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"Marinyo" is a culture left by the Portuguese around the 15th century in Maluku. The purpose of this study was to find out to what extent students' misconceptions about the concept of sound in the "Marinyo" case in the Kepuluan Tanimbar Regency. The method used was a qualitative study in ethnography in ten villages in two sub-districts. In addition, they conducted a survey in the form of a diagnostic test in the form of questions related to the "Marinyo" case on 300 elementary school students. The findings in the field show that students experience relatively high misconceptions. It was because teachers did not accustom students to learn from natural phenomena around them and were given scientific questions to seek, find and provide answers and solutions related to these natural phenomena. The teacher was more pursuing the conditions and problems of physics in textbooks and less exploring contextual matters. Future researchers are suggested to develop physics or science teaching materials based on regional local advantages that are oriented towards understanding concepts, mental models, critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity and innovative thinking so that teachers and students can learn well so that knowledge of science becomes better.

One of the difficulties in teaching Turkish, which is a phonetically rich language, to foreigners, is that similar sounds are often confused with each other. Since even a single punctuation mark is crucial for writing and reading Turkish letters (i-i, o-ö, u-ü, c-ç, g-g, s-s, etc.), students who use the Arabic alphabet have great difficulty writing and pronouncing Turkish words correctly. The difficulties that foreigners have in spelling vowels (i-i, o-ö, u-ü) and consonants (c-ç, g-g, m-n, s-s) when learning Turkish also have a negative impact on their writing and speaking skills. Especially in essay writing classes, students often misspell words, which makes it necessary to determine and implement more effective strategies in alphabet lessons. When teaching the Turkish alphabet, it is of great importance that the teacher uses "onomatopoeia," which is considered an important feature of Turkish, to overcome this problem. In this study, the effect of onomatopoeia, the word corresponding to sounds in nature, on writing skills in Turkish classes for foreigners was investigated. This study, taken from a class of nine students at the Afyon Kocatepe University Turkish Language Teaching Centre at A1 level in the semesters of 2013-2014, was based on the analysis of three essays written by the students before and after studying onomatopoeia. The analysis of the data revealed that teaching the alphabet with onomatopoeic words was effective for the students in terms of the letters whose spellings were confused with each other and made a significant contribution to the writing skills of foreigners.

Multimodal learning analytics (MMLA) research has shown the feasibility of building automated models of collaboration quality using artificial intelligence (AI) techniques (e.g., supervised machine learning (ML)), thus enabling the development of monitoring and guiding tools for computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). However, the practical applicability and performance of these automated models in authentic settings remains largely an under-researched area. In such settings, the quality of data features or attributes is often affected by noise, which is referred to as attribute noise. This paper undertakes a systematic exploration of the impact of attribute noise on the performance of different collaboration-quality estimation models. Moreover, we also perform a comparative analysis of different ML algorithms in terms of their capability of dealing with attribute noise. We employ four ML algorithms that have often been used for collaboration-quality estimation tasks due to their high performance: random forest, naive Bayes, decision tree, and AdaBoost. Our results show that random forest and decision tree outperformed other algorithms for collaboration-quality estimation tasks in the presence of attribute noise. The study contributes to the MMLA (and learning analytics (LA) in general) and CSCL fields by illustrating how attribute noise impacts collaboration-quality model performance and which ML algorithms seem to be more robust to noise and thus more likely to perform well in authentic settings. Our research outcomes offer guidance to fellow researchers and developers of (MM)LA systems employing AI techniques with multimodal data to model collaboration-related constructs in authentic classroom settings.

The process of perceiving music involves the transference of environmental physics in the air to anatomical and physiological interpretations of resonance in the body and psychological perceptions in the brain. These processes and musical interpretations are the basis of physical and cognitive science, neurophysiology, psychoacoustics, and cultural psychology. The intersection of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary curricular offerings forms the basis of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). In this study, the researcher explores the synergy of music in STEM for formulating and affording authentic STEAM programmatic offerings for learners. The blending of the art of music within STEM provides opportunities for teachers and students to address and connect content through creative, innovative approaches for deeper, meaningful learning. Threading the art of music within STEM affords discovery-learning opportunities that facilitate both critical thinking and social, emotional learning skills development in students. This study provides perspective in terms of developing curricular offerings for students that blend physical and cognitive science with the art of sound. The researcher provides authentic curricular exemplars regarding the synergy of music in STEM and concludes by offering recommendations for designing and implementing expressive curricular programmatic offerings for students from early childhood settings through higher education.

In this research, the effects of using Model-Based and Argumentation-Supported Model-Based Inquiry methods on 6th-grade middle school students' knowledge, scientific process skills, and motivation regarding the subject of sound and its properties were examined according to the current curriculum. A total of 77 students attending a state school participated in the study that employed a mixed research design. In the semi-experimental study, two experimental groups and one control group were used. Lessons were taught according to the model-based inquiry method supported by argumentation in the first experimental group, according to the model-based inquiry method in the second experimental group, and according to the current curriculum in the control group. In the research, achievement tests, scientific process skills tests, and motivation scales were administered as pre-tests and post-tests for data collection. The obtained data were analyzed using One-Way Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). According to the obtained results, it has been determined that the Model-Based and Argumentation-Supported Model-Based Inquiry methods significantly differ from the current curriculum in terms of student achievement and motivation. Furthermore, it has been observed that the Argumentation-Supported Model-Based Inquiry method is more effective than the Model-Based Inquiry method in enhancing students' development of scientific process skills.

In this study, it was aimed to develop an achievement test taking into account the subject acquisitions of the sound and properties unit in the sixth-grade science course. In the test development phase, firstly, literature review for the study was conducted. Then, 30 multiple choice questions in align with the subject acquisition in the 2018 science curriculum. This 30-question test was presented to opinion of three academicians and a science teacher for the validity of the test. Necessary adjustments were made in line with the opinions of the experts. Subsequently, the draft test, modified according to the experts' feedback, was applied to a total of 300 seventh grade students. After the analysis, the number of questions in the test was reduced to 27. As a result of item analysis, mean difficulty index value of the test was 0.41, and item discrimination index was 0.49. The reliability analysis for the developed test was found 0.92 by calculating the KR-20 reliability coefficient value. By considering, the validity and reliability analysis results, it was concluded that the final version of the developed test, grounded in Bloom's Taxonomy, is a valid and reliable test with different difficulty levels.

Background: Although most prevalent in childhood, the acquisition of new words in oral vocabulary takes place right across the lifespan. Of the many factors that influence oral vocabulary learning, one extrinsic factor is the listening environment. The current study aimed to examine whether the presence of noise impacts oral vocabulary learning in adult native speakers of English and, if so, whether this can be alleviated by the incidental presence of orthography when introducing new words. Methods: Sixty 18-35-year-old native speakers of English were divided into two groups: orthography present and orthography absent and were taught novel picture-word pairs either in quiet or in noise. Word learning was assessed using picture naming and picture-word-matching tasks. Results: The results revealed that the presence of orthography during training reduced the negative impact of noise and supported word learning and retention in adults. Conclusion: These results are promising for vocabulary instruction practices in less-than-ideal listening environments where structural modifications are not a feasible option.

Current theories of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) suggest atypical use of context in ASD, but little is known about how these atypicalities influence speech perception. We examined the influence of contextual information (lexical, spectral, and temporal) on phoneme categorization of people with ASD and in typically developed (TD) people. Across three experiments, we found that people with ASD used all types of contextual information for disambiguating speech sounds to the same extent as TD; yet they exhibited a shallower identification curve when phoneme categorization required temporal processing. Overall, the results suggest that the observed atypicalities in speech perception in ASD, including the reduced sensitivity observed here, cannot be attributed merely to the limited ability to utilize context during speech perception.

Infants are immersed in a world of sounds from the moment their auditory system becomes functional, and experience with the auditory world shapes how their brain processes sounds in their environment. Across cultures, speech and music are two dominant auditory signals in infants' daily lives. Decades of research have repeatedly shown that both quantity and quality of speech input play critical roles in infant language development. Less is known about the music input infants receive in their environment. This study is the first to compare music input to speech input across infancy by analyzing a longitudinal dataset of daylong audio recordings collected in English-learning infants' home environments, at 6, 10, 14, 18, and 24 months of age. Using a crowdsourcing approach, 643 naïve listeners annotated 12,000 short snippets (10 s) randomly sampled from the recordings using Zooniverse, an online citizen-science platform. Results show that infants overall receive significantly more speech input than music input and the gap widens as the infants get older. At every age point, infants were exposed to more music from an electronic device than an in-person source; this pattern was reversed for speech. The percentage of input intended for infants remained the same over time for music while that percentage significantly increased for speech. We propose possible explanations for the limited music input compared to speech input observed in the present (North American) dataset and discuss future directions. We also discuss the opportunities and caveats in using a crowdsourcing approach to analyze large audio datasets. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://youtu.be/lFj_sEaBMN4

Classrooms are often noisy environments, which can result in unfavorable learning conditions for students. However, research has insufficiently addressed how noisy classrooms affect autistic students. This preliminary study examined differences in, and the impact of, background noise on reading performance for elementary-aged autistic and non-autistic (NA) children (N = 49). Autistic (n = 13) and NA children (n = 36) between the ages of 6 and 13 years participated in the current study. We employed a repeated measures design where each participant read four, grade-appropriate reading curriculum-based measurement (CBM) passages and subsequently completed comprehension (i.e., retell and recall) tasks in the presence of four different listening conditions (i.e., experimental condition): (1) quiet, (2) a single talker, (3) classroom noise, and (4) white noise. Using multi-level modeling (MLM), we found that listening condition differentially impacted reading fluency for all children. Children's reading fluency was more negatively impacted by the single talker in comparison to white noise and quiet. The performance of all children to retell story components (a measure of reading comprehension) was moderated by age with older children recalling more story components in the presence of white noise. Recalling story components correctly was not impacted by listening condition or disability. Regardless of disability, environments that include a single talker were not optimal for children's reading fluency skills. Moreover, preferred environments for children's reading comprehension skills--specifically the retelling of key story components--depend on student age, with background white noise being ideal for older children. Notably, no differences in how background noise impacts reading performance were found between autistic and NA children.

In this study, we investigated primary school children's perspectives on their hearing and listening in classrooms with different acoustic quality levels. The sample included 213 children. The children completed a self-report questionnaire rating how well they could hear and listen in various situations in classrooms with two different acoustic conditions: "Poor acoustic quality" (long reverberation time [Long RT]) versus "Adequate acoustic quality" (short reverberation time [Short RT]) equipped with a sound-absorbing system. The results showed that auditory perception in the two conditions depends on the child's age, with only fourth- and fifth-grade children reporting benefits from classroom acoustic correction. Our study provides preliminary results on children's perspectives regarding their hearing and listening experiences during school learning, drawing out the implications for the design and implementation of school metacognitive interventions aimed at improving children's and teachers' awareness of motivational-affective, regulative, and environmental aspects favoring listening at school.

This paper argues that the teaching of art in Higher Educational Institutions is inherently paradoxical. Informed by the transgressive and interdisciplinary qualities of contemporary artistic practices, education nevertheless is often made to fit into a reductionist, outcome-oriented and individualistic discourse. Taking a weeklong workshop at the Nida Art Colony in Lithuania as a practical axis for its reflections on the fluid nature of art education, the paper discusses possibilities of extending beyond pedagogical, political, human/nonhuman and other borders and treating 'noise' and other 'interferences' as opportunities for transgression and dialogue. This workshop with students from the Vilnius Academy of Arts took place in September 2022, at a time characterised by the Russia-Ukraine war. Nida's proximity to Russia's exclave Kaliningrad, its location on the narrow Curonian Spit, and its immediate environment characterised by woods and sand dunes provide this paper with a setting for a discussion about a variety of borders: territorial borders, border pedagogies, perceived borders between human and nonhuman entities, between land and sea, and so on. Borders are described as dominant indicators of power and distinction, while educational standards and instruments of measurement often replicate similar distinctions between the known and the unfamiliar. Yet, borders can also be shifted while new connections and dialogues across real and conceptual borders can be forged in a porous process that is predisposed towards flexible scenarios characterised by the 'not-yet'. The surrounding forest and wetlands and huge drifting sand dunes in Nida become analogies for the changing structure of the workshop, silently yet overpoweringly advocating for a mutable pedagogy. Analysed through the work of various contemporary artists, this nonhuman intrusion into a pedagogical and creative experience is both undefined and vulnerable, unlike the preordained structures of attainment targets often associated with contemporary schooling.

Background: In the modern music industry, AI music generators have gained particular importance. The use of AI greatly simplifies the creation of polyphony. In addition, it can increase student motivation and interest. Aims: This study focuses on the AI-assisted creation of polyphonic music. The purpose of this study is to determine how creating polyphony through the Deep Bach model impacts the academic motivation of music university students. Materials & Methods: Achieving this goal is possible by conducting an experimental training program based on the use of the above-mentioned model. Results: The results show that students in the experimental group have higher motivation than the control group participants. Therefore, AI-based music creation has the potential to become a new trend in music education. Implications: The findings of this study can be useful for music education experts, providing empirical data on the effectiveness of AI in music education. The use of the data can ultimately improve the learning process. Future research can focus on developing alternative AI models as well as investigating their effectiveness in music education.

This exploratory study describes the design and implementation of a sound-based intervention in the initial training of specialist music teachers at a Spanish university. It aimed to create spaces geared towards more creative and contemporary approaches to musical learning in order to gauge the perceptions of trainee teachers regarding this kind of approach. The intervention (45 h of class time) was based on the creation of electroacoustic compositions following the SBM (Sound Based Music) approach using digital tools (Aglaya Play, AP). Qualitative process data were collected through self-reports, individual memories, and nine focus groups. The results suggest that the implementation of new intervention models that take into account the development of future teachers' creativity with activities focused on exploration, experimentation, and creation with sound can generate new opportunities to enrich their teaching identities.

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate challenges in speech-in-noise (SiN) processing faced by school-age children with autism spectrum conditions (ASCs) and their impact on listening effort. Method: Participants, including 23 Mandarin-speaking children with ASCs and 19 age-matched neurotypical (NT) peers, underwent sentence recognition tests in both quiet and noisy conditions, with a speech-shaped steady-state noise masker presented at 0-dB signal-to-noise ratio in the noisy condition. Recognition accuracy rates and task-evoked pupil responses were compared to assess behavioral performance and listening effort during auditory tasks. Results: No main effect of group was found on accuracy rates. Instead, significant effects emerged for autistic trait scores, listening conditions, and their interaction, indicating that higher trait scores were associated with poorer performance in noise. Pupillometric data revealed significantly larger and earlier peak dilations, along with more varied pupillary dynamics in the ASC group relative to the NT group, especially under noisy conditions. Importantly, the ASC group's peak dilation in quiet mirrored that of the NT group in noise. However, the ASC group consistently exhibited reduced mean dilations than the NT group. Conclusions: Pupillary responses suggest a different resource allocation pattern in ASCs--An initial sharper and larger dilation may signal an intense, narrowed resource allocation, likely linked to heightened arousal, engagement, and cognitive load, whereas a subsequent faster tail-off may indicate a greater decrease in resource availability and engagement, or a quicker release of arousal and cognitive load. The presence of noise further accentuates this pattern. This highlights the unique SiN processing challenges children with ASCs may face, underscoring the importance of a nuanced, individual-centric approach for interventions and support.

This article provides a review of previous studies that have examined the effects of orthography on establishing contrastive phonological representations in second language acquisition and presents results from an original study on Mandarin speakers' production of English stops investigating how the presence of orthography affects the production of phonological categories that involve allophony. English voiceless stops are canonically represented as aspirated [p[superscript h], t[superscript h], k[superscript h]] in word-initial/stressed onset positions but are realized as unaspirated [p, t, k] following /s/ and in unstressed, non-initial onset positions. The results of our imitation experiment showed that Mandarin speakers failed to correctly imitate the unaspirated allophones when presented with written input, and this orthographic effect was stronger with nonwords than with real words. These results are best explained by an orthography effect mediated by phonological awareness and prior linguistic experience.

The current study examined the phonolexical processing of Mandarin segments and tones by English speakers at different Mandarin proficiency levels. Eleven English speakers naive to Mandarin, 15 intermediate and 9 advanced second language (L2) learners participated in a word-learning experiment. After learning the sound and meaning of 16 Mandarin disyllabic words, they judged the matching between sound and meaning pairs, with half of the pairs being complete matches while the other half contained segmental or tonal mismatches. The results showed that all three groups were more sensitive to segmental than tonal mismatches. The two learner groups outperformed the Naive group on segmental mismatches but not on tonal mismatches. However, their reaction times revealed that the learners but not the Naive group attended to tonal variations. The current findings suggest that increasing L2 experience has limited benefit on learners' phonolexical processing of L2 tones, probably due to their non-tonal native language background. Experience in a tonal L2 may enhance learners' attention to the tonal dimension but may not necessarily improve their accuracy.

Purpose: Processing real-world sounds requires acoustic and higher-order semantic information. We tested the theory that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show enhanced processing of acoustic features and impaired processing of semantic information. Methods: We used a change deafness task that required detection of speech and non-speech auditory objects being replaced and a speech-in-noise task using spoken sentences that must be comprehended in the presence of background speech to examine the extent to which 7-15 year old children with ASD (n = 27) rely on acoustic and semantic information, compared to age-matched (n = 27) and IQ-matched (n = 27) groups of typically developing (TD) children. Within a larger group of 7-15 year old TD children (n = 105) we correlated IQ, ASD symptoms, and the use of acoustic and semantic information. Results: Children with ASD performed worse overall at the change deafness task relative to the age-matched TD controls, but they did not differ from IQ-matched controls. All groups utilized acoustic and semantic information similarly and displayed an attentional bias towards changes that involved the human voice. Similarly, for the speech-in-noise task, age-matched--but not IQ-matched--TD controls performed better overall than the ASD group. However, all groups used semantic context to a similar degree. Among TD children, neither IQ nor the presence of ASD symptoms predict the use of acoustic or semantic information. Conclusion: Children with and without ASD used acoustic and semantic information similarly during auditory change deafness and speech-in-noise tasks.

Multisensory-rich VR experiences, which encompass visual, auditory, and haptic stimuli, have the potential to enhance engagement, motivation, and learning. However, extensive sensory stimuli could also compromise learning through sensory overload. In museum settings, visitors who are inundated with excessive stimuli such as unrelated background music or competing visual options may not experience optimal learning. This mixed-methods study addressed this potential problem by exploring the impact of sound on learning, enjoyment, sense of presence, and the development of interest among museum attendees (N = 255) who used two different types of technology: high-immersion VR or a tablet. Results from a one-way MANOVA revealed that learning and sense of presence were unaffected by the technology used unless sound was added. Using a tablet with sound lowered the sense of presence. Participants in the VR condition with or without sound had significantly higher enjoyment scores than those in either tablet condition. The development of interest was not significantly affected by any condition, regardless of whether sound was used. The research findings have implications for implementing VR for learning in museum settings. For instance, VR can enhance a sense of presence in museum exhibits, but a sense of presence may be significantly diminished when museum visitors use tablets with sound. Additional recommendations for the use of multimodal VR in museums are provided.

The more-than-human turn in early childhood education has highlighted the relevance of children's intra-actions with their environment, as well as the multiple ways in which worlds and literacies emerge in them. The rejection of representationalism as the single source of knowledge leads to the consideration of affect, embodiment, memories, sound and movement as ways of knowing. The ways in which they manifest in a school context deserve close attention to the tiny details of literacy events. Our research presents a diffractive reading of an event in a school classroom, aiming to understand human and more-than-human intra-actions in this context, the re-configurations of time, space and matter, and the ways in which children articulate entanglements with texts and bodies. We focus on the intra-actions of a seven-year old child with a photo of his favourite videogame and the ways in which affect and memory emerge. The child's sounds and movements, the researcher, the photo and the space become entangled to re-configure time, space and matter. Our analysis provides an insight into an event often occurring in schools. We offer some clues to understand it as part of the language and literacy practices of children, and pose the necessity of reconsidering the usual concept of literacy in school.

A lack of response to voices, and a great interest for music are part of the behavioral expressions, commonly (self-)reported in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). These atypical interests for vocal and musical sounds could be attributable to different levels of acoustical noise, quantified in the harmonic-to-noise ratio (HNR). No previous study has investigated explicit auditory pleasantness in ASD comparing vocal and non-vocal sounds, in relation to acoustic noise level. The aim of this study is to objectively evaluate auditory pleasantness. 16 adults on the autism spectrum and 16 neuro-typical (NT) matched adults rated the likeability of vocal and non-vocal sounds, with varying harmonic-to-noise ratio levels. A group by category interaction in pleasantness judgements revealed that participants on the autism spectrum judged vocal sounds as less pleasant than non-vocal sounds; an effect not found for NT participants. A category by HNR level interaction revealed that participants of both groups rated sounds with a high HNR as more pleasant for non-vocal sounds. A significant group by HNR interaction revealed that people on the autism spectrum tended to judge as less pleasant sounds with high HNR and more pleasant those with low HNR than NT participants. Acoustical noise level of sounds alone does not appear to explain atypical interest for voices and greater interest in music in ASD.

Purpose: Pitch variations (tone productions) have been reported as a measure to differentiate Cantonese-speaking children with and without childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). This study aims to examine fundamental frequency (F0) changes within syllables and the effects of syllable structure, lexical status, and syllable positions on F0 in Cantonese-speaking preschool children with and without CAS. Method: Six children with CAS, six children with non-CAS speech sound disorder plus language disorder (S&LD), 22 children with speech sound disorder only (SSD), and 63 children with typical speech-language development (TD) performed the tone sequencing task (TST). Growth curve analysis was employed to analyze and compare the F0 values within syllables with three Cantonese tones (high level, high rising, and low falling). The analysis considered the effects of syllable structure (vowel and consonant-vowel), lexical status (word and nonword), and syllable position (initial, medial, and final) on F0, as well as comparisons within and between groups. Results: Within each group, the effects of syllable structure and position on F0 values were found with different patterns. Between-group comparisons showed that the CAS group had reduced F0 contrasts. The CAS group could be differentiated from the control groups based on interactions of F0 with syllable structure and position, but not lexical status. The dissimilarity of F0 values detected between the CAS and SSD/TD groups was more prominent than that observed between the CAS and S&LD groups. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that Cantonese-speaking children with CAS had difficulty in varying F0 within syllables as compared to those without CAS, suggesting pitch variation difficulty and language-specific impairment profiles in CAS. Future investigations of objective measures for identifying Cantonese speakers with CAS and cross-linguistic investigations using growth curve analysis and the TST are suggested.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the ability to discriminate yes/no questions from statements in three groups of children--bilateral cochlear implant (CI) users, nontraditional CI users with aidable hearing preoperatively in the ear to be implanted, and controls with normal hearing. Half of the nontraditional CI users had sufficient postoperative acoustic hearing in the implanted ear to use electric-acoustic stimulation, and half used a CI alone. Method: Participants heard recorded sentences that were produced either as yes/no questions or as statements by three male and three female talkers. Three raters scored each participant response as either a question or a statement. Bilateral CI users (n = 40, 4-12 years old) and normal-hearing controls (n = 10, 4-12 years old) were tested binaurally in the free field. Nontraditional CI recipients (n = 22, 6-17 years old) were tested with direct audio input to the study ear. Results: For the bilateral CI users, performance was predicted by age but not by 125-Hz acoustic thresholds; just under half (n = 17) of the participants in this group had measurable 125-Hz thresholds in their better ear. For nontraditional CI recipients, better performance was predicted by lower 125-Hz acoustic thresholds in the test ear, and there was no association with participant age. Performance approached that of the normal-hearing controls for some participants in each group. Conclusions: Results suggest that a 125-Hz acoustic hearing supports discrimination of yes/no questions and statements in pediatric CI users. Bilateral CI users with little or no acoustic hearing at 125 Hz develop the ability to perform this task, but that ability emerges later than for children with better acoustic hearing. These results underscore the importance of preserving acoustic hearing for pediatric CI users when possible.

Purpose: Verbal working memory is poorer for children with hearing loss than for peers with normal hearing (NH), even with cochlear implantation and early intervention. Poor verbal working memory can affect academic performance, especially in higher grades, making this deficit a significant problem. This study examined the stability of verbal working memory across middle childhood, tested working memory in adolescents with NH or cochlear implants (CIs), explored whether signal enhancement can improve verbal working memory, and tested two hypotheses proposed to explain the poor verbal working memory of children with hearing loss: (a) Diminished auditory experience directly affects executive functions, including working memory; (b) degraded auditory inputs inhibit children's abilities to recover the phonological structure needed for encoding verbal material into storage. Design: Fourteen-year-olds served as subjects: 55 with NH; 52 with CIs. Immediate serial recall tasks were used to assess working memory. Stimuli consisted of nonverbal, spatial stimuli and four kinds of verbal, acoustic stimuli: nonrhyming and rhyming words, and nonrhyming words with two kinds of signal enhancement: audiovisual and indexical. Analyses examined (a) stability of verbal working memory across middle childhood, (b) differences in verbal and nonverbal working memory, (c) effects of signal enhancement on recall, (d) phonological processing abilities, and (e) source of the diminished verbal working memory in adolescents with cochlear implants. Results: Verbal working memory remained stable across middle childhood. Adolescents across groups performed similarly for nonverbal stimuli, but those with CIs displayed poorer recall accuracy for verbal stimuli; signal enhancement did not improve recall. Poor phonological sensitivity largely accounted for the group effect. Conclusions: The central executive for working memory is not affected by hearing loss or cochlear implantation. Instead, the phonological deficit faced by adolescents with CIs denigrates the representation in storage and augmenting the signal does not help.

Purpose: According to the interpersonal synergy model of spoken dialogue, interlocutors modify their communicative behaviors to meet the contextual demands of a given conversation. Although a growing body of research supports this postulation for linguistic behaviors (e.g., semantics, syntax), little is understood about how this model applies to speech behaviors (e.g., speech rate, pitch). The purpose of this study is to test the hypothesis that interlocutors adjust their speech behaviors across different conversational tasks with different conversational goals. Method: In this study, 28 participants each engaged in two different types of conversations (i.e., relational and informational) with two partners (i.e., Partner 1 and Partner 2), yielding a total of 112 conversations. We compared six acoustic measures of participant speech behavior across conversational task and partner. Results: Linear mixed-effects models demonstrated significant differences between speech feature measures in informational and relational conversations. Furthermore, these findings were generally robust across conversations with different partners. Conclusions: Results suggest that contextual demands influence speech behaviors. These findings provide empirical support for the interpersonal synergy model and highlight important considerations for assessing speech behaviors in individuals with communication disorders.

Purpose: The main objective of this study was to assess the existence of developmental effects on the performance of the Vocale Rapide dans le Bruit (VRB) speech-in-noise (SIN) identification test that was recently developed for the French language and to collect reference scores for children and adolescents. Method: Seventy-two native French speakers, aged 10-20 years, participated in the study. Each participant listened and repeated four lists of eight sentences, each containing three key words to be scored. The sentences were presented in free field at different signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) using a four-talker babble noise. The SNR yielding 50% of correct repetitions of key words (SNR[subscript 50]) was recorded for each list. Results: A strong relationship between age and SNR[subscript 50] was found, better performance occurring with increasing age (average drop in SNR[subscript 50] per year: 0.34 dB). Large differences (Cohen's d [greater than or equal to] 1.2) were observed between the SNR[subscript 50] achieved by 10- to 13-year-old participants and those of adults. For participants aged 14-15 years, the difference fell just above the 5% level of significance. No effects of hearing thresholds or level of education were observed. Conclusions: The study confirms the existence of developmental effects on SIN identification performance as measured using the VRB test and provides reference data for taking into account these effects during clinical practice. Explanations as to why age effects perdure during adolescence are discussed.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore potential differences in suprathreshold auditory function among native and nonnative speakers of English as a function of age. Method: Retrospective analyses were performed on three large data sets containing suprathreshold auditory tests completed by 5,572 participants who were self-identified native and nonnative speakers of English between the ages of 18-65 years, including a binaural tone detection test, a digit identification test, and a sentence recognition test. Results: The analyses show a significant interaction between increasing age and participant group on tests involving speech-based stimuli (digit strings, sentences) but not on the binaural tone detection test. For both speech tests, differences in speech recognition emerged between groups during early adulthood, and increasing age had a more negative impact on word recognition for nonnative compared to native participants. Age-related declines in performance were 2.9 times faster for digit strings and 3.3 times faster for sentences for nonnative participants compared to native participants. Conclusions: This set of analyses extends the existing literature by examining interactions between aging and self-identified native English speaker status in several auditory domains in a cohort of adults spanning young adulthood through middle age. The finding that older nonnative English speakers in this age cohort may have greater-than-expected deficits on speech-in-noise perception may have clinical implications on how these individuals should be diagnosed and treated for hearing difficulties.

It has been proposed that second language (L2) learners differ from native speakers in processing due to either influence from their native language or an inability to integrate information from multiple linguistic domains in a second language. To shed new light on the underlying mechanism of L2 processing, we used an event-related potentials (ERP) paradigm to examine the processing of sentences with "only" in English by native speakers of English and advanced Dutch learners of English. Successful processing of sentences with "only" requires rapid integration of prosodic information with semantic and syntactic information. We found that L2 listeners showed native-like processing of the acoustics of contrastive pitch accents when adjacent to "only." However, they needed more cues than L1 listeners to perform native-like in forming expectations for focus placement. Our results thus provide first ERP-based evidence for difficulty in the integration of information for focus expectation in difficult L2 constructs.

Noise is sound of any kind that is undesirable and unwanted as part of the environment under consideration. It is one of the types of pollution that have great impact on our health and wellbeing. The occurrence of noise in our environment is increasing daily because of growing population and industrialization. Noise pollution have great consequences on our social and economic lives especially in teaching and learning environment, which is presumed to be in silent zone. It is worth investigating whether environment in which teaching and learning take place is in quiet condition? The aim of the study was to analyze the level of noise pollution at different locations in the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus. The Nigeria Standard noise level for higher education institutions and hospitals should be 60 dB for day and 50 dBA for night. The Noise levels dBA was measured with the help of noise meter at 14 points and at a height of 1 m above the ground level within the campus at three different times (6-8 am, 12-2 pm and 4-6 pm). The total Leq noise level in the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus is 70.94 dBA which is above the level recommended for educational institutions. The period of intensity of noise was recorded during afternoon, morning and evening respectively. This rate of noise level during the day is high and unsuitable for teaching-learning process. Therefore, university management should take proactive measures to regulate noise pollution within the campus and indeed, other university campuses in Nigeria.

The sounds of birds form the outdoor playlist of our lives. Birds appeal to the public, in part because of the wide variety of interesting sounds they make. This popularity has led to a long history of amateur participation in ornithology, which has recently produced rapid increases in freely available online databases with hundreds of thousands of bird sounds recorded by birdwatchers. These databases provide unique opportunities for teachers to guide students through processes to learn to identify bird species by their sounds. The techniques we summarize here include combining the auditory components of recognizing different types of sounds birds make with visual components of reading sonograms, widely available visual representations of sounds.

Pulsed-wave Doppler ultrasound is a widely used technique for monitoring pregnancies. As ultrasound equipment becomes more advanced, it becomes harder to train practitioners to be proficient in the procedure as it requires the presence of an expert, access to high-tech equipment as well as several volunteering patients. Immersive environments such as mixed reality can help trainees in this regard due to their capabilities to simulate real environments and objects. In this article, we propose a mixed reality application to facilitate training in performing pulsed-wave Doppler ultrasound when acquiring a spectrogram to measure blood velocity in the umbilical cord. The application simulates Doppler spectrograms while the trainee has the possibility of adjusting parameters such as pulse repetition frequency, sampling depth, and beam-to-flow angle. This is done using a combination of an optimized user interface, 3D-printed objects tracked using image recognition and data acquisition from a gyroscope. The application was developed for Microsoft HoloLens as the archetype of mixed reality, while a 3D-printed abdomen was used to simulate a patient. The application aims to aid in both simulated and real-life ultrasound procedures. Expert feedback and user-testing results were collected to validate the purpose and use of the designed application. Design science research was followed to propose the intended application while contributing to the literature on leveraging immersive environments for medical training and practice. Based on the results of the study, it was concluded that mixed reality can be efficiently used in ultrasound training.

Purpose: The present study investigates the perception of vowel nasality in French-speaking children with cochlear implants (CIs; CI group) and children with typical hearing (TH; TH group) aged 4-12 years. By investigating the vocalic nasality feature in French, the study aims to document more broadly the effects of the acoustic limitations of CI in processing segments characterized by acoustic cues that require optimal spectral resolution. The impact of various factors related to children's characteristics, such as chronological/auditory age, age of implantation, and exposure to cued speech, has been studied on performance, and the acoustic characteristics of the stimuli in perceptual tasks have also been investigated. Method: Identification and discrimination tasks involving French nasal and oral vowels were administered to two groups of children: 13 children with CIs (CI group) and 25 children with TH (TH group) divided into three age groups (4-6 years, 7-9 years, and 10-12 years). French nasal vowels were paired with their oral phonological counterpart (phonological pairing) as well as to the closest oral vowel in terms of phonetic proximity (phonetic pairing). Post hoc acoustic analyses of the stimuli were linked to the performance in perception. Results: The results indicate an effect of the auditory status on the performance in the two tasks, with the CI group performing at a lower level than the TH group. However, the scores of the children in the CI group are well above chance level, exceeding 80%. The most common errors in identification were substitutions between nasal vowels and phonetically close oral vowels as well as confusions between the phoneme /u/ and other oral vowels. Phonetic pairs showed lower discrimination performance in the CI group with great variability in the results. Age effects were observed only in TH children for nasal vowel identification, whereas in children with CIs, a positive impact of cued speech practice and early implantation was found. Differential links between performance and acoustic characteristics were found within our groups, suggesting that in children with CIs, selective use of certain acoustic features, presumed to be better transmitted by the implant, leads to better perceptual performance. Conclusions: The study's results reveal specific challenges in children with CIs when processing segments characterized by fine spectral resolution cues. However, the CI children in our study appear to effectively compensate for these difficulties by utilizing various acoustic cues assumed to be well transmitted by the implant, such as cues related to the temporal resolution of stimuli.

Purpose: This study examined speech changes induced by deep-brain stimulation (DBS) in speakers with Parkinson's disease (PD) using a set of auditory-perceptual and acoustic measures. Method: Speech recordings from nine speakers with PD and DBS were compared between DBS-On and DBS-Off conditions using auditory-perceptual and acoustic analyses. Auditory-perceptual ratings included voice quality, articulation precision, prosody, speech intelligibility, and listening effort obtained from 44 listeners. Acoustic measures were made for voicing proportion, second formant frequency slope, vowel dispersion, articulation rate, and range of fundamental frequency and intensity. Results: No significant changes were found between DBS-On and DBS-Off for the five perceptual ratings. Four of six acoustic measures revealed significant differences between the two conditions. While articulation rate and acoustic vowel dispersion increased, voicing proportion and intensity range decreased from the DBS-Off to DBS-On condition. However, a visual examination of the data indicated that the statistical significance was mostly driven by a small number of participants, while the majority did not show a consistent pattern of such changes. Conclusions: Our data, in general, indicate no-to-minimal changes in speech production ensued from DBS stimulation. The findings are discussed with a focus on large interspeaker variability in PD in terms of their speech characteristics and the potential effects of DBS on speech.

Objectives: We provide a novel application of psycholinguistic theories and methods to the field of auditory training to provide preliminary data regarding which minimal pair contrasts are more difficult for listeners with typical hearing to distinguish in real-time. Design: Using eye-tracking, participants heard a word and selected the corresponding image from a display of four: the target word, two unrelated words, and a word from one of four contrast categories (i.e., voiced-initial [e.g., "peach-beach"], voiced-final [e.g., "back-bag"], manner-initial [e.g., "talk-sock"], and manner-final [e.g., "bat-bass"]). Results: Fixations were monitored to measure how strongly words compete for recognition depending on the contrast type (voicing, manner) and location (word-initial or final). Manner contrasts competed more for recognition than did voicing contrasts, and contrasts that occurred in word-final position were harder to distinguish than word-initial position. Conclusion: These results are an important initial step toward creating an evidence-based hierarchy for auditory training for individuals who use cochlear implants.

Rhythm metrics can detect second language development of target-like speech rhythm but interpretation of the results from metrics in learners' speech is problematic because the mapping of metrics to underpinning phonological features is indirect. We investigate speech rhythm in first language (L1) Arabic / second language (L2) English, which differ in key properties contributing to the percept of rhythm: unstressed vowel reduction and syllable structure. Our production data are interpreted using additional measures, of stressed and unstressed vowels and of consonant cluster realization, alongside standard rhythm metrics; this combination facilitates disambiguation of competing interpretations of the metric results. The findings confirm the importance of using multiple rhythm metrics to study L2 speech rhythm and demonstrate how simple additional measures can guide interpretation of their results. In this study the metrics results showed that the speech produced by the L2 speakers, regardless of their length of residence in the UK, exhibited lower vocalic durational variability than the speech produced by the native Arabic and English speakers. However, closer inspection of the degree of vowel reduction by the native and nonnative groups confirms that no single metric captures the complex nature of the observed L2 rhythm patterns. Future L2 studies are advised not to draw firm conclusions about the degree of vowel reduction and consonant cluster realization in L2 speech based solely on the results of the rhythm metrics.

While augmented reality (AR) technology has shown the potential to facilitate students' hands-on activities, few studies have explored its effectiveness in acoustic topics. This paper introduces an AR-based application for learning about the Doppler effect and investigates its educational effectiveness on students' learning achievement, interest, and attitude compared to a two-dimensional (2D) learning tool. Eighty-five junior high school students participated in our study, and they were randomly assigned to two groups (AR: n = 44, 2D: n = 41). The results revealed that students in the AR group outperformed those in the 2D group in terms of their learning achievement and interest. Both groups showed positive attitude toward the Doppler class and physics learning. Moreover, students presented a high level of cognitive perception toward the AR learning tool. This study provides a case for the application of AR in acoustics learning.

Noise, although ubiquitous, is seldom considered as a factor that may impede learning. In South Africa, most learners are multilingual and learn in English, which is their second language. Most noise studies have been conducted in the Global North, where the school context differs from the Global South. In this article, using questions selected from the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, we present a quantitative evaluation of the perceptions of background noise on learning of a purposive sample of 154 Grade 10 to 12 female learners attending 2 all-girls schools, who were either learning through English as their second, or as their first language. The responses of first language and second language learners were compared using Mann-Whitney U tests with Hodges-Lehman estimates. Second language learners reported greater interference and annoyance from noise, compared to their first language peers. This may be due to the additional cognitive demands required when processing complex information in a second language. Given the high proportion of learners who are learning through a language that is not their mother tongue, we highlight the importance of a good acoustic environment to counteract the negative effects of the increased cognitive demand when processing information in a second language. Educators should consider ways to mitigate interference from noise and to improve the saliency of the acoustic signal in their classrooms.

One of the most important recommendations in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted at the UN Summit in 2015 was "No one will be left behind". Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer pointed out that the dominant form of music education in training musicians is Romantic or Dionysian. Schafer finds this type of music education subjective and hedonistic and develops the concept of soundscape and sound education to enable "public" traffic between the sound environment and the children. Schafer's goal was to realize the social welfare element of sound or a Universal Design. To modify the Dionysian approach to music education and to construct a type of public music education based on physicality and Universal Design, the Japanese music educators and academics Shigeshita, Tsubonou, and Murao referred to music that assumes a virtual external audience (such as a club-type class chorus) as "music of the stage" and proposed that the "music of the square" is the opposite concept. This concept has affinities with Schafer's sound education. This paper aims to explore how music education should be developed in keeping with the goal of "no one will be left behind." For this, the future reconstruction of music is examined through an action research and philosophical studies based on sound education by Sumie Tonosaki, which was conducted at a school for the deaf in Aomori Prefecture from 2014 to 2016. Action research was conducted in a joint class of an elementary, junior high, and special needs school in Japan through a class titled, "Let's create a new soundscape by finding existing sounds," held in October 2021, in collaboration with children with special needs, elementary, and junior high school children of the Faculty of Education at Hirosaki University, based on the following practical activities: 1) experiencing environmental sounds via a soundwalk; 2) recording sounds of interest with a tablet device; 3) uploading recordings to the cloud; 4) converting URLs into QR codes; 5) exchanging QR codes between schools; and 6) playing sounds with a tablet device and improvisation (steps 3 and 4 were completed by teachers). The results revealed the possibility of an equal and creative classroom practice for deaf, elementary, junior high, and special needs children.

This study uses a qualitative methodology. The objective was to examine a musical instrument for teaching the creation and acoustic characteristics of Guhu of the Zhuang ethnic group in Guangxi, China, about shape and structure to summarize raw materials, craftsmanship, and process of Guhu, then measure by acoustic instruments, conclude the acoustic characteristics of Guhu, and discuss the use and functional significance of the instrument more accurately and logically. The raw materials, tools, production points, and specific steps of Guhu are systematically recorded by interviews, observation, and personal experience. Several acoustic measurements are made to explore the acoustic characteristics of Guhu. Guhu's culture and characteristics are fully demonstrated in the core of technical practice and the theory of technical knowledge. The study results show that: the traditional production method. Overall, it has the potential to be universal and representative of acoustic characteristics. Guhu's wood, leather, and aggregate materials are all standard. Guhu's creation has an influence on its shape, structure, and acoustics. Guhu is being improved as time passes, and research into characteristics is also helping guide the development of a more standard production process and a new improvement scheme. This will result in the integration of knowledge to study techniques and methods for creating Guhu that will last indefinitely.

An introductory phonetics course provides foundational content for future clinical practice and may serve as a student's first experience within the field of Communication Sciences and Disorders. The Students as Partners framework (Cook-Sather et al., 2014) offers a model for valuing student assets and experiences in co-creating learning materials to enhance active learning and deepen understanding. Incorporating positive affective feelings around learning complex material, integrating technology, and building a mutually respectful learning community can foster inclusive practices. In this manuscript, the authors share how redesigning an introductory Phonetics and Acoustics course at a large, urban, commuter, public university led to increased student engagement, increased practice, increased collaboration, and increased generalization. This was achieved through personalized content and activities, warm-up activities that fostered success and integration, and co-created active learning activities, such as phonetic memes, spectrogram cards, phonetic pun activities, and sociolinguistic discussions of personal experiences. Thematic analysis of course evaluation data for the redesigned course revealed themes related to: student-instructor partnerships; practice opportunities and clinical application; and sense of belonging within the learning community.

The purpose of the present study was to examine: (1) the effects of audio-visual information; and (2) the role of temporal measurements associated with the perceptual ratings of fluency, accentedness, comprehensibility, pronunciation, and oral proficiency in second language (L2) speech samples of International Teaching Assistants (ITAs). American undergraduate students randomly assigned to audiovisual and audio-only (without seeing the speaker) conditions rated the two-minute speech samples of five ITAs on a seven-point scale. For acoustic analysis, several temporal measurements were used that were hypothesized to have an association with the ratings. Findings revealed that listeners without visual information judged L2 speech as less fluent and more accented although no significant difference in comprehensibility was found. L2 speakers were also judged to have better pronunciation and higher oral proficiency when the recordings were presented in video mode. The findings further indicated that among the acoustic measures examined, articulation rate was found to be associated with perceptual ratings. Implications for ITA training and language testing and assessment are discussed.

Ram Tone is a traditional play that is unique to Thailand. It is a popular folk play in all regions of Thailand and has been popular since ancient times. Ram Tone is a band dance with male and female dancers dancing in a circle, accompanied by tone, cymbaling, and Krab. The objective of the present study is to learn more about Ram Tone's literacy preservation and knowledge transmission in Mahasarakham Province, Thailand. The information is offered by knowledgeable individuals, practitioners, and general informants through qualitative research methods, including preliminary surveys, interviews, and observations. The researchers assessed the data for accuracy, evaluated the data in relation to the desired objectives, and presented the study findings using descriptive analysis. The results of this study show that the Kantharawichai District and Mahasarakham Province have acquired knowledge and built on their indigenous wisdom through the development of the Ram Tone dancing stance and educational curriculum.

This study examined the effectiveness of an ultrasound visual biofeedback (UVB) training on speech-language pathology (SLP) students' assessment of sonographic tongue configuration. This study examined the presence of a functional relation between an ultrasound visual biofeedback (UVB) training within the Participatory Adult Teaching Strategy framework and speech-language pathology (SLP) students' assessment of sonographic tongue configuration. Method: This study employed a multiple baseline, single-case design across participants and behaviors for data collection and analysis. Four graduate and three undergraduate level SLP students participated. Results: Percentage of goal obtained indicated that training was effective across participants and behaviors for teaching SLP students in the assessment of sonographic tongue shape for remediation of speech sound errors. Differences were found between undergraduate and graduate SLP students in the accuracy of assessment of sonographic tongue section configuration. Conclusions: The study establishes preliminary effectiveness of UVB training for SLP students. Although results demonstrate the effectiveness, special considerations should be applied when training graduate and undergraduate students in implementation of UVB training in order to accommodate knowledge and clinical experience differences between graduate and undergraduate students.

The development of communication, perception, sound, and rhythm (DCPSR) is a learning subject that provides stimulation, and intervention for the appreciation of sound which is done intentionally or unintentionally so that the remnants of hearing and the feeling of vibration possessed by students with hearing impairment can be used as well as possible. This study aims to describe the current conditions for the implementation of DCPSR special schools and the need for Augmented Reality (AR)-based DCPSR media. Data was collected by distributing questionnaires through a google form by accidental sampling 131 special education teachers in Indonesia and focused group focus (FGD). Instrument validity uses content validity and reliability uses interrater reliability. The data analysis technique used the descriptive-qualitative analysis method. The results showed that 18.32% of teachers did not even understand the concept of DCPSR, ??while 72.51% of teachers thought that DCPSR needed to be taught. Schools still use conventional media (54.2%), and 99.24% of teachers feel the need and need innovative DCPSR media in the form of AR-based media, especially in communication material (oral motor) 34.45%, as well as sound and rhythm perception (detection) 46.56%. The results of the analysis show that teachers who teach the deaf need the development of AR-based DCPSR media that is easy to operate and reach, such as smartphones with additional facilities for audio, images, captions, and cues. The results of the FGD showed that prioritizing the development of this AR-based media on sound discrimination material on the essential sounds around students.

This study examined how Korean EFL learners in different proficiency levels attest contrasts of L2 phonology. To this end, twenty Korean EFL learners in high and low levels of English proficiency produced words with word-final contrasts of /[esh]/ vs. /[esh]i/, /t[esh]/ vs. /t[esh]i/, and /d[ezh]/ vs. /d[ezh]i/. Acoustic analyses of lexical vs. epenthetic vowels and lexically vs. derivationally final sibilants were conducted. The results of the acoustic analyses revealed that Korean learners differentiated them at the acoustic level by employing different vowel ratios or F1 for the produced forms with a final lexical or epenthetic vowel which did not differ at the segmental level. On the other hand, the low group did not acoustically differentiate the two types of vowels after /d[ezh]/ at all. With the production of a final sibilant either lexical or derivational, Korean learners also made distinctions in terms of different frication ratios. The results of the study found L2 learners distinguish segmental contrasts acoustically, which is different from L1 speakers, and the proficiency level partially mediates this. The results implicate the existence of interlanguage phonology with its independent system.

This study aims to investigate students' awareness of the level, causes and negative effects of noise in schools through the utilization of creative drama activities. The objective of this sample application is to contribute to the development of a more tranquil and peaceful school environment. A single case study design was employed for this research, with the study group comprising 16 fourth-grade students from a primary school. Student interviews served as the primary data collection tool, supplemented by observations and video recordings. Thematic analysis was employed to analyze the data, resulting in the identification of four main themes related to noise awareness: "lack of tranquility," "noise phenomenon," "conflict exacerbation," and "creative ideas". By incorporating the Visual Arts and Science curriculum, students demonstrated important life skills such as innovative thinking, effective communication, and analytical reasoning. Additionally, this interdisciplinary approach allowed for the attainment of learning objectives within the Science curriculum's sound unit, while also addressing the "Visual Communication and Formation" domain of the Art curriculum.