Eighteen Mexican American pupils in the grades 1-3 from two urban Kansas schools were tested, using 18 pairs of sound contrasts, for auditory discrimination problems related to their language-different background. Results showed v-b, ch-sh, and s-sp contrasts were the most difficult for subjects to discriminate. (LC)

Reports a study showing that subjects can make discriminative judgments about a speaker's sex and race from his tape-recorded speech. Filtering the speech signal adversely affects race but not sex identification. Listener accuracy and confidence for sex judgments are greater than for race judgments. (PMJ)

An auditory inspection time (AIT) test, pitch discrimination tests, and verbal and non-verbal mental ability tests were administered to 59 undergraduates and 119 12-year-old school children. Results indicate that AIT correlations with intelligence are due to AIT being an index of information intake speeds. (TJH)

Examined infants' tendency, from a few days to nine months of age, to prefer infant-directed over adult-directed speech. Results suggest that exaggerated pitch contours that characterize infant-directed speech may become salient communicative signals for infants through language-rich, interactive experiences with caretakers and increased…

Examines the ability of monolingual English-speaking subjects to judge whether two spoken samples are from the same or different unknown foreign language. Performance of subjects was only a small degree above chance, while at the same time giving reliable information about recognition and identification skills. Further studies are needed. (16…

There is much debate as to the extent and nature of functional specialization within the different subregions of the prefrontal cortex. The current study was undertaken to investigate the effect of damage to medial prefrontal cortex subregions in the rat. Rats were trained on two biconditional discrimination tasks, one auditory and one visual, in…

Human newborns discriminate languages from different rhythmic classes, fail to discriminate languages from the same rhythmic class, and fail to discriminate languages when the utterances are played backwards. Recent evidence showing that cotton-top tamarins discriminate Dutch from Japanese, but not when utterances are played backwards, is…

In 2 experiments, the authors examined the electro-physiological auditory responses of monolingual French listeners to American English vowel contrasts as a function of the surrounding vowel context. The context was determined on the basis of behavioral results (C.Meunier, C. Frenck-Mestre, T. Lelekov-Boissard & M. Le Besnaris, 2003, 2004). In…

This paper describes adult symptoms of Central Auditory Processing Disorder and provides strategies for dealing with this disability. Symptoms include talking or turning on the television louder than normal, interpreting words too literally, needing remarks repeated, having difficulty sounding out words, ignoring people, being unusually sensitive…

To determine whether the impressive rates for speed reading (e.g., 500 words per minute) can be approximated in speed listening, two experiments compared the comprehension level of material heard at a normal speaking rate with that heard at accelerated rates. In the first experiment, the major demonstration experiment, three groups of college…

This study examines the relationships between the measures of visual and auditory discrimination contained in five reading readiness batteries: the Clymer-Barrett Prereading Battery (Form A), the Gates-MacGinitie Readiness Skills Test, the Harrison-Stroud Reading Readiness Profile, the Metropolitan Reading Readiness Tests (Form A), and the…

Auditory Comprehension is a skill which must be developed by second language learners if communicative competence is to be achieved. While most programs treat the rudimentary aspects of listening skills with rather mechanical drills, exercises to develop this skill in more advanced stages are usually not included. However, with the trend toward…

TO COMPARE CONVENTIONAL AND PROGRAMED INSTRUCTION ON TEACHING AUDITORY DISCRIMINATION OF THE "S" PHONEME, 20 LESSONS CONTAINING STIMULUS AND REPEAT ITEMS WERE RECORDED ON A COMMERCIAL MULTI- CHANNEL DEVICE THAT ALLOWS CONTINUOUS ADJUSTMENT ON THE BASIS OF RESPONSE. THE 40 GRADES TWO-FOUR PARTICIPANTS, MATCHED ON AGE, SEX, AND IQ, WERE…

THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN AUDITORY AND VISUAL FUNCTIONING AND READING ACHIEVEMENT WERE EXPLORED. AN ADDITIONAL OBJECTIVE WAS TO INVESTIGATE THE INFLUENCE OF DEVELOPMENTAL FACTORS ON THESE VARIABLES. A WIDE RANGE OF AUDITORY AND VISUAL SKILLS WAS SAMPLED IN POOR AND NORMAL READERS AT THREE DIFFERENT GRADE LEVELS (FIRST, THIRD, AND FIFTH). DATA…

THIS PROJECT ANALYZED A LONGITUDINAL READING PROGRAM FOR IDENTIFICATION OF GROWTH IN ABILITIES, AND THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TESTS. APPROXIMATELY 60 PUPILS FROM CONTROL AND EXPERIMENTAL CLASSES RECEIVED INTENSIVE READINESS TRAINING IN VISUAL PERCEPTION, AUDITORY DISCRIMINATION, AND LANGUAGE SKILLS. ALL WERE TESTED AT 25-MONTH INTERVALS. ANALYSES…