Duration and frequency characteristics of tracheoesophageal speech.

Selected characteristics were compared in the speech of five tracheoesophageal, five esophageal, and 15 normal laryngeal adult speakers. Tape-recorded speech samples were measured for durational features with a stopwatch. Frequency features were analyzed with a Visi-Pitch/Apple IIE computer interface with statistical subroutines. Tracheoesophageal speech proved comparable to normal speech in maximum phonation time, speech rate, pitch pertubation (jitter), average fundamental frequency, and fundamental frequency range, but less efficient than normal speech in phrase grouping. Tracheoesophageal speech was superior to esophageal speech in maximum phonation time, speech rate, and phrase grouping, but not significantly different in pitch perturbation, average fundamental frequency, and fundamental frequency range. Explanations and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

Comparison of ratings of four artificial larynges.

Fifty-six tape-recorded readings of the "Rainbow Passage" were played to 29 naive listeners for judgments regarding acceptability of artificial larynx speech. Both intraoral and neck-type devices were used, with comparisons among brands of particular interest. The Cooper-Rand, orally adapted Servox, AT&T 5 C, and the neck Servox were used in eliciting speech samples from 14 male esophageal speakers. Listeners rated acceptability using a seven-point equal-appearing interval scale. All devices were rated similar in fluency acceptability, inflection, and overall communicative effectiveness. Speaking rates were judged more acceptable with the oral Servox and least acceptable with the Cooper-Rand. Pitch/quality was more acceptable with intraoral devices than with neck devices, with the oral Servox rated highest. Clinical implications regarding the perceptual findings are discussed, with information about specific brands provided for patient counseling.

Acceptability ratings of tracheoesophageal speech.

Thirty-one naive listeners rated the intelligibility and acceptability of tracheoesophageal, esophageal, and normal laryngeal speech of 15 adult speakers. Intelligibility was measured using a multiple-choice word test while acceptability was rated on a seven-point equal-appearing interval scale. Judgments were made on the features of fluency, pitch/quality, speech rate, inflection, and overall acceptability. Tracheoesophageal speech was found not to differ significantly from normal speech in intelligibility, rate, and inflection, but was less acceptable for fluency, pitch/quality and overall acceptability. Tracheoesophageal speech was more acceptable than esophageal speech for all features measured.

Temporal disruptions in the "accurate" speech of articulatory defective speakers and stutterers.

Durational measures of vocalic steady states and transitions were made on phonetically accurate and fluently produced vowel-plosive, consonant-vowel bisyllables embedded in a carrier phrase. in the first experiment, these measures were taken from the speech of ten articulatory defective adult speakers and ten matched normal speakers. The second experiment analyzed durational measures in the speech of ten adult stutterers and ten matched nonstutterers. Using wideband spectrography, durational measurements were used to infer timing of articulatory movements during the subsegments of the VCV sequences. The results of both experiments suggest that the two groups of speech disordered subjects were able to produce transitional shifts appropriate to the phonetic environment but appeared to delay the initiation of coarticulatory movements. Aberrant speech timing may imply an involvement in the planning or integration of articulatory/coarticulatory movements rather than difficulty with movement execution per se.

The effectiveness of simultaneous cues on naming disturbance in aphasia.

The effects of increased information redundancy on word retrieval in aphasic patients was investigated in this study. Protocols involved combining five types of cues commonly utilized in aphasia management into eight pairs, each of which could be presented simultaneously. The resulting cue combinations were presented to 16 anterior lesion aphasic subjects who manifested mild to severe word-finding difficulty. All of the combinations were effective in facilitating picture-naming performance, with the severe group demonstrating the most dramatic improvement when simultaneous prompts were utilized. A cueing hierarchy incorporating increased stimulus redundancy is supported.

Acoustic evidence of aberrant velocities in stutterers' fluent speech.

Movement rates of formant frequencies and the extents of articulatory change were spectrographically analyzed in the fLuent (VCV) utterances of 20 stutterers and nonstutterers. The velocities of articulator movement throughout the first vowel and velocities into the second vowel were not significantly different for the two groups. These mean rates of movement, although nonsignificant, were slower in stutterers and slightly more variable, and the extent of articulator movement was comparable. These results do not support the contentions that stutterers use coarticulatory movements that are too rapid or that stutterers have a poorer competence for rapid coordination of speech movements. The rationales of rate-control treatment methods to slow coarticulatory movements in stutterers need to be reexamined.