Matching Items (60)
ContributorsBach, Johann Sebastian, 1685-1750 (Composer)
ContributorsBach, Johann Sebastian, 1685-1750 (Composer)
ContributorsBach, Johann Sebastian, 1685-1750 (Abridger)
Description
The current study employs item difficulty modeling procedures to evaluate the feasibility of potential generative item features for nonword repetition. Specifically, the extent to which the manipulated item features affect the theoretical mechanisms that underlie nonword repetition accuracy was estimated. Generative item features were based on the phonological loop component of Baddelely's model of working memory which addresses phonological short-term memory (Baddeley, 2000, 2003; Baddeley & Hitch, 1974). Using researcher developed software, nonwords were generated to adhere to the phonological constraints of Spanish. Thirty-six nonwords were chosen based on the set item features identified by the proposed cognitive processing model. Using a planned missing data design, two-hundred fifteen Spanish-English bilingual children were administered 24 of the 36 generated nonwords. Multiple regression and explanatory item response modeling techniques (e.g., linear logistic test model, LLTM; Fischer, 1973) were used to estimate the impact of item features on item difficulty. The final LLTM included three item radicals and two item incidentals. Results indicated that the LLTM predicted item difficulties were highly correlated with the Rasch item difficulties (r = .89) and accounted for a substantial amount of the variance in item difficulty (R2 = .79). The findings are discussed in terms of validity evidence in support of using the phonological loop component of Baddeley's model (2000) as a cognitive processing model for nonword repetition items and the feasibility of using the proposed radical structure as an item blueprint for the future generation of nonword repetition items.
ContributorsMorgan, Gareth Philip (Author) / Gorin, Joanna (Thesis advisor) / Levy, Roy (Committee member) / Gray, Shelley (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The purpose of this research is to investigate the types of play and the use of play within daily routines that early intervention providers, parents of children with disabilities, and parents of typically developing children use with children under the age of three. It is important to research the current use of play by parents and providers to explore how play can be used most effectively to help children learn in other developmental domains. Two online surveys were created and distributed, one for early intervention providers and one for parents. The data from the surveys suggests early intervention providers and both parent groups engage in a wide variety of play activities. However, parents of children with disabilities reported using substantially more technology and videos than parents of typically developing children or early intervention providers. The data from the study also indicates that play is incorporated into daily routines by both providers and parents. Both parent groups reported more frequent use of play in most routines than providers. The findings of this study reveal that early intervention providers and parents of typically developing children are more closely aligned in the play activities they utilize with parents of children with disabilities being the most dissimilar. When looking at routines, both parent groups are more similar in their frequency of use of play in daily routines, while early intervention providers generally use routines less frequently than parents. Future studies could look at which play activities are most beneficial for children as well as why providers report using routine less than parents.
ContributorsNorcross, Meghan (Co-author) / Cantrill, Kathryn (Co-author) / Wilcox, M. Jeanne (Thesis director) / Cosgrove Greer, Dawn (Committee member) / Brown, Jean (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Speech and Hearing Science (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Frequency effects favoring high print-frequency words have been observed in frequency judgment memory tasks. Healthy young adults performed frequency judgment tasks; one group performed a single task while another group did the same task while alternating their attention to a secondary task (mathematical equations). Performance was assessed by correct and error responses, reaction times, and accuracy. Accuracy and reaction times were analyzed in terms of memory load (task condition), number of repetitions, effect of high vs. low print-frequency, and correlations with working memory span. Multinomial tree analyses were also completed to investigate source vs. item memory and revealed a mirror effect in episodic memory experiments (source memory), but a frequency advantage in span tasks (item memory). Interestingly enough, we did not observe an advantage for high working memory span individuals in frequency judgments, even when participants split their attention during the dual task (similar to a complex span task). However, we concluded that both the amount of attentional resources allocated and prior experience with an item affect how it is stored in memory.
ContributorsPeterson, Megan Paige (Author) / Azuma, Tamiko (Thesis advisor) / Gray, Shelley (Committee member) / Liss, Julie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Identification of primary language impairment (PLI) in sequential bilingual children is challenging because of the interaction between PLI and second language (L2) proficiency. An important step in improving the accurate diagnosis of PLI in bilingual children is to investigate how differences in L2 performance are affected by a length of L2 exposure and how L2 assessment contributes to differentiation between children with and without PLI at different L2 proficiency levels. Sixty one children with typical language development (TD) ages 5;3-8 years and 12 children with PLI ages 5;5-7;8 years participated. Results revealed that bilingual children with and without PLI, who had between 1 and 3 years of L2 exposure, did not differ in mean length of utterance (MLU), number of different words, percent of maze words, and performance on expressive and receptive grammatical tasks in L2. Performance on a grammaticality judgment task by children with and without PLI demonstrated the largest effect size, indicating that it may potentially contribute to identification of PLI in bilingual populations. In addition, children with PLI did not demonstrate any association between the length of exposure and L2 proficiency, suggesting that they do not develop their L2 proficiency in relation to length of exposure in the same manner as children with TD. Results also indicated that comprehension of grammatical structures and expressive grammatical task in L2 may contribute to differentiation between the language ability groups at the low and intermediate-high proficiency levels. The discriminant analysis with the entire sample of bilingual children with and without PLI revealed that among L2 measures, only MLU contributed to the discrimination between the language ability groups. However, poor classification accuracy suggested that MLU alone is not a sufficient predictor of PLI. There were significant differences among L2 proficiency levels in children with TD in MLU, number of different words, and performance on the expressive and receptive grammatical tasks in L2, indicating that L2 proficiency level may potentially impact the differentiation between language difficulties due to typical L2 acquisition processes and PLI.
ContributorsSmyk, Ekaterina (Author) / Restrepo, Maria Adelaida (Thesis advisor) / Gorin, Joanna (Committee member) / Gray, Shelley (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The increase of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) cases in recent war history has increased the urgency of research regarding how veterans are affected by TBIs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of TBI on speech recognition in noise. The AzBio Sentence Test was completed for signal-to-noise ratios (S/N) from -10 dB to +15 dB for a control group of ten participants and one US military veteran with history of service-connected TBI. All participants had normal hearing sensitivity defined as thresholds of 20 dB or better at frequencies from 250-8000 Hz in addition to having tympanograms within normal limits. Comparison of the data collected on the control group versus the veteran suggested that the veteran performed worse than the majority of the control group on the AzBio Sentence Test. Further research with more participants would be beneficial to our understanding of how veterans with TBI perform on speech recognition tests in the presence of background noise.
ContributorsCorvasce, Erica Marie (Author) / Peterson, Kathleen (Thesis director) / Williams, Erica (Committee member) / Azuma, Tamiko (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Speech and Hearing Science (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Early childhood language environment has an important effect on developmental language outcomes. Intervention and parent training for children who have speech and language delays often focuses on the implementation of strategies designed to enhance the language environment. With quantitative information on different aspects of the language environment, intervention and parent training can be better tailored to the needs of each child and can be made easier for parents to implement. This study uses the Language Environmental Analysis (LENA) system to explore differences in language environment across participants, settings (toddler group and home), and activities (general, outside, and organized playtime, story time, meal time, naptime, transition, public outside visits, travel time, TV time, personal care, and other). Participants were five children, ages 20-35 months who had speech and language delays. The children wore the LENA for one day and the adult words to the child, child vocalizations and turn-taking were analyzed during each activity and setting. We found that general and outside playtime activities, meal time, and personal care times were activities that consistently resulted in high levels of child vocalization across participants. Structured play and story time did not result in high levels of child vocalization. We also found that, for some children, there were differences in the quantity of adult language addressed to the child in language group and home settings. These findings have implications for training parents to provide language rich environments for their child.
ContributorsGlavee, Kelsey Marie (Author) / Scherer, Nancy (Thesis director) / Greer, Dawn (Committee member) / Bacon, Cathy (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Speech and Hearing Science (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Preschoolers' vocabularies are an important component of their receptive and expressive language skills. This study was designed to catalog preschoolers' expressive vocabularies to provide an accurate estimate of how many words and which words seven preschoolers knew. In this study a LENA digital recorder was used to record language samples of the children (age range 40 months to 69 months) over 4-6 days. Their language samples were transcribed and individual root words were extracted. The children spoke an average of 1,698 unique words (range 1,522 \u2014 1,957 words). There were 539 words produced by all of the children in the study as well as 820 words produced by 6 of the 7 children. These data provide preliminary information that will be useful for designing a larger, more comprehensive study of children's vocabulary with the goal of teachers and speech-language pathologists being able to use this information to determine if a child's vocabulary is smaller than other children when they enter elementary school. This can inform assessment and intervention decisions as well as provide guidance to preschool curriculum developers.
ContributorsStanovich, Laura Ashlee (Author) / Gray, Shelley (Thesis director) / Restrepo, M. Adelaida (Committee member) / Department of Speech and Hearing Science (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-12