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Biomedical subjects

Denis Burnham

Publications and source records attributed to Denis Burnham.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Benefits of sign language interpreting and text alternatives for deaf students' classroom learning.

Four experiments examined the utility of real-time text in supporting deaf students' learning from lectures in postsecondary (Experiments 1 and 2) and secondary classrooms (Experiments 3 and 4). Experiment 1 compared the effects on learning of sign language interpreting, real-time text (C-Print), and both. Real-time text alone led to significantly higher performance by deaf students than the other two conditions, but performance by deaf students in all conditions was significantly below that of hearing peers who saw lectures without any support services. Experiment 2 compared interpreting and two forms of real-time text, C-Print and Communication Access Real-Time Translation, at immediate testing and after a 1-week delay (with study notes). No significant differences among support services were obtained at either testing. Experiment 3 also failed to reveal significant effects at immediate or delayed testing in a comparison of real-time text, direct (signed) instruction, and both. Experiment 4 found no significant differences between interpreting and interpreting plus real-time text on the learning of either new words or the content of television programs. Alternative accounts of the observed pattern of results are considered, but it is concluded that neither sign language interpreting nor real-time text have any inherent, generalized advantage over the other in supporting deaf students in secondary or postsecondary settings. Providing deaf students with both services simultaneously does not appear to provide any generalized benefit, at least for the kinds of materials utilized here.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Comparing action gestures and classifier verbs of motion: evidence from Australian Sign Language, Taiwan Sign Language, and nonsigners' gestures without speech.

Recent research into signed languages indicates that signs may share some properties with gesture, especially in the use of space in classifier constructions. A prediction of this proposal is that there will be similarities in the representation of motion events by sign-naive gesturers and by native signers of unrelated signed languages. This prediction is tested for deaf native signers of Australian Sign Language (Auslan), deaf signers of Taiwan Sign Language (TSL), and hearing nonsigners using the Verbs of Motion Production task from the Test Battery for American Sign Language (ASL) Morphology and Syntax. Results indicate that differences between the responses of nonsigners, Auslan signers, and TSL signers and the expected ASL responses are greatest with handshape units; movement and location units appear to be very similar. Although not definitive, these data are consistent with the claim that classifier constructions are blends of linguistic and gestural elements.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Auditory-visual speech integration by prelinguistic infants: perception of an emergent consonant in the McGurk effect.

The McGurk effect, in which auditory [ba] dubbed onto [ga] lip movements is perceived as "da" or "tha," was employed in a real-time task to investigate auditory-visual speech perception in prelingual infants. Experiments 1A and 1B established the validity of real-time dubbing for producing the effect. In Experiment 2, 4 1/2-month-olds were tested in a habituation-test paradigm, in which an auditory-visual stimulus was presented contingent upon visual fixation of a live face. The experimental group was habituated to a McGurk stimulus (auditory [ba] visual [ga]), and the control group to matching auditory-visual [ba]. Each group was then presented with three auditory-only test trials, [ba], [da], and [(delta)a] (as in then). Visual-fixation durations in test trials showed that the experimental group treated the emergent percept in the McGurk effect, [da] or [(delta)a], as familiar (even though they had not heard these sounds previously) and [ba] as novel. For control group infants [da] and [(delta)a] were no more familiar than [ba]. These results are consistent with infants' perception of the McGurk effect, and support the conclusion that prelinguistic infants integrate auditory and visual speech information.

Child Development↗
PubMed2004

The effect of script on poor readers' sensitivity to dynamic visual stimuli.

The current research examined performance of good and poor readers of Thai on two tasks that assess sensitivity to dynamic visual displays. Readers of Thai, a complex alphabetic script that nonetheless has a regular orthography, were chosen in order to contrast patterns of performance with readers of Korean Hangul (a similarly regular language but one that has a simple visual format, see ). Thai poor readers were less sensitive than good readers on the two measures of dynamic visual processing; they had higher thresholds for detecting coherent movement and required longer ISIs to report group movement in the Ternus task. These results differ from those for poor readers of Korean Hangul that found no relationship between visual processing thresholds and reading skill. This contrast suggests that the expression of visual processing problems in dyslexia is mediated by the format properties of the writing system and points to the need to consider such factors in formulating brain-behavior relationships.

Child↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Psychological impact of the Lidcombe Program of early stuttering intervention.

The Lidcombe Program is an operant treatment for stuttering in preschool children for which favourable outcome and social validity data have been published. The treatment involves parental praise for stutter-free speech in children's everyday speaking environments, and occasional correction of stuttered speech. Theoretical perspectives on the origins of stuttering have prompted suggestions that the Lidcombe Program may have an adverse psychological impact on children. The present preliminary investigation sought to identify any evidence of such a systematic, pernicious trend, which might justify statistically powerful investigations of the issue with large subject numbers. Subjects were eight preschool children who were successfully treated with the Lidcombe Program. The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) detected any post-treatment behavioural markers of changes in children such as anxiety, aggression, withdrawal or depression. The Attachment Q-Set (AQS) measured any changes in the quality of the attachment relationship between child and mother over the course of treatment. These case studies revealed no evidence of a systematic trend in either. In fact, CBCL data suggested improvements in the children after treatment. It is concluded that there is no reason to doubt that the Lidcombe Program is a safe treatment.

Child Behavior↗