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Ph.D. Program in Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences

Student Research Day

3/27/2015

Program & Abstracts

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SCHEDULE

9:30-10:00 Registration & Poster Hanging

10:00-10:05 Welcome

Executive Officer, Professor Klara Marton

10:05-10:45 Invited Speaker: Distinguished Professor Loraine K. Obler:

Can One Lose a First Language?

10:45-11:00 Questions and Answers

Poster Presentations

11:00-11:45 Students with odd-numbered posters present their research to attendees

11:55-12:40 Students with even-numbered posters present their research to attendees

12:40-12:45 Closing Remarks

12:45-2:00 Lunch in Rooms 7102 & 7400

Visit to the Speech, Language, and Hearing Science Laboratories

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1. A Pilot Study of an Electrophysiological Investigation of Aphasic Naming Errors

Susie Barroso-Walker, Janice Rodriguez, Yael Neumann-Werth*

Department of Linguistics and Communication Disorders, Queens College, CUNY

*Faculty Mentor

A common symptom among people with aphasia (PWA) is word-finding problems or

anomia. This project will use event-related potentials (ERPs) during an implicit picture naming

task to assess substages of phonological processing, namely segment vs. syllable retrieval, in a

group of PWA. The research intends to determine whether precise assessment of the impaired

processing stage, and then remediation at the given substage of processing, results in improved

naming, and if so, in what ways do those improvements manifest both in neural processing and

behavioral outcomes. A common symptom among people with aphasia (PWA) is word-finding

problems or anomia. This project will use event-related potentials (ERPs) during an implicit

picture naming task to assess substages of phonological processing, namely segment vs. syllable

retrieval, in a group of PWA. The research intends to determine whether precise assessment of the

impaired processing stage, and then remediation at the given substage of processing, results in

improved naming, and if so, in what ways do those improvements manifest both in neural

processing and behavioral outcomes. Participants will be recruited via referral from neurologists,

SLPs and/or flyer postings in rehabilitation centers, hospitals, nursing homes, aphasia groups,

community centers, etc. in the New York City vicinity. A comprehensive language assessment

will be given in order to obtain reliable information regarding the patient’s aphasic profile and

word retrieval deficits. Each participant will perform two phonological tasks. In task #1,

participants will be instructed to make a segment decision (final /n/ vs. /r/) about the picture name,

e.g. “Go” (press the button) if the name ends with a /n/ sound, “Nogo” (withhold pressing the

button) if the name ends with a /r/ sound. In task #2, participants will be instructed to make a

syllable judgment (one- vs. two-syllables), e.g. “Go” if the name has one-syllable, “Nogo” if the

name has two-syllables. Both reaction time (button-press) and electrophysiological data will be

collected and analyzed for statistically significant differences in processing of the two

phonological substages, segment vs. syllable retrieval.

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2. Case Study Investigating the Use of Codeswitching and Discourse Markers in Bilingual

Aphasia

Susie Barroso-Walker, Janice Rodriguez, Carmit Altman, Joel Walters, Yael Neumann-Werth1,2* 1Department of Linguistics and Communication Disorders, Queens College, CUNY

2Bar-Ilan University, Tel-Aviv, Israel

*Faculty Mentor

Background: Previous research has shown that discourse markers (DM) are used to

promote continuity within a conversation, whereas codeswitching (CS) aids in fluency. Bilinguals

with aphasia often CS when they cannot recall words in their present language. This study

investigated bilingual CS and the use of DMs in a 59-year old bilingual (Yiddish-English)

individual with diagnosed mild-moderate fluent aphasia.

Methods: Sixteen narrative samples in English and Yiddish, using the cue word procedure,

were collected. The cue words were rated on emotional pleasantness, namely, low, high, and

neutral. We then analyzed the data qualitatively (when and where in speech were DMs and CS

used) and quantitatively (the number of linguistic features, e.g., nouns and verbs, and fluency

features, e.g., repetitions and stutters).

Results: The percentage of DMs and ungrammatical sentences was higher in English and

the percentage of CS, which occurred more with nouns (46% - English, 51% - Yiddish), was higher

in Yiddish. An analysis on the motivation for CSes revealed that 99.64% were due to lexical access

difficulties in both languages. Additionally, quantitative analysis indicated the use of DMs,

repetitions, stutters and rephrasing.

Conclusion: Findings support the notion that the study of fluency in bilingual aphasia can

be better understood when multiple sources of data exist, i.e. sessions conducted in both languages.

Since the bilingual participant used different strategies to sound more fluent in each language,

therapy in both languages that focus on these strategies and that acknowledge the different levels

of impairment within each language, should be considered.

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3. Comparative Outcomes of New Language Learning in a Multilingual Person with

Mild Aphasia and a Multilingual Healthy Control

Marina Belkina, Olga Iukalo-Tokarski, Katy Borodkin*, Mira Goral*

Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences,

Lehman College, CUNY

*Faculty Mentor

The present study compares the ability to learn a new language in a multilingual person

with aphasia to that of a multilingual healthy individual. A limited number of studies have

addressed new language learning in persons with aphasia, concentrating mainly in the area of

vocabulary, with results showing some word-form and word-meaning learning abilities (Kelly &

Armstrong, 2009; Tuomiranta et. al, 2011). The current study expanded the range of the language

components under investigation, to include (but not limited to) the analysis of the syntactic

complexity and the grammaticality of the newly acquired language structures in persons with

aphasia. The questions asked by the researchers were: 1. whether persons with aphasia can acquire

complex language components of the new language; 2. what are the differences between such

acquired components when compared to those acquired by healthy controls following a

comparable language learning protocol.

The participants of the study were: a 64-year old multilingual man with mild aphasia and

a 42-year old multilingual healthy woman control. Both participants received a 4-week Russian

language course, comparable in intensity, duration, and teaching methods. Assessments took place

both pre- and post- training to determine the participants’ level of language acquisition. The

healthy control participant was assessed twice post-training, due to the more rapid progression

throughout the course, so that data would be reported on the comparable amount of material

covered.

Performance is reported from the tasks of question generation and answering wh-questions.

Measures reported include: number of code-switched units, sentence grammaticality and sentence

complexity.

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4. Word-Order in Early Child Acquisition of Possessives in Brazilian Portuguese

Ronit Deutsch & Mark Patkowski*

Linguistics Program, Brooklyn College, CUNY

*Faculty Mentor

This research examined children's early acquisition of possessives in Brazilian Portuguese,

as compared to English. Brown (1973) found that English-speaking children at Stage I (MLU 1.5-

2.0), keep the appropriate English word order when expressing various semantic relations,

including possession (i.e., possessor + possessed, reflecting the structure of the Anglo-Saxon

genitive, e.g., Mary house for Mary’s house). The research question therefore was: Do Portuguese-

speaking children at Stage I similarly express possession in the appropriate word order (possessed

+ possessor, reflecting the structure of the Portuguese prepositional possessive, e.g., casa Maria

for a casa da Maria)?

A review of the literature on child acquisition of possession in Romance languages turned

up scant data involving Portuguese, but more regarding French (e.g., Clark 2001; Collombel &

Morgenstern 2012; Rondal et al. 2000). Overall, the evidence was limited, even contradictory.

Particularly perplexing was the example Papa bic (“daddy’s pen”) provided by Rondal et al. as an

illustration of one type of early possession in French involving the juxtaposition of two nouns

which, however, followed the English, not Romance, word order.

Data in CHILDES from three Portuguese-speaking children at Stage I (mean MLUs

between 1.6 and 1.8) were analyzed. Results indicated that the children followed Portuguese word

order in all of their possessive constructions involving noun-noun juxtapositions, but also made

extensive use of the preposition de and of possessive determiners such as meu. Given Brown’s

claim that functional words are largely absent at Stage I in English, further research is suggested

to determine whether such functional words appear more frequently at Stage I in Romance

languages.

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5. Factors Impacting Topic Maintenance in a Child with High Functioning Autism

Caitlin Donohue, Robin Goldenberg, Cecilia Navarra*

Department of Linguistics and Communication Disorders, Communication Sciences Disorders,

Queens College, CUNY

*Faculty Mentor

This analysis assessed situational factors impacting topic maintenance in a 12-year-old boy

(R.) with high functioning autism. Of particular interest were situational factors that might impact

R’s topic maintenance. To assess these areas of R’s language, the supervising clinician and

graduate clinicians recorded therapy sessions conducted in the context of play over two semesters.

Results revealed that factors such as familiarity with specific types of conflicts, as well as whether

conflicts were environmental or interpersonal in nature, impacted the child’s ability to respond

contingently, as the verbal reasoning necessary for resolving interpersonal conflicts required

greater linguistic complexity. Results suggested that targeting problem solving in the context of

play may enhance topic maintenance while enhancing social skills, as play provides practice for

situations that require problem solving.

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6. Effect of Clear Speech on Vowel Formats and Intelligibility in Spanish-Accents Speakers

of American English

Laima Efremenkova & Allison Behrman*

Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Lehman College, CUNY

*Faculty Mentor

Clear speech is a hyperarticulated speaking style used to enhance intelligibility in adverse

listening conditions. The current study is a partial replication of Rogers, DeMasi, & Krause (2010),

which compared intelligibility of seven target English vowels produced in clear and habitual style

by native (L1) English talkers and by L1 Spanish talkers who were either early or late learners of

English. Vowel intelligibility was judged by L1 English talkers. Late learners achieved

significantly lower clear speech benefit compared to the other two talker groups. However, the

native language of the listener can influence intelligibility judgments (Smiljanić & Bradlow,

2007). Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to obtain preliminary data on differences in

vowel intelligibility in clear speech as a function of the listener’s native language. Eight L1 Spanish

speakers of English (late learners) produced eight vowels in a “bVd” context embedded in a carrier

phrase (“I see a ___ again”). Mean duration and frequency of the first and second formants were

measured. Listeners with a language background similar to that of the speakers assessed vowel

intelligibility in two signal-to-noise levels using multi-talker babble. Findings will be compared to

Rogers et al. (2010). At present, acquisition of speaker data is complete and vowel measurements

have been calculated. Acquisition of listener data is underway.

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7. Implementing Play-based Developmental Assessments with Children Functioning in the

Prelinguistic Stages of Development

Elizabeth Ferrara, Mary Napolitano, Sima Gerber*

Department of Linguistic and Communication Disorders, Queens College, CUNY

*Faculty Mentor

Many assessment resources are inadequate for children functioning in prelinguistic stages of

development since they may not provide information relevant to the children’s ‘true’

developmental levels or necessary for developing effective intervention. The relationship between

ideas, symbolic representation, and language, exhibited in play, is well-researched; thus,

observations of play aligned to developmental paradigms such as Linder’s Transdisciplinary Play-

based Assessment, was alternatively used in assessing a non-verbal 5-year-old client with autism.

Implementation of the play-based developmental language assessment demonstrated a) the

benefits of developmental language assessments, and b) how to evaluate children functioning in

prelinguistic stages of development via play.

Developmental language assessments are viable ways of assessing nonverbal children

functioning in early developmental stages, providing information about their ‘true’ developmental

levels to establish effective intervention. The relationship between ideas, symbolic representation,

and language, exhibited in play, led to the implementation of a play-based developmental language

assessment with a non-verbal 5-year-old client with autism using Linder’s Transdisciplinary Play-

based Assessment. This assessment demonstrated the benefits of evaluating non-linguistic

domains in children functioning in prelinguistic developmental stages.

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8. Bilingual Advantage in Children with Specific Language Impairment

Alexandra Gill1, Naila Khatri1, Jessica Scheuer2* 1Communication Disorders and Deafness, Kean University 2Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, The Graduate Center

*Faculty Mentor

Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder that can impair speech function and intelligibility in

children with cerebral palsy (CP). While studies have shown improvements with 16 hours of

treatment, treatment intensity of pediatric dysarthria has been little explored. According to

Schmidt’s motor learning principles, higher treatment intensity (e.g. more hours) increases post-

treatment gains. These principles also apply to the treatment of motor speech disorders such as

dysarthria. A speech camp creates a model setting for delivering more intensive treatment.

The aim of this study is to design a 90-hour speech camp for children with dysarthria due

to CP, including treatment and testing protocols, and to subsequently begin to investigate the

effects of intensive treatment on speech function and intelligibility.

Participants will be recruited through the Center for Cerebral Palsy for the camp, taking

place June-July 2014. The Speech Systems Intelligibility Treatment (SSIT) (Levy, in press) will

be used, targeting the subsystems of speech using motor learning principles. A treatment protocol

will be designed to train student clinicians to treat participants 6 hours/day, 5 days/week for 3

weeks. A testing protocol will be designed to assess speech function and intelligibility by means

of listener ratings, transcriptions and articulation scores.

Anticipated results at 90 hours include increased gains across child outcome measures

relative to previous studies.

This camp is expected to provide greater improvements and more data regarding the effects

of intensive treatment for pediatric dysarthria due to CP, contributing to this area of research where

more information is greatly needed.

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9. Stability of the P1-N1-P2 and T-complex Waveforms in 48 Single Subjects Tara Griffiths, Kevin Kiprovski, Katherine Blankemeier, Caitlin Shea, Monica Wagner*

Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, St. John’s University

*Faculty Mentor

P1-N1-P2 and T-complex of the auditory-evoked potentials (AEPs) were found to reflect

the spectral and temporal characteristics within the spoken words (Wagner et al., in preparation).

Thus, the P1-N1-P2 and T-complex may be useful for probing detection of acoustic characteristics

of speech at cortical stages in individuals with auditory processing deficits. It has been suggested

that stability in cortical responding to speech might also underlie dysfunction in speech processing

(Gilley & Sharma, 2010; Hornickle & Kraus, 2013). Therefore, in the current study, we examine

the association between half of the cortical sensory responses (approximately 70 trials) to the

remaining half of the cortical sensory responses to spoken nonsense words in each of 48 single

subjects. Nonsense words began with the phoneme sequences /pt/, /pet/, /st/, and /set/ and varied

in rhyme. Stimulus trials were presented randomly. Pearson correlation coefficients (r), graphs,

and the root mean square of waveforms from each participant were analyzed to assess associations.

Stability in response in both amplitude and waveform morphology was found. For all participants,

single response trials showed almost perfect correlations at fronto-central electrode sites (P1-N1-

P2) and less association at posterior temporal sites (T-complex). These findings have implications

for clinical assessment and studies of neuroplasticity following auditory training.

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10. A Methodological Approach in the Analysis of Narratives Produced by Persons with

Aphasia and Neuro-typical Individuals

Emma Harriman, Lauren Poggi, Ann Jablon*

Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Marymount Manhattan College

*Faculty Mentor

This research project is part of an overarching study (Lendaris, et. al, 2014) that is

analyzing narratives produced by persons with aphasia (PWAs) when provided different stimuli—

a short silent video depicting a doctor examination and static pictures. The question that fuels this

study is: does the stimulus used to elicit oral narratives affect the quality of the narrative? In this

case, does the silent video serve as a better stimulus than the static picture?

The ‘story goodness’ metric proposed by Lê, Coelho, Mozeiko, and Grafman (2011) was

used to measure the quality of the narratives. Story goodness comprises story grammar and story

completeness. Story grammar, an organization measure of narratives, contains episodes, which are

thought to be cognitive in nature. The story completeness component refers to the presence of key

critical elements (characters and events) of the narratives.

Marymount Manhattan College (MMC) students recruited and tested non-brain damaged

participants from the faculty and staff of the College. Subsequent to testing, the MMC team

transcribed, analyzed, and segmented the narratives produced by the non-brain damaged

participants as well as those produced by PWAs. The control narratives were used to determine

the key episodes and the critical elements of the stimuli used.

First, narratives were transcribed from audio recordings and segmented into T-units, “main

clauses with any subordinate clauses attached to or embedded in the main clause” (Hunt 1965,

1970), following the rules established by Nicholas and Brookshire (1993), Strong and Shaver

(1991), and Hunt (1965, 1970). These rules provided a foundation for segmentation. However,

problems with extraneous speech arose as the transcribed narratives were segmented. To remain

consistent, an extraction rule was created stating that only spontaneous speech pertaining directly

to the visual prompts would be extracted from the narrative and segmented into T-units. After all

narratives were segmented, differences in the verbs between the stimuli were noted. After a verb

analysis was performed, it was observed that the verb forms produced in the video clip stimulus

were more varied in tense than that of the static picnic scene stimulus.

Results from the overarching study suggest that the short silent film elicited more fruitful

narratives within the PWA group when measured by the story ‘goodness’ metric. Next steps

include further analyses of the narratives by means of SALT, QPA, additional verb analyses and/or

type-token ratio to determine whether a dynamic stimulus elicits a better quality narrative.

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11. Accent Modification Priorities of Second Language Speakers of English:

Comprehensibility, Intelligibility, and Nativeness Arielle Mayer and Hia Datta*

Department of Speech-Language Pathology, Molloy College

*Faculty Mentor

Accent, intelligibility and comprehensibility are factors that contribute substantially to

verbal communication. An accent is considered the “degree to which the pronunciation of an

utterance sounds different from an expected pronunciation pattern.” (Derwing & Munro, 2005).

Intelligibility on the other hand has been defined as, “the extent to which a speaker’s message is

actually understood by a listener, but there is no universally accepted way of assessing it.”

(Derwing & Munro, 2005) Finally, the term comprehensibility refers to the “listener’s perception

of how easily he or she understand an utterance.” (Kennedy & Trofimovich, 2008) Prior studies

have suggested that either accurate transcription or a listener’s ability to paraphrase speech are

indicative of good intelligibility. Comprehensibility is related to a listener’s consideration of

complication interpreting an utterance. (Kennedy & Trofimovich, 2008)

In order to examine the long term goals for accent modification in second language (L2)

speakers of English, I will assess whether L2 speakers of English desire increased intelligibility

over comprehensibility; or to modify their accent to be perceived as native-like. Additionally, a

survey will be administered in order to explore whether listeners of L2 speakers seek increased

intelligibility or comprehensibility; or prefer listening to speakers that sound native-like. L2

speakers of English will complete a survey to determine their goals in terms of the three

aforementioned factors. Accented speakers of English will also read a brief passage, which will be

phonetically transcribed and rated by a group of native English listeners in order to assess the

comprehensibility, intelligibility, and nativeness of each L2 speaker.

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12. Characteristics of Language Production and Comprehension in a Spanish-English

Bilingual with Mild Aphasia

Carmen Mustelier, Cristi Espada, Mira Goral1&2*, Katy Borodkin*

¹Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Lehman College, CUNY

²Speech-Language Hearing Sciences, The Graduate Center, CUNY

*Faculty Mentor

In this study, we examine the state of the languages spoken by a 50-year-old Spanish -

English bilingual participant with mild aphasia 27 years post cerebral vascular accident (CVA). In

addition, we aim to discuss some of the variables that may contribute to any differences in the

recovery patterns of both languages. The participant reported high proficiency in both Spanish and

English prior to sustaining the CVA. She learned Spanish as her native language and English at 4

years old. Following the CVA, both languages were severely impaired, with English gradually

becoming her dominant language at 3 years post onset, and Spanish remaining mildly impaired.

The participant attributes the differential pattern of recovery to limited use of Spanish. Although

we are currently in the preliminary stages of the study, data from four assessment sessions in both

Spanish and English revealed more instances of word retrieval difficulty in Spanish with very

minimal struggle in English.

Assessment procedures included four 1-hour sessions in English and four 1-hour sessions

in Spanish. The tasks employed for testing were: Object and Action Naming, Sentence

Construction, Sequences Description, Verb Conjugation, Verb, Noun and Sentence

Comprehension, Adjective-Noun Agreement, Wh Question Responses, Lexical Judgment,

Narrative Production and Read Aloud. Performance will be reported from the naming and

comprehension tests. Measures reported include the number of accurately produced items in each

task in contrast with the number of errors, in both languages.

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13. Influence of L2 Metalinguistic Awareness in the Acquisition and Comprehension of L1

Vocabulary

Nicole Oestricher¹ and Isabelle Barriere²&³*

1Department of Speech Communication Arts & Sciences, Brooklyn College, CUNY 2Yeled V’Yalda Research Institute

³Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Long Island University

*Faculty Mentor

In this study the research question was “Can the metalinguistic awareness of L2 patterns

influence L1 of students, perhaps increasing their knowledge of vocabulary or grammatical

patterns?” This study analyzed how the acquisition of Latin as a second language could have

influenced the increased acquisition and comprehension of vocabulary and understanding of

grammatical rules in English, the first language of the students. Three college level classes at

CUNY Brooklyn College were chosen: one was taught elementary Latin, the second was taught

advanced Latin, the third was taught Latin morphology and where it can be seen in English. I chose

these classes because one places more emphasis on the morphological aspects of the Latin words

while the others place more emphasis on grammar and vocabulary building than analyzing the

morphemes but all three encourage memorization as a study method. All classes were tested in

one sitting, using a hand out that was a dual questionnaire and quiz, consisting of different

exercises focused on filling in morphological elements, recognizing and defining different

morphological elements, and recognizing when to apply those definitions or tactics used to define

them previously to different forms of words. My results showed a larger correlation between the

number of languages studied and the number of questions answered correctly than the number of

semesters studying Latin or the number of studying hours. In conclusion the exposure to multiple

languages not just one influences how well a person can interpret different parts of a language as

they are able to relate previous knowledge to the present translation or definition.

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14. An Investigation of the Effects of Breakfast on Cognitive Function and Academic

Performance Among College Students

Kaitlin Pescitelli, Hia Datta*


*Faculty Mentor

Adolescence is a period of rapid development, when proper nutritional intake is essential.

There has been substantial research suggesting that breakfast consumption and composition

directly affects cognitive function and academic performance amongst children, adolescents, and

adults (Muthayya et al., 2007;Cooper et al., 2011). Preserving enhanced cognitive functioning is

crucial in college students, who are under great amounts of academic pressure. Therefore, the

objective of my present study is to investigate the effects of breakfast consumption and

composition on college-aged students cognitive functions (i.e., attention and memory) and

academic performances.

For duration of two weeks, each participant will keep track of every meal he or she

consumes for breakfast using a food log. The food log will display specific food groups: protein,

complex carbohydrates, fruit, vegetables, milk, and other. Next, the participants will engage in

an experiment in which they will be divided into three groups: nutritional breakfast consumption,

unhealthful breakfast consumption, and no breakfast consumption. They will be required to

consume the entire test meal each morning for two-weeks.

Once this two-week experiment is over, each participant will complete a visual recall task

assessing his or her attention and memory skills (cognitive function).The results from my study

will be able to suggest that daily intake of nutritional foods for breakfast is beneficial for cognitive

performance in college students. Indicators of diet quality will be correlated with academic

achievement amongst the students. Regular breakfast consumption ought to be encouraged among

college students.

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15. The Effects of Bilingualism on Executive Control Functions in Auditory Selective

Attention

Sara Seweid, Mairim Melecio-Vazquez, Yasmine Ouchikh Robert D. Melara*

Department of Psychology, City College, CUNY

*Faculty Mentor

Bilingual children and older adults show gains in performance on executive control tasks

compared to monolingual. The effect is known as the bilingual advantage. Relatively little

research has studied the bilingual advantage in college aged populations, and the research that

exists has examined the effects of bilingualism on visual perception. The current study evaluated

the bilingual advantage in auditory perception in college-aged students by using tones to control

for language intelligibility effects. Previous research has shown that bilinguals are worse than

monolinguals at detecting speech in noisy environments. Spanish-English bilingual and English

monolingual participants were tested in an auditory version of the Simon task, an auditory version

of the flanker task, a task to detect speech signals in noise (QuickSin), and several personality

inventories. Language proficiency was established with an objective test. In the auditory Simon

task, participants identified the pitch of tones in lateral positions, ignoring the spatial location of

the target sound. In the auditory flanker task, participants judged the pitch of the second of three

sequential tones, ignoring the pitch of the two flanking tones. We found a bilingual advantage in

the auditory Simon task, replicating results from the traditional visual version of this task. We

also found a trend for a bilingual advantage in the auditory flanker task. The results indicate that

bilinguals are better able to suppress irrelevant spatial and auditory frequency information,

suggesting that the effects of bilingualism on executive control functions extend across sensory

modalities.

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16. Perception of Vocal Fry

Nicole Sgambati and Hia Datta*


*Faculty Mentor

A number of studies have shown that individuals presenting with vocal fry come across as

“less hirable” (Anderson, Klofstad, Mayew & Venmatachalam, 2014). However, other studies

suggest that vocal fry is perceived as dominant (Anderson & Klofstad, 2012). My study is designed

to examine how the presence of vocal fry influences the hiring process. Specifically, the purpose

of my study is to determine whether vocal fry production in young female adults, ages 20-25, is

perceived as dominant and more professional when compared to a typical speaking individual with

a very similar resume. The speakers will include two young female adults, one presenting with

vocal fry and one presenting with a typical voice. Each person will have one recording of low and

another of high frequency. Both of the speakers will have extremely similar qualifications and

personal strengths, the only difference being presented will be the vocal quality. After hearing the

four recordings, 20 participants, 10 males and 10 females will use a Likert scale to rate the

speakers’ voices focusing on which candidate presented as more dominant, professional and

hirable. This experiment will help determine whether vocal fry production in young female adult

females is perceived as dominant in the workplace.

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17. Piloting an Experimental Design to Assess Working Memory in Children with SLI and

Dyslexia

Caitlin Shea and Monica Wagner*


*Faculty Mentor

Research has shown a reduced N400m effect to repetition of a spoken word, relative to the

response to a single presentation of a word (Helenius et al., 2009; 2014). This effect of repetition

within the N400m response was found to be smaller in children with Specific Language

Impairment (SLI) and dyslexia relative to typically developing peers, suggesting limited short term

maintenance during processing (Helenius et al., 2014). However, it may be that children with

language impairment show equally poor short term maintenance for phoneme sequences of

nonsense words, as well as for real words. Therefore, the aim of the current project is to analyze

pilot data to determine an appropriate experimental design for determining whether children with

SLI and dyslexia show poor short term maintenance for the phoneme sequences that constitute

words. An older and younger group of typically developing children performed a syllable

identification task to same and different nonsense words, while we recorded event-related

potentials. The children in the younger group were between 8 and 9 years of age and the children

in the older group were between 10 and 12 years of age. A two second interval occurred between

the nonsense word pairs and a 250 ms interval occurred between words within the pairs. A

comparison of the intermediate stage cortical response around 400 ms to the second word within

the different pairs relative to the second word within the same pairs will be examined from

electrode sites overlying fronto-central and posterior temporal brain regions in the younger and

older children. This will allow us to identify appropriate interstimulus intervals appropriate for

comparison in younger and older children and in children with SLI and dyslexia.

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18. Reliability of an Original Coding System for Measuring Disfluencies

Thaila Sosa, Lara Sugatan, Christina Askew, Julia Morgan, Naomi Eichorn*

Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Pace University

*Faculty Mentor

Deriving reliable measures of observable stuttering behavior is critical in both fluency

research and clinical intervention but remains an ongoing challenge, with very low levels of

agreement even among experienced clinicians and researchers performing stutter counts (Ingham

& Cordes, 1992; Cordes & Ingham, 1995). Several computer-based tools for quantifying stuttering

are available but have important limitations. For example, the Stuttering Management System

(Ingham et al., 1999) generates simple syllable and stuttering counts without providing any detail

related to the type, category, or location of disfluencies in speech output. A more detailed system

based on Codes for the Human Analysis of Transcripts (CHAT) conventions is described by Ratner

and colleagues (1996) but is not very intuitive for users without prior CHAT experience and is not

widely used in other laboratories or clinical settings. The present study examined the reliability of

an original fluency coding system that used simple conventions consistent with accepted stuttering

typologies and was based on a customized script in R. Four trained undergraduate students used

the system to generate, among other output, frequency counts of syllables and individual

disfluency types. Each listener orthographically transcribed and coded ten 1-minute samples

recorded from 10 stuttering adults, then repeated the process one week later. Intra- and inter-rater

reliability were calculated to (1) determine the overall level of agreement within and between

judges, and (2) compare reliability for different categories and types of disfluency. Based on the

results, specific benefits and applications of this system for research and clinical intervention are

considered.

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19. The Effect of Attention on the Cortical Sensory Components, P1-N1-P2 and T-complex

Evis Haxhari, Karen Sung, Caitlin Shea, Kevin Kiprovski, Monica Wagner*


*Faculty Mentor

Researchers have shown that cortical sensory waveforms, the P1-N1-P2 and T-complex,

of the Auditory Evoked Potentials (AEPs) represent the spectro-temporal features of spoken words

(Giraud et al., 2005; Wagner et al., 2013; Wagner et al., in preparation). These waveforms have

clinical significance for probing detection of acoustic features of spoken words at cortical levels

in individuals with auditory processing deficits. In the current study, we determine whether

acoustic features of spoken words are similarly represented within the P1-N1-P2 and T-complex

sensory waveforms for two experimental conditions. AEPs were recorded to the first word in same

and different word pairs from native English and native Polish participants during two

experimental sessions. During one testing session, participants listened to nonsense words pairs

while performing a syllable identification task to the second word in the word pairs and, in another

session, participants listened to the stimuli without engaging in a behavioral task. Experimental

testing sessions were counterbalanced so that one group of English and one group of Polish

participants performed the behavioral task during the first session and listened passively during

the second session and a second group of English and Polish participants listened passively during

the first session and performed the behavioral task during the second session. A processing

negativity for the behavioral task condition relative to the passive listening condition was found,

consistent with an effect of selective attention, More importantly, spectro-temporal features of the

spoken words appear unchanged.

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20. Written Language Outcomes for an Adolescent with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Matthew Turk and Megan Dunn Davison*


*Faculty Mentor

The purpose of this case study is to examine the written language of a middle-school

student identified with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Predictors of expressive writing in typical

populations include visual imagery, memory, perceptual-motor skill, and verbal intelligence

(Wheeler, Nickerson, Long, & Silver, 2014). For students with TBI, writing domains of efficiency,

completeness, general readability, error, and vocabulary are all significantly correlated with injury

severity (Yorkston, Jaffe, Polissar, Liao & Fay, 1997). This case study explores these domains in

a pre- and post- written language sample. The student participated in a larger study investigating

the impact of a self-regulated strategy development persuasive writing intervention for students

identified with language impairment. From this data, we will discuss the implications of

completeness, errors, and vocabulary in written language in a TBI population.

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21. A Young Adult Texting Language Profile

Megan Valentin and Megan Dunn Davison*


*Faculty Mentor

Over the past few years texting has increased in popularity. As of 2009, 66% of teens, age

12-17, text using a mobile phone and 54% text daily, up from 27% in 2006 (PEW 2010). A number

of studies have attempted to create texting language profiles for both typically-developed and

language-impaired populations. Previous studies have gathered information about the average

number of texts per day, the types and frequency of textisms (novel creative or shorthand words

used in texting) used, and the function and length of text messages (De Jonge & Kemp, 2012;

Grinter & Elridge, 2003. This study aims to continue to build the texting language profile. In

addition to collecting data on textism type and proportion, average text length in words, mean

length utterance by measure of words and number of texts. This study will monitor the number of

texts adolescents send to their parents in one day and the number of “correction” texts (texts used

to self-correct previous texts). The data will include 30 mobile texts by 30 18-24 year olds sampled

from a 24-hour period. The participants will be sampled from City University of New York Queens

College. The texts will be transcribed and input into SALT Transcription Software. The variables

in this study were chosen based on implications of potential areas of difference for language

impaired populations and typically-developed populations. Although the outcome of this study

will be solely based on a typically-developed population, the data provides an opportunity for

comparison by potential future research on texting in language–impaired populations.

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22. Native Spanish and English Speakers’ Judgments for Causative and Intransitive

Constructions Using Manner-of-motion Verbs

Ibana Vargas2, Shintia Manzanares2, Stephanie Perez1,2, Eve Higby 1,2* 1Department of Psychology, Queens College, CUNY

2Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences Doctoral Program, The Graduate Center, CUNY

*Faculty Mentor

This study compared acceptability judgments on three syntactic constructions by native

Spanish and native English speakers. Two constructions are thought to differ in their acceptance

by speakers of these two languages. The first construction, induced motion causatives, is

grammatical in English but ungrammatical in Spanish. The second construction, intransitive

motion events using manner-of-motion verbs, has a form that is preferred in English and another

preferred in Spanish. The third construction, transitive constructions using uncontrolled motion

verbs, is ungrammatical in both languages. In order to see whether English knowledge influenced

Spanish ratings among Spanish speakers, we investigated whether living in the U.S. or level of

English proficiency affect judgments of Spanish speakers for the causative construction. We asked

21 native Spanish speakers and 24 native English speakers to rate 164 sentences in their native

language for naturalness on a scale from 1 to 7. Results showed that Spanish and English speakers

significantly differed in their mean judgments for causatives (p < .001) and intransitive

constructions (p < .001), but not for constructions with uncontrolled motion verbs (p = .279). There

was no significant difference between Spanish speakers living in the U.S. and those living in

Spanish speaking countries, nor did English proficiency predict judgments for Spanish speakers.

In conclusion, we found the expected pattern that Spanish speakers find causative constructions

with manner-of-motion verbs less acceptable than English speakers, and each group showed the

expected preference patterns for intransitive constructions. Neither English proficiency nor

language of the environment affected Spanish speakers’ judgments.

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22. Neurophysiology of Auditory Processing in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Jasmine William1,2, Sophie Molholm2, Neha Uppal2, Suzanne Thompson1* 1Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders, St. John’s University

2Albert Einstein College of Medicine

*Faculty Mentor

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is defined by deficits in social communication with

narrow and stereotyped interests. Individuals with ASD often report sensitivity to sound, which

may interfere with language and communication development. To examine the integrity of

auditory processing in children with autism, high- density recordings of electrical brain activity

were used to understand the neural underpinnings of auditory sensitivity in children with autism.

Event related potentials (ERPs) of 7 high-functioning participants with autism (HFA: IQ>70), 7

low-functioning participants with autism (LFA: IQ<70) and 6 age-matched neurotypical (NT)

controls were measured in response to two different auditory stimuli, tones and phonemes. Stimuli

were presented in separate blocks in an ‘oddball’ configuration. During the oddball task,

participants listen to a frequent sound called the standard, with an infrequent sound called the

deviant. Electroencephalography recordings were used to measure the mismatch negativity

(MMN), a component of ERPs that gives a cortical index of sound discrimination between the

standard and deviant, indicating the participant identified the deviant as distinct from the standard.

The results show that NT, HFA and LFA have similarly strong MMN responses to tones, but not

phonemes, as HFA and LFA have reduced MMN response compared to NT when processing

phonemes. Tones may be processed more efficiently than phonemes in autism because they are

less complex than phonemes. As cognitive functioning level of participants with ASD reduce, the

deficits in processing of phonemes increases. This may contribute to poor communication and

language skills in the autistic participants.

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23. Beyond FAS: What about Speakers of Non-alphabetic Languages?

Nancy Eng*, Nakyung Yoo, Melissa Salzberg

Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, Hunter College, CUNY

*Faculty Mentor

Mental lexicon is the repository for words that may be organized alphabetically (all words

that start with "F", "A", "S") or semantically (based on category membership such as ‘animals’ or

‘vehicles’). These tasks of verbal fluency involve a subject quickly naming exemplars of a

restricted category in sixty seconds (Lezak, 1995) and are used to access capacity, organization,

and complexity of the mental lexicon; performance predicts executive function capacity.

A main question in psycholinguistics is how the mental dictionary is organized; part of the

answer should reflect the structure of the language in question. In alphabetic languages, responses

on letter fluency tasks (FAS) are said to reflect word organization, suggesting alphabetical word

storage. How might words be stored in a non-alphabetic language such as Chinese? What features

of the language might be used to index words? What is being tapped when using traditional letter

fluency tasks with Mandarin speakers? In this proposal, we present pilot data from healthy

Mandarin speakers (n=25) performing traditional verbal fluency tasks along with novel tasks

designed to reflect the lexical features of Mandarin. Two categories of language features,

classifiers and characters, were used in this study. Obligatory in most noun phrases, classifiers

serve two functions - units for counting and carrying semantic/lexical information about the

physical attributes of the object (noun) with which individual classifiers are associated. For

example, the classifier 'tiao' (條) is associated with objects that are long and flowing, such as scarf,

river, thread, etc. However, it is also assigned to cats and dresses which are not inherently long or

flowing. Hence, many of these associations are simply learned by rote.

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PARTICIPANTS

*Mentors; pAuthor-Presenters; FDoctoral Faculty in the PhD. Program in Speech-Language &

Hearing Sciences, Graduate Center, CUNY

NAME DEPARTMENT INSTITUTION E-MAIL

Carmit Altmanp Linguistics and

Communication

Disorders

Queens College

Christina Askewp Communication

Sciences and

Disorders

Pace University [email protected]

Isabelle Barriere* Communication

Sciences and

Disorders

Long Island University,

Yeled V’Yalada

Research Institute

[email protected]

Susie Barroso-

Walkerp

Linguistics and

Communication

Disorders

Queens College

Marina Belkinap Speech-Language

and Hearing

Sciences

Lehman College [email protected]

Allison Behrman* Speech-Language

and Hearing

Sciences

Lehman College

Katherine

Blankemeierp

Commination

Sciences and

Disorders

St. John’s University Katherine.blankemeier13@my.

stjohns.edu

Katy Borodkin* Speech-Language

and Hearing

Sciences


Hia Datta* Speech-Language

Pathology

Molloy College [email protected]

Ronit Deutschp Linguistics Brooklyn College

Caitlin Donohuep Linguistics and

Communication

Disorders

Queens College

Megan Dunn

Davison*

Linguistics and

Communication

Disorders

Queens College [email protected]

Laima Efremenkovap Speech-Language-

Hearing Sciences

Lehman College

Naomi Eichorn* Communication

Sciences and

Disorders

Pace university [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]









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Nancy Eng* Speech-Language

Pathology and

Audiology

Hunter College [email protected]

Cristi Espadap Speech-Language

Hearing Sciences


Elizabeth Ferrarap Linguistics and

Communication

Disorders

Queens College

Sima Gerber* Linguistics and

Communication

Disorders

Queens College

Alexandra Gil Communication

Disorders and

Deafness

Kean University [email protected]

Mira Goral*F Speech, Language &

Hearing Sciences

Lehman College & The

Graduate Center,

CUNY

[email protected]

Robin Goldbergp Linguistics and

Communication

Disorders

Queens College

Tara Griffithsp Communication

Sciences and

Disorders

St. John’s University [email protected]

Emma Harrimanp Communication

Sciences and

Disorders

Marymount Manhattan

College

[email protected]

Evis Haxharip Communication

Sciences and

Disorders


Eve Higby* Speech-Language

Hearing Sciences

The Graduate Center,

Queens College*

[email protected]

Olga Iukalo-

Tokarskip

Speech-Language

and Hearing

Sciences

Lehman College

Ann Jablon* Communication

Sciences and

Disorders

Marymount Manhattan

College

Naila Khatri Communication

Disorders and

Deafness

Kean University

Kevin Kiprovski Communication

Sciences and

Disorders

St. John’s University

Shintia Manzanaresp Psychology and

Speech-Language

Hearing Sciences

Queens College and

The Graduate Center

[email protected]

uny.edu










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29

Brett MartinF Speech, Language &

Hearing Sciences


CUNY

[email protected]

Klara Marton*F Speech, Language &

Hearing Sciences


CUNY

[email protected]

Arielle Mayerp Speech-Language

Pathology


Robert Melara* Psychology City College [email protected]

Mairim Melecio-

Vazquezp

Psychology City College [email protected]

Sophie Molholmp Communication

Sciences &

Disorders

Albert Einstein College

of Medicine

Julia Morganp Communication

Sciences &

Disorders


Carmen Mustelierp Speech, Language &

Hearing Sciences


Cecilia Navarra* Linguistics &

Communication

Disorders and

Communication

Science Disorders

Queens College

Mary Napolitanop Linguistics &

Communication

Disorders

Queens College

Yael Neumann-

Werth*

Linguistics &

Communication

Disorders

Queens College and

Bar-Llan University

(Israel)

[email protected]

Loraine K. OblerF Speech, Language &

Hearing Sciences

The Graduate Center [email protected]

Nicole Oestricherp Speech

Communication Arts

and Sciences

Brooklyn College [email protected]

Yasmine Ouchikhp Psychology City College [email protected]

Mark Patkowski* Linguistics Brooklyn College

Stephanie Perezp Speech-Language-

Hearing Sciences

The Graduate Center Stephanieisabelperez21@gmail

.com

Kaitlin Pescitellip Speech-Language

Pathology

Molloy College

Lauren Poggip Communication

Sciences &

Disorders

Marymount Manhattan

College

Janice Rodriguezp Linguistics &

Communication

Disorders


m
















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Melissa Salzbergerp Speech-Language

Pathology and

Audiology


Jessica Scheuer* Speech-Language

Hearing Sciences


Kean University*

[email protected]

Richard G.

SchwartzF

Speech, Language &

Hearing Sciences


Sara Seweidp Psychology City College [email protected]

Nicole Sgambatip Speech-Language

Pathology


Valerie ShaferF Speech, Language &

Hearing Sciences


Caitlin Sheap Communication

Sciences &

Disorders


Thaila Sosap Communication

Sciences &

Disorders


Lara Sugatanp Communication

Sciences &

Disorders


Karen Sungp Communication

Sciences &

Disorders


Suzanne Thompson* Communication

Sciences &

Disorders


Matthew Turkp Linguistics &

Communication

Disorders


Neha Uppalp Communication

Sciences &

Disorders


of Medicine

[email protected]

Megan Valentinp Linguistics &

Communication

Disorders


Ibana Vargasp Speech-Language-

Hearing Sciences


Monica Wagner* Communication

Sciences &

Disorders


Joel Waltersp Linguistics &

Communication

Disorders

Queens College

Douglas H. Whalen F Speech-Language-

Hearing Sciences



















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31

Jasmine Williamp Communication

Sciences &

Disorders

St. John’s University,


of Medicine

[email protected]

Nakyung Yoop Speech-Language

Pathology and

Audiology




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