Psychometric critique of acculturation psychology: the case of Iranian migrants in Norway.

The presumptions, terminology, psychometrics, statistical analyses, and ethics of the fourfold acculturation paradigm are criticized in detail. Illustrative data came from Iranian refugees in Norway (N = 80) answering: 1) the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), 2) Zung's Self-Rating Depression Scale (ZSRDS), 3) ipsative fourfold scales of Integration, Assimilation, Separation, and Marginalization, 4) orthogonal scales of attitudes towards Norwegian and Iranian cultures, measured independently and using balanced reverse-keying, and 5) ipsative forced-choice preferences for cultural practices of Norway, Iran, both, or from other societies as well. Iranians in Norway favored global multiculturalism and, as a group. did not show distress. The SWLS and ZSRDS were correlated, but the measures of acculturation failed to replicate one another. As unconstrained ipsative measures, the fourfold scales showed acquiescence response bias contamination and doubtful operationalization of scale constructs. Recommendations are discussed for improving acculturation research.

Speech reception thresholds for digits.

Of every 10 Canadians, 4 do not speak English as a first language. With non-native speakers of English, SRT testing using spondaic words lists, after the fashion in the U.S.A., may be difficult or invalid. This study examined the viability of using a closed set of English digits (1, 2, 4, 5, 9) for SRT testing in a Canadian setting. Ss were 130 consecutive patients referred for audiologic assessment in an English hospital in Montreal. Approximately 1/3 were native English, 1/3 native French, and 1/3 with other ethnic languages. Digit SRTs by a 10-db-down and 5-db-up procedure correlated very highly with both the standard 3-frequency (.5, 1, 2 kc/s) pure-tone average HTL (r = .94) and the Fletcher average of the 2 best speech-frequency pure-tone HTLs (r = .96). This study concluded that serial digits are viable SRT testing material for Canadian speech audiometry and should be studied for application to other multilingual populations.

Brief clinical report on visual reinforcement audiometry with deaf infants.

Visual reinforcement audiometry (VRA) is a commonly used and efficient procedure for measuring hearing thresholds on infants and young children. The reliability of VRA with normal infants is well established. However, there are few reports, if any, in the literature on the use of VRA with deaf infants under one year of age. This report presents two cases of deaf 11 month old infants, showing test-retest audiograms obtained using VRA. The median retest threshold change was 10 dB. This suggests that VRA is a clinically viable technique, even with deaf infants.

Dichotic alignment, phonetic, and language variables as predictors of SSW performance.

Itemized error scores on the SSW test were acquired for 134 adults in six clinical groups. Using regression analysis, predictors of SSW performance by each group were sought from among variables descriptive of the SSW spondaic words on the EC tape. These included 13 alignment variables, 14 phonetic variables, and 10 speech-language variables. Results showed that for normal subjects, asynchronous dichotic onsets reduced errors significantly. Retrocochlear subjects were sensitive to dichotic phonetics . Cochlear subjects and those with Heschl 's gyrus lesions were both affected by word familiarity variables. Those with cortical lesions sparing Heschl 's gyrus were affected by dichotic alignment. None of the 37 predictor variables was related to SSW performance by adult mentally retarded subjects.

False air-bone gap.

A single case is reported of a severely hearing-impaired child with a finding of a large air-bone gap on pure-tone audiometry on multiple tests. Exploratory surgery found normal middle ear function. Subsequent audiometry indicated the presence of a false air-bone gap resulting from vibrotactile responses. Test procedures for identifying vibrotactile responses are discussed.

Comparison of English and French versions of a dichotic auditory perception test (SSW) on normal bilingual subjects.

Young adult, normal-hearing, Canadian-French Ss (5 M, 5 F) from Montreal were matched for sex, age, and education with 10 Canadian-English Ss. Each S self-rated his receptive and expressive abilities in his non-native language. Then, all were given a new French and a standard English version of the SSW test. After controlling for second-language ability as a covariate, ANOVA showed performance significantly worse in the second language and in the dichotic condition. French Ss performed better on the non-dichotic condition of the English SSW than did English Ss on the French version. This study suggests that the new Canadian-French version of the SSW test is comparable in difficulty to the original English EC tape, but cautions against clinical use of SSW tasks with second-language Ss.

Phonetic factors in the dichotic alignment of the Staggered Spondaic Word Test.

The dichotic alignment of the competing monosyllables of the SSW EC tape was measured at 6 alignment reference points: word and sonorancy onset, center, and offset. Acoustic phonetic characteristics of the onsets and offsets of the competing monosyllables were also measured, including the durations of the pre- and post-sonorancy speech signal as well as binary codes for fricatives, nasals, plosives and liquids. Factor analysis of these variables suggested that the perceptual alignment process used with the EC tape may have indeed allowed phonetic variables to influence non-dichotic alignment.