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May 1984

Volume 75, Issue S1, pp. S1-S93

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back to top Session X. Speech Communication V: Development and Disorders of Speech
Contributed Papers
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Features of infant vocalization at successive age levels (A)

Rachel E. Stark, Jennifer L. Bond, Lynne E. Bernstein, and John M. Heinz

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 75, Issue S1, pp. S45-S45 (1984); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 12 Aug 2005

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It has been suggested that speech motor abilities in infants emerge within an invariant sequence of levels. The present study was designed to describe the articulatory‐acoustic features of infant vocalization and thus, to identify those that may be characteristic of infant utterances at different age levels or developmental levels. The vocalizations of five infants were studied on a limited longitudinal basis. The age ranges of these infants were 2–10, 12–23, 26–36, 40–55, and 72–88 weeks, respectively. Forty to 50 vocalizations were selected randomly from each infant's output at the first and at the last recording session for a total of ten recordings. These vocalizations were analyzed acoustically by means of computer‐assisted spectral analyses. Measurements of duration and frequency were made from the resulting displays, which also provided information to listeners as they judged voicing and vocalic and consonantal features. Analyses of these preliminary data suggest that three classes of features may provide useful indices of development of infant speech motor abilities: namely, (1) pitch contour; (2) vocalic features; and (3) consonantal features. The relative importance of each will be discussed. [Work supported by Bureau of Community Health Services, Maternal and Child Health.]
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A neuroethologic hypethesis of speech development (A)

Harold R. Bauer

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 75, Issue S1, pp. S45-S45 (1984); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 12 Aug 2005

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The relation between phonetic contrast and individual differences in infants was noninvasively measured to operationally state a hypothesis of speech development. Four 13‐month‐old infants were recorded interacting with their mothers at home. Continuous f0 and amplitude displays were used in analyses made by two observers from each 1‐h, time coded session of all vocalizations. Acoustic‐phonetic data were lumped into front, central, and back vocants and bilabial, apical, palatal, and velar closants to emphasize motor contrast. These seven categories of speech sounds were graphed by each minute in the Phonetic Record, and then multiplied within each minute sample to yield a Phonetic Product, as a production/contrast measure. Individual Phonetic Record and Phonetic Product populational differences in production and contrast were found in the temporal analyses that are hypothesized to be predictive of speech‐language development. [Supported by NINCDS Grants NS 16763 and 5T32 NS 07147.]
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Developmental speech perception of three acoustic cues associated with place of articulation (A)

J. E. Sussman and A. E. Carney

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 75, Issue S1, pp. S45-S45 (1984); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 12 Aug 2005

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In this experiment, 30 children and 10 adults participated in three speech perception tasks: discrimination, labeling, and adaptation. Stimuli were four sets of synthetic CV syllables, varying along a bilabial‐to‐alveolar, place‐of‐articulation continuum. The primary acoustic cue in each continuum was the change in slope of the F2–F3 transitions. The continua were constructed so that two had transition lengths of 45 ms, and two of 95 ms. Two continua contained a 5‐ms burst, and two were burstless. The discrimination task was a change‐no change procedure, in which subjects indicated whether a set of four stimuli remained the same or changed. Results indicated a complex developmental pattern. For discrimination, there was a progression in response strategy and sensitivity with increasing age. In contrast, labeling performance was similar for all subjects. Finally, only the adult subjects showed significant adaptation effects. Children's responses were essentially unchanged after adaptation. Further, transition length affected all three tasks, while the presence of a burst was nonsignificant. Results will be discussed with respect to implications for the study of children's speech perception.
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Acquisition of the English voicing contrast by Arabic children (A)

Joann Fokes, Z. S. Bond, and Marcy Steinberg

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 75, Issue S1, pp. S45-S45 (1984); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 12 Aug 2005

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Children are typically more proficient than adults in learning the phonetic detail of a second language. The purpose of this study was to investigate the acquisition of the English voicing contrast as cued by voice onset time in syllable‐initial position comparing the performance of children whose native language is Arabic with that of American English speaking children and of adult speakers of Arabic learning English as a second language. Twelve children, 24 to 135 months in age, were recorded producing 11 minimal pairs differing in the voicing of the initial stop consonant, such as pea/bee and cab/gab. Voice onset time (VOT) was measured from spectrograms for labial, apical, and velar stops. Children were highly variable in their mastery of the voicing contrast; neither a child's age nor his experience with English could predict his phonetic proficiency.
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Organization and timing of prephonatory movements in mild and severe stutterers (A)

Ben C. Watson and Peter J. Alfonso

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 75, Issue S1, pp. S46-S46 (1984); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 12 Aug 2005

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In a previous paper [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Suppl. 1 73, S16 (1983)], we reported a composite foreperiod and stuttering severity effect on stutterers' acoustic laryngeal reaction time (LRT) values. That is, mild, but not severe, stutterers' LRT values approach nonstutterers' values as foreperiod increases. This observation lead to the formulation of the differential deficit hypothesis, which suggests that mild and severe stutterers execute qualitatively different prephonatory movements. In the study reported here, the differential deficit hypothesis was tested directly by examining movement and acoustic data obtained simultaneously from mild and severe stutterers and nonstutterers. The acoustic data replicated our previous results with respect to the composite foreperiod and stuttering severity effect on stutterers' LRT values. More importantly, movement data reveal that mild and severe stutterers can be differentiated on the basis of the organization, frequency of occurrence, and timing of prephonatory laryngeal and respiratory movements. That is, movement data both support the differential deficit hypothesis and account for the composite foreperiod and stuttering severity effect on stutterers' acoustic LRT values. [Work supported by NINCDS grant NS 13870 to Haskins Laboratories.]
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Detecting and correcting mispronunciations: A note on methodology (A)

Larry H. Small and Z. S. Bond

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 75, Issue S1, pp. S46-S46 (1984); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 12 Aug 2005

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Two different techniques were employed to investigate subjects' ability to detect mispronounced words in continuous speech. Twenty two‐syllable words were mispronounced in each of three prose passages, changing either the stress pattern, the voicing of obstruents, or the frontback dimension of vowels. Each passage contained only one mispronunciation type; the mispronounced words were equated for predictability from context and for frequency of occurrence in English. Subjects were tested under two conditions. In the first, subjects indicated mispronounced words on a script while listening to the passages. In the second, subjects were instructed to stop the tape when they detected a mispronounced word and to say what the word was. The subjects' spoken responses were recorded on tape. The first condition provides information regarding subjects' ability to detect mispronunciations under optimal conditions. The second condition provides detection information as well as information about the subjects' ability to correct the mispronounced words and the location of the detection in the stream of speech. The subjects' responses to stress mispronunciations were different from those to the other two mispronunciation types, in both test conditions.
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