Filtering by
- All Subjects: Education
- Member of: Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
The brain continuously monitors speech output to detect potential errors between its sensory prediction and its sensory production (Daliri et al., 2020). When the brain encounters an error, it generates a corrective motor response, usually in the opposite direction, to reduce the effect of the error. Previous studies have shown that the type of auditory error received may impact a participant’s corrective response. In this study, we examined whether participants respond differently to categorical or non-categorical errors. We applied two types of perturbation in real-time by shifting the first formant (F1) and second formant (F2) at three different magnitudes. The vowel /ɛ/ was shifted toward the vowel /æ/ in the categorical perturbation condition. In the non-categorical perturbation condition, the vowel /ɛ/ was shifted to a sound outside of the vowel quadrilateral (increasing both F1 and F2). Our results showed that participants responded to the categorical perturbation while they did not respond to the non-categorical perturbation. Additionally, we found that in the categorical perturbation condition, as the magnitude of the perturbation increased, the magnitude of the response increased. Overall, our results suggest that the brain may respond differently to categorical and non-categorical errors, and the brain is highly attuned to errors in speech.
performance is limited by poor spectral resolution. Acoustic CI simulation has been widely used
in normal-hearing (NH) listeners to study the effect of spectral resolution on speech perception,
while avoiding patient-related confounds. It is unclear how speech production may change with
the degree of spectral degradation of auditory feedback as experience by CI users. In this study,
a real-time sinewave CI simulation was developed to provide NH subjects with auditory
feedback of different spectral resolution (1, 2, 4, and 8 channels). NH subjects were asked to
produce and identify vowels, as well as recognize sentences while listening to the real-time CI
simulation. The results showed that sentence recognition scores with the real-time CI simulation
improved with more channels, similar to those with the traditional off-line CI simulation.
Perception of a vowel continuum “HEAD”- “HAD” was near chance with 1, 2, and 4 channels,
and greatly improved with 8 channels and full spectrum. The spectral resolution of auditory
feedback did not significantly affect any acoustic feature of vowel production (e.g., vowel space
area, mean amplitude, mean and variability of fundamental and formant frequencies). There
was no correlation between vowel production and perception. The lack of effect of auditory
feedback spectral resolution on vowel production was likely due to the limited exposure of NH
subjects to CI simulation and the limited frequency ranges covered by the sinewave carriers of
CI simulation. Future studies should investigate the effects of various CI processing parameters
on speech production using a noise-band CI simulation.
A Conversation on Stuttering is a documentary film that is aimed at raising awareness about stuttering. Still not fully understood by modern research, stuttering (stammering in the UK) is a diagnosis often accompanied by years of ridicule, shame, and misconceptions. We set out to interview people who stutter, researchers, and clinicians alike to gain insight into the impact stuttering can have. Our participants in this documentary included four people who stutter, two clinicians, and 2 researchers (one of them being a person who stutters). The questions asked ranged from topics of physical and emotional aspects of stuttering to therapy experiences and research on what causes stuttering. From the mix of genuine, sometimes emotional, responses, the film captures flowing conversation on a range of experiences had by our interviewees. Through these responses, we hope to open further dialogue about the themes of identity, understanding our differences, and perspectives that can make a more accepting world.
A Conversation on Stuttering is a documentary film that is aimed at raising awareness about stuttering. Still not fully understood by modern research, stuttering (stammering in the UK) is a diagnosis often accompanied by years of ridicule, shame, and misconceptions. We set out to interview people who stutter, researchers, and clinicians alike to gain insight into the impact stuttering can have. Our participants in this documentary included four people who stutter, two clinicians, and 2 researchers (one of them being a person who stutters). The questions asked ranged from topics of physical and emotional aspects of stuttering to therapy experiences and research on what causes stuttering. From the mix of genuine, sometimes emotional, responses, the film captures flowing conversation on a range of experiences had by our interviewees. Through these responses, we hope to open further dialogue about the themes of identity, understanding our differences, and perspectives that can make a more accepting world.
A notable dilemma in the educational systems of current year is the lack of diversity in the faculty, administration, and curriculums. Diversity in education is colloquially understood to instill benefits in students that include development of sophisticated communication skills and heightened motivation, which may in turn have measurable benefits on health. In an effort to articulate the impact of introducing greater variegation into these systems and vocalize recommendations toward incorporating diversity into existing educational systems, the history of minority groups in schooling systems was analyzed, as were common health concerns for these communities. To this end, local students from Arizona State University were surveyed about their perceptions on diverse populations within their educational system. Moreover, these groups were also polled about how the messaging they receive about health and diversity may impact self-perceptions about their own health, as well as how applicable that messaging is with their own experiences.