This article proposes a conceptual and measurement framework for postpubertal, L2 speech learning aptitude that is centered around domain-general auditory processing (i.e., representing spectral and temporal characteristics of sounds). To this end, we examine the construct and reliability of a battery of auditory processing tests by presenting the…

Purpose: A Bayesian adaptive procedure, that is, the quick auditory filter (qAF) procedure, has been shown to improve the efficiency for estimating auditory filter shapes of listeners with normal hearing. The current study evaluates the accuracy and test-retest reliability of the qAF procedure for naïve listeners with a variety of ages and hearing…

The main purpose of the current investigation was to determine whether the Vocal Development Landmarks Interview-Experimental Version (VDLI-E) was sensitive to variation in the vocal development of infants and toddlers who are hard of hearing. The VDLI-E is an interactive parent interview that uses audio samples of authentic infant vocalizations…

In response to the need for examples of test validation from which everyday language programs can benefit, this paper reports on a study that used Bachman's (2005) assessment use argument (AUA) framework to examine evidence to support claims made about the intended interpretations and uses of scores based on a new web-based Spanish language…

This article describes the development and field test of the Sound Concept Inventory Instrument (SCII), designed to measure middle school students' concepts of sound. The instrument was designed based on known students' difficulties in understanding sound and the history of science related to sound and focuses on two main aspects of sound: sound…

USING PREVIOUSLY DEVELOPED FORMS OF THE DISCRIMINATION BY IDENTIFICATION OF PICTURES (DIP) TEST AND THE THRESHOLD BY IDENTIFICATION OF PICTURES (TIP) TEST, THE INVESTIGATORS SOUGHT TO IMPROVE THE MATERIAL AND PROCEDURE AND TO STANDARDIZE THE TESTS ON NORMAL HEARING CHILDREN. BOTH TESTS REQUIRED CHILDREN TO IDENTIFY PICTURES UPON HEARING NAMES OF…

Purpose of this study was to determine if children in the first grade could discriminate whether two paired chords were the same or different, could learn to associate a tone with a chord in four brief training sessions, and could improve more in harmonic discrimination when performing chords in the training sessions than when merely listening to…

The Vowel Matching Test (VMT) measures primary grade children's ability to discriminate medial vowel sounds. Based on the responses of 43 first-grade pupils, the results indicated that the VMT correlated .76 with a word recognition test. It exhibited an internal consistency coefficient of .78. (Author/BW)

The purpose of this year-long study was to explore the effectiveness of the Trythall system of music dictation instruction (particularly Trythall's small-step, programmed method) in the training of aural skills--error detection, melodic dictation, rhythmic dictation, harmonic dictation, chord identification, and sight singing. For this study, the…

Author-supplied item labels for two common speech discrimination tests were compared with those given spontaneously by 40 children (median age 5:5). Agreement between subjects' and authors' labels was 76.3 percent on the Word Intelligibility by Picture Identification test and 75 percent on the Northwestern University Children's Perception of…

An investigation was made of the effects of age and sex on preschool children's discrimination of intensity in musical contexts. Subjects included 92 children ranging in age from 37 to 70 months. A total of 47 females and 45 males participated in the study. To determine preschoolers' loudness discrimination abilities, a new test was designed: The…

Based on Huntington's Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University. Adapted from paper presented at Convention of American Speech and Hearing Association (36, Los Angeles, Calif., Nov., 1960).

This study, involving 40 normal-hearing 6 year olds, substantiates the form equivalence of the Selective Auditory Attention Test. Analysis shows equal mean difficulty and significant correlations between lists in quiet and between lists presented with competing speech. (Author/JDD)