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Purpose Computational modeling was used to examine the consequences of 5 different laryngeal asymmetries on acoustic and perceptual measures of vocal function. Method A kinematic vocal fold model was used to impose 5 laryngeal asymmetries: adduction, edge bulging, nodal point ratio, amplitude of vibration, and starting phase. Thirty /a/ and /ɪ/ vowels were generated for each asymmetry and analyzed acoustically using cepstral peak prominence (CPP), harmonics-to-noise ratio (HNR), and 3 measures of spectral slope (H1*-H2*, B0-B1, and B0-B2). Twenty listeners rated voice quality for a subset of the productions. Results Increasingly asymmetric adduction, bulging, and nodal point ratio explained significant variance in perceptual rating ( R 2 = .05, p < .001). The same factors resulted in generally decreasing CPP, HNR, and B0-B2 and in increasing B0-B1. Of the acoustic measures, only CPP explained significant variance in perceived quality ( R 2 = .14, p < .001). Increasingly asymmetric amplitude of vibration or starting phase minimally altered vocal function or voice quality. Conclusion Asymmetries of adduction, bulging, and nodal point ratio drove acoustic measures and perception in the current study, whereas asymmetric amplitude of vibration and starting phase demonstrated minimal influence on the acoustic signal or voice quality. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.6170459

Purpose This study investigated an account of limited short-term memory capacity for children’s speech perception in noise using a dual-task paradigm. Method Sixty-four normal-hearing children (7–14 years of age) participated in this study. Dual tasks were repeating monosyllabic words presented in noise at 8 dB signal-to-noise ratio and rehearsing sets of 3 or 5 digits for subsequent serial recall. Half of the children were told to allocate their primary attention to word repetition and the other half to remembering digits. Dual-task performance was compared to single-task performance. Limitations in short-term memory demands required for the primary task were measured by dual-task decrements in nonprimary tasks. Results Results revealed that (a) regardless of task priority, no dual-task decrements were found for word recognition, but significant dual-task decrements were found for digit recall; (b) most children did not show the ability to allocate attention preferentially to primary tasks; and (c) younger children (7- to 10-year-olds) demonstrated improved word recognition in the dual-task conditions relative to their single-task performance. Conclusions Seven- to 8-year-old children showed the greatest improvement in word recognition at the expense of the greatest decrement in digit recall during dual tasks. Several possibilities for improved word recognition in the dual-task conditions are discussed.

Given the interest in comparing speech production development in children with normal hearing and hearing impairment, it is important to evaluate how variables within speech elicitation tasks can differentially affect the acoustics of speech production for these groups. In a first experiment, children (6–14 years old) with cochlear implants produced a set of monosyllabic words either in isolation or while simultaneously signing the word. Acoustical analyses indicated no change in word duration, voice onset time, intensity, or fundamental frequency between isolated and simultaneous signing conditions. In a second experiment, the same children verbally repeated words that were signed by a video model. The model either signed with inflection or without. Words repeated after inflected models were higher in fundamental frequency and intensity and were more intelligible. In addition, children with poorer speech perception skills sometimes produced the monosyllables as 2 syllables, but this only occurred for words that had multiple sign movements. The results have implications for the comparison of speech development between children with normal hearing and those with hearing impairment.