Impact and Costs Benefit Comparison of the Healthy Beat Curriculum: CD-ROM versus Live Presentation Formats

10.5580/619 ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 1282-1293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Mertz Garcia ◽  
Paul A. Dagenais

This study examined changes in the sentence intelligibility scores of speakers with dysarthria in association with different signal-independent factors (contextual influences). This investigation focused on the presence or absence of iconic gestures while speaking sentences with low or high semantic predictiveness. The speakers were 4 individuals with dysarthria, who varied from one another in terms of their level of speech intelligibility impairment, gestural abilities, and overall level of motor functioning. Ninety-six inexperienced listeners (24 assigned to each speaker) orthographically transcribed 16 test sentences presented in an audio + video or audio-only format. The sentences had either low or high semantic predictiveness and were spoken by each speaker with and without the corresponding gestures. The effects of signal-independent factors (presence or absence of iconic gestures, low or high semantic predictiveness, and audio + video or audio-only presentation formats) were analyzed for individual speakers. Not all signal-independent information benefited speakers similarly. Results indicated that use of gestures and high semantic predictiveness improved sentence intelligibility for 2 speakers. The other 2 speakers benefited from high predictive messages. The audio + video presentation mode enhanced listener understanding for all speakers, although there were interactions related to specific speaking situations. Overall, the contributions of relevant signal-independent information were greater for the speakers with more severely impaired intelligibility. The results are discussed in terms of understanding the contribution of signal-independent factors to the communicative process.


1991 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard D. Johnson ◽  
G. Douglas Olsen ◽  
Jordan J. Louviere
Keyword(s):  

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