Biomedical subjects

Michael Susca

Publications and source records attributed to Michael Susca.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Listener perceptions of stuttering across two presentation modes: a quantitative and qualitative approach.

UNLABELLED: The purpose of this study was to compare participants' quantitative and qualitative judgments of various forms and frequencies of stuttering, during either audiovisual or audio-only presentation modes. A total of 64 participants voluntarily agreed to participate in the study. Each participant was randomly assigned and exposed to only one of the four conditions of varying stuttering severity levels. The assigned speech sample was presented to the participant in either the audiovisual or audio-only mode. After watching or listening to the sample, participants completed a six-item Likert scale and were asked four open-ended questions. Comments made by listeners were developed into positive and negative comments as well as sorted into five theme clusters. The data analyses revealed a number of non-significant differences across mean Likert scale ratings for the six statements and for the number of positive and negative comments between the two presentation modes. However, the results provided partial support for the notion that as the frequency of stuttering increases, listeners tend to make increasingly more negative comments about the speaker. Additionally, there were no clear differences in comments across the five theme clusters between the two presentation modes. The findings suggest that the type of presentation mode does not appear to affect listeners' perceptions of stuttering to the same extent that stuttering severity does. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: The reader will be able to: (1) describe how listeners perceive and react to various frequencies of stuttering; (2) explain how audiovisual versus audio-only samples impact listener perceptions of stuttering and (3) provide examples of the ways in which qualitative data can enhance the understanding of how listeners react to various levels of stuttering.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Listener perceptions along a fluency--disfluency continuum: a phenomenological analysis.

UNLABELLED: The purpose of this study was to conduct a phenomenological analysis (a qualitative research method) of unbiased listeners' perceptions to six speech samples across a fluency-disfluency continuum. A sample of 60 individuals heard only one sample chosen from three levels of fluent or three levels of disfluent speech. Listeners were interviewed following the presentation of the speech sample and their comments were analyzed with respect to the perception of the speaker's communicative effectiveness. Communicative effectiveness was supported by three phenomenological categories: speaker attributes, listener attributes, and story attributes. Five theme clusters further supported these categories: speech production, context, speaker identity, listener comfort, and story comprehension. The results showed that listener perceptions within theme clusters varied across the six speech samples. The results also showed that listeners differentially respond to a broad array of information in the speech signal (not simply fluency or disfluency). These findings support Traunmuller's (1994) modulation theory associated with information that can be obtained from the speech signal. Implications for the treatment of stuttering are also discussed. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: The reader will learn (1) how listeners may have multiple and varying perceptual experiences depending upon where along a fluency-disfluency continuum a speech sample is heard; (2) how perceptual experiences are influenced by speaker, listener, and story attributes; and (3) how phenomenological analysis may expand our understanding of multifactorial issues associated with stuttering.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Diagnosing stuttering in the school environment.

School speech-language pathologists work in settings that present multiple challenges to diagnosing stuttering in students. Perceiving stuttering as a communication impairment allows integration of various issues with criteria from the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act 1997 into an effective diagnostic plan. Assessment from multiple perspectives reveals motor, linguistic, social, affective, and cognitive issues related to communication and educational competencies. Common sense and pragmatic communication concerns related to children who stutter are described. Clinical questions, observations, issues, and tasks are explored as parts of the assessment process. The multidimensional assessment of student-centered issues helps the clinician determine eligibility qualifications, develop individual education plans, and meet full-inclusion educational requirements.

Child↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Connecting stuttering measurement and management: II. Measures of cognition and affect.

BACKGROUND: To the person who stutters, there are other experiences than the somatic ones of stuttered speech. These are experiences of cognition and affect: in other words, experiences of thought and emotion. For several reasons, it is quite difficult to determine and recommend core measures of cognition and affect for clinicians to consider using. AIMS: To catalogue some of the many instruments that may be regarded by clinicians as worthwhile for use in measuring cognition and affect in clinical practice. MAIN CONTRIBUTION: The presentation of measures of cognition and affect is organized according to those that have appeared in recent clinical trials of stuttering during roughly the last decade, and those that have not featured in clinical trials. CONCLUSIONS: Measures that have featured in the clinical trials literature might be looked on favourably, along with those for whom there are more than one data source in support. The various measures from the discipline of clinical psychology generally fall into the latter category. The notions of cognition and affect emerge from the discipline of clinical psychology, and therefore it makes sense to look to that discipline for measures of those constructs. Seeking such tools outside the discipline of speech pathology, especially those with established reliability and validity, seems to hold potential in contributing to one's understanding of affective and cognitive functioning in people who stutter.

Affect↗