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Biomedical subjects

B U Watson

Publications and source records attributed to B U Watson.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1994

Factors associated with individual differences in clinical measures of speech recognition among the elderly.

In the present study, the speech-recognition performance of 50 subjects aged 63 to 83 years was measured for a wide range of materials (nonsense syllables, monosyllabic words, sentences) and listening conditions (presentation levels of 70 and 90 dB SPL, both in quiet and in a noise background). In addition to complete audiologic evaluations, measures of auditory processing (the Test of Basic Auditory Capabilities [TBAC], Watson, 1987) and cognitive function (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised [WAIS-R], and the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised [WMS-R], Wechsler, 1981, 1987) were obtained from all subjects. Principal component analyses were applied to each of the three sets of measures (speech-recognition, auditory, and cognitive) prior to examining associations among the sets using canonical analyses. Two principal components captured most of the systematic variation in performance sampled by the set of 20 speech-recognition measures. Hearing loss emerged as the single largest factor associated with individual differences in speech-recognition performance among the elderly, accounting for 70-75% of the total variance in speech-recognition performance, with the measures of auditory processing and cognitive function accounting for little or no additional variance.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1993

Auditory perception, phonological processing, and reading ability/disability.

Auditory perception has been proposed as one source of individual variation in the phonological abilities that play a critical role in skilled reading as well as in reading disabilities. A structural equation approach (LISREL, Jöreskog & Sörbom, 1990) was used to analyze relationships among auditory perception, phonological processing, and reading in a sample of 94 college undergraduates, 24 of whom met specific criteria for a reading disability. In the mathematical model that proved to be the best fit to the data, speech perception was strongly related to three of four phonological variables including short- and long-term auditory memory and phoneme segmentation. These phonological variables in turn were strongly related to reading. Nonverbal temporal processing was not significantly related to any of the phonological variables in the structural equations. It was concluded that speech perception, which was measured with speech repetition, syllable sequence discrimination, and degraded speech tasks, may contribute significantly to individual differences in the phonological abilities necessary for skilled reading.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Auditory temporal acuity in normally achieving and learning-disabled college students.

Recent research has suggested that deficits in several metalinguistic/phonological abilities, such as short-term verbal memory and phoneme segmentation, may be etiologic factors in specific reading disability, and it has been speculated that these weaknesses may result from a more fundamental deficit in the processing of temporal, auditory stimuli. This study examined the auditory temporal processing skills of reading-disabled, math-disabled, and normally achieving college students. The math-disabled group was included to control for the possibility that poor temporal processing is a "marker" variable for learning disability rather than being related specifically to reading disability. Subjects were assessed on a battery of psychophysical tasks that included five tests of temporal processing. The reading-disabled group performed significantly more poorly on the temporal tasks but performed as well as the other groups on the simple pitch and loudness discrimination tasks. In spite of the significant difference on the temporal tasks, the majority of reading-disabled subjects performed within the same range as the subjects in the other two groups, and there were also some normally reading subjects who performed poorly on the temporal processing tasks. These findings suggest that poor temporal processing is neither a necessary nor a sufficient cause of reading disability, but that there is a modest association between the two domains.

Achievement↗
PubMed1991

Some relationships between intelligence and auditory discrimination.

Some of the earliest scientific attempts to understand the nature of intelligence investigated differences in sensory discrimination and reaction time. There is once again interest in the relations between such simple abilities and intelligence, partly as a result of the application of information-processing paradigms to the study of intelligence. Correlations in the range of .3 to .8 have been reported between psychometric measures of intelligence and performance on simple cognitive, sensory, and motor tasks. The current study reports correlations between scores on a battery of auditory discrimination tasks and measures of intelligence and academic aptitude in two samples of college students. The correlations between the intellectual and academic aptitude measures and the total percent correct on the auditory battery ranged from 45 to 59. These results are consistent with recent findings of significant relationships between simple sensory, cognitive, and motor abilities and psychometric intelligence as well as with much earlier reports by Spearman (1904) and others of relationships between pitch discrimination and intelligence. An implication of these findings is that intelligence is a potential confounding variable in studies of the auditory perceptual abilities of various clinical populations.

Auditory Perception↗
PubMed1988

Evaluation of a typology of reading disability.

A typology of reading disability was derived from a cluster analysis of psychological and educational tests administered to 63 moderately to severely reading-disabled children and adolescents. The quality of the cluster solution was evaluated through the use of statistics designed to measure the degree to which the clusters were compact and well separated. The values of the evaluation statistics for the reading clusters were compared to the distribution of these statistics in a sample of 100 cluster solutions from comparable simulated data sets. The results of this comparison suggest that the derived reading-disability clusters represent true subtypes rather than a random partitioning of a homogeneous group of subjects. The commonalities among subjects in the same clusters appear to be such as to permit hypotheses about treatment based on cluster membership. The clusters included a language disorder with associated deficits in auditory memory and sound blending, an auditory processing disorder, a mixed auditory and visual processing disorder, and an auditory memory and visual processing disorder. This study did not find the "normal" and visual-perceptual subtypes reported in some other recent investigations.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

Test-retest stability of the Hiskey-Nebraska Test of Learning Aptitude in a sample of hearing-impaired children and adolescents.

The test-retest stability of the Hiskey-Nebraska Test of Learning Aptitude (H-NTLA) was examined in a group of hearing-impaired children and adolescents. Test-retest correlations for subjects retested after approximately 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years were .79, .85, and .62 respectively. These findings are similar to those reported for normal subjects in studies using verbal intelligence measures. In spite of reasonably high test-retest correlations, more than one half of the sample showed a 10-point or greater difference in Learning Quotient between the two evaluations, and more than one third of the sample showed a 15-point or greater difference. These findings demonstrate the necessity of basing important decisions on more than one measure of intelligence.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

Subtypes of reading disability.

Subtypes of reading disability were studied through the application of cluster analysis. A battery of 23 measures of reading, language, auditory and visual processing, memory, perceptual organization, and visual-motor coordination was administered to 65 reading-disabled children. The primary clustering technique was the K-means iterative partitioning method which yielded three clusters that were subsequently found to be stable and reproducible. The clusters were characterized by the following: (1) a visual processing deficit; (2) a generalized language disorder; and (3) a minimal deficit subtype. These subgroups were consistent with findings from previous investigations of subtypes of reading disability. The quality of the clusters was assessed through a series of evaluation techniques developed specifically for this purpose and through a cluster analysis of randomly generated data drawn from a normal distribution with the same covariance matrix as the actual data. These analyses indicated that the clusters were relatively heterogeneous, and thus this typology may have limited clinical utility. It is possible that future investigations with more severely disabled readers may produce more homogeneous clusters.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

Nonverbal intelligence and English language ability in deaf children.

The relationship between nonverbal intelligence and English language ability in a sample of 25 deaf children between the ages of 6-10 was examined. Intelligence measure included the Performance Scale of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (Wechsler, 1974) and the Hiskey-Nebraska Test of Learning Aptitude (Hiskey, 1966). Language measures were the Test of Language Development (Newcomer & Hammill, 1977) and the Reynell Developmental Language Scales (Reynell, 1977). Average correlations of .45 were obtained between nonverbal IQ and the language measures. The average multiple correlation between the individual subtests from the intelligence scales and language scores was .68. Subtests which require visual memory consistently entered the multiple regression equations as the best predictors of language performance. Language performance was attenuated in this sample and did not correlate with chronological age. The finding of significant correlations between nonverbal IQ and English language, in spite of the attenuated language performance, suggests that nonverbal intelligence and visual memory skills, in particular, may be important in understanding the success of some hearing-impaired children in acquiring English and the failure of others.

Child↗