The general aim of this project is to continue the development of a reliable method for measuring chronic stuttering in the continuous speech of persons who stutter. Previous research has shown repeatedly that trained and untrained judges have exceedingly poor levels of agreement in identifying stuttering events. Furthermore, there is evidence that trained judges in different treatment/research centers show wide differences even in the total number of stuttering events that they count on identical recordings of stutterers. These findings have brought stuttering treatment research (which largely relies on observer-based real-time stuttering measures) into a state of crisis. The studies conducted in this grant seek to solve this problem by continuing the investigation of procedures that have been found to improve the reliability of perceptually-judged stuttering. These procedures are supplemented by investigations of the use of artificial neural networks (ANNs) to automatically identify intervals of speech that contain stuttering. These studies have the following specific aims: (1) to investigate the reliability (inter- and intrajudge interval-by-interval agreement) of time interval measures of stuttering in children and adults; (2) to investigate procedures for training judges to identify stuttering in real time interval units; (3) to determine the functional status of time interval measures in procedures used to treat stuttering; and (4) to continue development of ANNs for use with audio- and audiovisual-recorded speech samples by adults and children who stutter. The findings of these studies will be evaluated for their generality across stuttering research centers.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01DC000060-05
Application #
2124326
Study Section
Sensory Disorders and Language Study Section (CMS)
Project Start
1990-12-01
Project End
1997-08-31
Budget Start
1995-09-01
Budget End
1996-08-31
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
1995
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of California Santa Barbara
Department
Other Health Professions
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
City
Santa Barbara
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
93106
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Cordes, A K; Ingham, R J (1999) Effects of time-interval judgement training on real-time measurement of stuttering. J Speech Lang Hear Res 42:862-79
Finn, P; Ingham, R J; Ambrose, N et al. (1997) Children recovered from stuttering without formal treatment: perceptual assessment of speech normalcy. J Speech Lang Hear Res 40:867-76
Mackey, L S; Finn, P; Ingham, R J (1997) Effect of speech dialect on speech naturalness ratings: a systematic replication of Martin, Haroldson, and Triden (1984). J Speech Lang Hear Res 40:349-60
Ingham, R J; Cordes, A K (1997) Identifying the authoritative judgments of stuttering: comparisons of self-judgments and observer judgments. J Speech Lang Hear Res 40:581-94
Ingham, R J; Moglia, R A; Frank, P et al. (1997) Experimental investigation of the effects of frequency-altered auditory feedback on the speech of adults who stutter. J Speech Lang Hear Res 40:361-72
Ingham, R J; Fox, P T; Ingham, J C et al. (1996) Functional-lesion investigation of developmental stuttering with positron emission tomography. J Speech Hear Res 39:1208-27
Onslow, M; Adams, R; Ingham, R (1992) Reliability of speech naturalness ratings of stuttered speech during treatment. J Speech Hear Res 35:994-1001