Biomedical subjects

B Lyxell

Publications and source records attributed to B Lyxell.

31 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

PubMed1994

Internal speech functioning and speechreading in deafened and normal hearing adults.

The present study compared internal speech functioning in two groups of subjects: deafened and normal hearing adults. Internal speech functioning was assessed by means of either direct testing (i.e. rhyme-judgement tasks) or indirect testing (lexical access tests). No differences between the groups across tasks was obtained for speed. Neither was there any difference in accuracy level assessed by indirect tests. For direct testing the deafened group performed at a significantly lower level of accuracy. Accuracy was also correlated with the number of years that they had been deaf. It was concluded that one of the primary consequences of an acquired deafness is that the representational aspects of internal speech deteriorate over time, whereas the mechanical aspects remain relatively intact. Intercorrelations between accuracy level in direct testing and speechreading performance also suggest that speechreading ability declines. Clinical implications of the results are discussed.

Deafness↗

PubMed1993

The effects of background noise and working memory capacity on speechreading performance.

The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of background noise and working memory capacity on speechreading performance. The results displayed no differences in speechreading performance (i.e. on a word-test and on a sentence-test) due to background noise. When working memory capacity was correlated with speechreading, only one of the two tests of working memory capacity (i.e. the reading span task) was found to be related to speechreading performance. This relationship applies to both speechreading tests, but only to one specific background noise condition in the tests: meaningful noise. The results are discussed with respect to the demands of simultaneous storage and processing in working memory and how these demands apply to speech-based noise distractors. It was also concluded that although performance was similar across different background noise conditions, they apparently engage different components of the individual's cognitive system.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

Vibrotactile support: initial effects on visual speech perception.

The study investigated the initial effects of the implementation of vibrotactile support on the individual's speech perception ability. Thirty-two subjects participated in the study; 16 with an acquired deafness and 16 with normal hearing. At a general level, the results indicated no immediate and direct improvement as a function of the implementation across all speech perception tests. However, when the subjects were divided into Skilled and Less Skilled groups, based on their performance in the visual condition of each test, it was found that the performance of the Skilled subjects deteriorated while that of the Less Skilled subjects improved when tactile information was provided in two conditions (word-discrimination and word-decoding conditions). It was concluded that tactile information interferes with Skilled subjects' automaticity of these functions. Furthermore, intercorrelations between discrimination and decoding tasks suggest that there are similarities between visually and tactilely supported speechreading in how they relate to sentence-based speechreading. Clinical implications of the results were discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed1992

The relationship between verbal ability and sentence-based speechreading.

Eighteen hearing-impaired subjects participated in the present study. The purpose was to investigate one general question: The nature of the relationship between verbal ability and speechreading. Verbal ability was assessed by two types of measure: a test of vocabulary size, and four tests of lexical access speed. The results demonstrated that lexical access speed was related to speechreading performance. Vocabulary size was not found to be directly related to the speechreading criterion; rather, its influence was in an indirect fashion via its relation to lexical access speed. It was concluded that lexical access speed could be used as a diagnostic tool, such that when an individual demonstrates lexical access that is unreasonably slow, it could be taken as an indication to suggest that rehabilitation programs should emphasize alternatives to speechreading. A general implication of the present results is that absence of relation between a predictor variable and the speechreading criterion does not necessarily imply absence of relation between the two. There is still a possibility that the predictor variable might be indirectly related to the speechreading criterion.

Adult↗

PubMed1992

Tactiling: a usable support system for speechreading?

The purpose of this study was to find out whether deafened adults can take advantage of the extra information in speechreading given by the vibrational and motional patterns picked up by placing a hand on a speaker's throat and shoulder, and how valuable this tactile supplement is as a support system for speechreading. We have named this method--speechreading with tactile supplement--tactiling. Eight deafened adults participated in the study, conducted with a pre-test/post-test control group design. The experimental and the control groups took speechreading classes together. The experimental group received additional individual training in tactiling during six 1 h lessons. Both the experimental and the control groups were tested, before and after training, first by a familiar person and thereafter by an unfamiliar person. The results demonstrated two significant main effects. Tactiling is generally better than speechreading alone, and the results from the test given by the familiar speaker are better than with the unfamiliar speaker. The main effect of tactiling indicates that the method is worth pursuing as a communication system for the deafened adults. Possible reasons for the direct effect of tactiling are discussed, as well as modifications of this 'natural' device.

Adult↗

PubMed1991

Visual speech processing: word-decoding and word-discrimination related to sentence-based speechreading and hearing-impairment.

Two aspects of visual speech processing in speechreading (word decoding and word discrimination) were tested in a group of 24 normal hearing and a group of 20 hearing-impaired subjects. Word decoding and word discrimination performance were independent of factors related to the impairment, both in a quantitative and a qualitative sense. Decoding skill, but not discrimination skill, was associated with sentence-based speechreading. The results were interpreted such that, in order to represent a critical component process in sentence-based speechreading, the visual speech perception task must entail lexically induced processing as a task-demand. The theoretical status of the word decoding task as one operationalization of a speech decoding module was discussed (Fodor, 1983). An error analysis of performance in the word decoding/discrimination tasks suggested that the perception of heard stimuli, as well as the perception of lipped stimuli, were critically dependent on the same features; that is, the temporally initial phonetic segment of the word (cf. Marslen-Wilson, 1987). Implications for a theory of visual speech perception were discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed1991

Contrasting subjective judgement and objective tests in the hearing-impaired.

The Hearing Performance Inventory (HPI, Giolas et al., 1979) was used to measure 21 moderately hearing-impaired persons' subjectively experienced problems in everyday listening. The HPI rating data show that the greatest problems are experienced on the dimensions 'understanding speech without visual cues', and 'perceived intensity' of sounds. 'Understanding speech with visual cues' has a high positive correlation with both 'social situation' and 'work situation' dimensions, whereas 'understanding speech without visual cues' correlates with 'social' and 'personal situation'. The correlations between the HPI and actual performance in the speechreading tests, and between the HPI and cognitive abilities that were assumed to be critical for speechreading ability, were also examined. It was found that vocabulary size, highly intercorrelated with guessing, was important to the 'social situation' dimension on the HPI. Guessing also constitutes an important cognitive predictor of speechreading skill. However, none of the HPI dimensions was directly related to objective communicative competence. Given the limitations of speechreading training, the data suggest that vocabulary and social skills should be focused on during communicative training.

Adult↗

PubMed1991

Word discrimination and chronological age related to sentence-based speech-reading skill.

Twenty-one hearing-impaired subjects participated in the present study designed to investigate two questions. First, whether the ability to discriminate isolated words is related to sentence-based speech-reading. Second, whether older adults (i.e., 52 to 75 years) could, as in listening tasks, benefit relatively more than younger adults (i.e., 31 to 50 years) when extra contextual information is offered in the speech-reading task. The results demonstrated that word discrimination contributes significantly to efficient speech-reading performance. However, the nature of the relationship is dependent on the particular aspect of word discrimination being tested: that is, one aspect of the word-discrimination test (involving a short-term memory component) was tied to one specific speech-reading condition only (i.e., 3-word sentences), whereas another aspect (without a short-term memory component) facilitated performance in all kinds of speech-reading conditions. For both age groups it was found that contextual information had an equally facilitative effect. The results were discussed with respect to the role played by contextual information in visual speech perception compared to other related areas (e.g., listening and reading tasks).

Aging↗

PubMed1989

Information-processing skill and speech-reading.

Two measures of verbal inference-making ability (a sentence-completion test; SCT, and a word-completion test; WCT) and one test of working memory capacity were examined in relation to speech-reading performance. The results demonstrated that the SCT proved to be the only variable that was substantially correlated with speech-reading performance. The contribution from working memory capacity and the WCT test to speech-reading is mainly via their contribution to the SCT. Skilled SCT-performance was particularly tied to speech-reading conditions with a low level of contextual information accompanying the speech-reading task. No general or specific difference was found between hearing-impaired and normally-hearing subjects in the speech-reading test, thus indicating that speech-reading performance cannot be predicted by factors related to the hearing-impairment. Rather, information-processing skills seem to be decisive.

Adult↗

PubMed1989

Visual evoked potentials: relation to adult speechreading and cognitive function.

This study investigated the putative relationship between visual evoked potentials (VEPs) and specific aspects of speechreading. The nature and constraints of the relationship between VEPs and cognitive functioning was also examined. The original finding of Shepherd, DeLavergne, Frueh, and Clobridge (1977) that visual-neural speed (VN 130) predicts speechreading skill was not replicated. However, the picture is rather complex in that we find significant correlations for some context-free word discrimination and sign-alphabet testing conditions. These correlations occur only for the VN 130/P 200 peak-to-peak amplitude measure, not for neural speed. Nevertheless, visual-neural speed (VN 130 and P 200) was relevant to certain aspects of long-term memory access (i.e., letter matching, Posner & Mitchell, 1967) and to complex short-term memory function (i.e., reading span, Baddeley, Logie, Nimmo-Smith, & Brereton, 1985).

Adolescent↗

PubMed1987

Linguistic abstraction and hearing handicap.

The present study aimed at studying compensatory cognitive functions in the profoundly hearing-impaired. Bransford & Franks' (1971) linguistic abstraction paradigm was employed as a means of testing the hypothesis that the profoundly hearing-impaired engage in a general meaning-abstraction strategy not necessary for the normal-hearing. Twenty profoundly hearing-impaired subjects and 20 normal-hearing subjects participated in the experiment and the results unequivocally supported the hypothesis. Clinical implications of the results are indicated and discussed in relation to speech-reading tests and to training programs.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1987

Guessing and speechreading.

The present experiment investigated the relation between guessing (cf. synthetic ability, Jeffers and Barley, 1971) and speechreading performance. Guessing was measured by two types of completion tests: One sentence-completion test (SCT), and one word-completion test (WCT). The results indicated that skilled guessing - in terms of SCT-performance - proved to be critical for longer sentences to be speechread, while skilled guessing - as measured by a WCT - proved to be critical for speechreading situations where a low level of contextual information was offered. The latter result was also obtained for one of the SCT-subtests. The results suggest that speechreading and guessing skill are related to each other, and that different types of guessing tests predict different aspects of the speechreading process.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Evaluation of a cognitive test battery in young and elderly normal-hearing and hearing-impaired persons.

A cognitive test battery sensitive to processes important for speech understanding was developed and investigated. Test stimuli are presented as text or in an auditory or audiovisual modality. The tests investigate phonologic processing and verbal information processing. Four subject groups, young/elderly with normal-hearing and young/elderly with hearing impairment, each including 12 subjects, participated in the study. The only significant effect in the text modality was an age effect in the speed of performance, seen also in the auditory and audiovisual modalities. In the auditory and audiovisual modalities, the effects of hearing status and modality were seen in accuracy parameters. Interactions between hearing status and modality, both in accuracy and in reaction times, show that hearing-impaired subjects have difficulties without visual cues. Performing the test battery in noise made the tasks more difficult, especially in the auditory modality and for the elderly, affecting both accuracy and speed. Test-retest measurements showed learning effects and a modality-dependent variability. The test battery has proven useful in assessing the relative contribution of different input signals and the effects of age, hearing impairment, and visual contribution on functions important for speech processing.

Adult↗