with black lung disease (pneumoconiosis)

Speech samples were obtained from 10 miners with diagnosed black lung disease and 10 nonminers who had never worked in a dusty environment and who had no history of respiratory diseases. Frequency, intensity and durational measures were used as a basis upon which to compare the two groups. Results indicated that four of the six pausal measures, vowel duration, vowel intensity variation and vowel perturbation differentiated the miners from the nonminers. The results indicate that black lung disease may affect not only respiratory physiology associated with speech production but also laryngeal physiology.

The Use of Learning Rate, Recall and Listener Confidence Ratings To Assess Effects of Acoustically Distorted Speech Stimuli

The present investigation was concerned with the application of three listener performance tasks; learning rate, recall, and listener confidence ratings as criteria for evaluating speech communication systems. Lists of 24 words, equal in intelligibility and content but differing in acoustic quality were presented auditorily to five groups of listeners. Both learning rate and the listener confidence ratings varied systematically with the type and severity of signal distortion. The results indicated that learning rate and listener confidence ratings are sensitive to signal distortion and may prove useful as criteria for assessing speech communication systems.