Linda A. Hoag

Perceptual Ratings for Pureed and Molded Peaches for Individuals with and without Impaired Swallowing

Food molds have been created to alter the appearance of pureed foods by making the pureed consistencies look more like typically prepared foods. This study examined the perceptions of 15 adults with impaired swallowing and 15 adults with nonimpaired swallowing for three different types of pureed peach: a typically prepared pureed peach, a pureed peach with a thickening agent added, and a pureed peach with a thickening agent added and molded to look like peach slices. Results are presented for the attribute ratings of overall liking; liking of taste, texture, and appearance; and ease of chewing and swallowing. The results showed that the adults with impaired swallowing rated the attributes of chewing and swallowing significantly lower (i.e., more difficult) for each type of puree. Significant differences within samples also were found for the attributes of overall liking and liking of taste. Overall, the pureed peach molds were not perceived favorably for any of the examined attributes. In addition, the molded peach was rated lower (more difficult) in its ease of chewing. The implications of these findings and ideas for further research are discussed.

Brevity and speed of message delivery trade-offs in augmentative and alternative communication

This study is the third in a series of studies that have concentrated on utterance-based systems—which allow the relatively quick selection of full sentences—and investigated trade-offs faced by users of such systems when there is a pragmatic mismatch between the prestored sentence and the current discourse context. While the previous studies focused on trade-offs between speed of message delivery and either relevance or informativeness, this study investigated the effects of trade-offs between speed of message delivery and brevity on public attitudes. Participating were 96 sales clerks who viewed scripted, videotaped trade-off message conditions in the context of a bookstore interaction and completed a questionnaire designed to assess their attitudes toward customers who used utterance-based systems and his or her communication. Significantly higher mean ratings were found for the trade-off condition involving the quickly delivered message with repetition when compared to each of the slowly delivered, non-repetitive message conditions (i.e., with and without a preceding conversational floorholder). Implications regarding the model of conversational trade-off choices and its technological applications are discussed.

Hierarchy of Conversational Rule Violations Involving Utterance-Based Augmentative and Alternative Communication Systems

This study examined the effects of using messages with conversational rule violations on attitudes toward people who used utterance-based augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems in transactional interactions. Specifically, the ratings were compared across messages with relevance, informativeness, and brevity violations, when latency remained constant (i.e., short). The 96 participating sales clerks viewed scripted, videotaped bookstore conversations and completed an attitude questionnaire. Results indicated that the prestored message with repeated words/phrases was rated the highest, followed by the message with excessive information; next was the message with inadequate information, followed by the message with partly relevant information. The findings may be useful to those using utterance-based systems when making message choices during interactions with service providers. Technological implications point to the development of schema/script-based systems and intelligent editing.

Clinical Measurement of Fundamental Frequency in Normal and Dysphonic Voices Using Electronic Tuners

The purpose of this study was to determine whether fundamental frequency measurements made with two portable electronic tuners, relatively inexpensive devices used by musicians for fast-tuning thei...