Aging Effect on Mandarin Chinese Vowel and Tone Identification in Six-Talker Babble

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Chang Liu ◽  
Can Xu ◽  
Yuxia Wang ◽  
Lilong Xu ◽  
Hui Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Detrimental Effect ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Aging Effect ◽  
Vowel Identification ◽  
Vowel Perception ◽  
Tone Recognition ◽  
Energetic Masking ◽  
Competing Speech

Purpose The purpose of this study was to measure Mandarin Chinese vowel-plus-tone identification in quiet and noise for younger and older listeners. Method Two types of noise served as the masker, namely, six-talker babble and babble-modulated noise, at two signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of −4 and −8 dB. Fourteen listeners from both age groups were recruited, and three sets of data analyses were conducted: the identification of vowel plus tone, the identification of vowel, and the identification of tone. Results Younger listeners outperformed older listeners in all listening conditions, whereas the younger–older listener difference became greater in noise than in quiet, indicating a more detrimental effect of noise for older listeners than for younger listeners. In addition, vowel identification showed slightly better scores than tone identification in noise, suggesting that noise appeared to affect tone perception more negatively than vowel perception in Mandarin Chinese. At −4 dB SNR, there was a significantly greater amount of informational masking (IM) and a greater amount of energetic masking (EM) for older listeners than for younger listeners. At −8 dB SNR, there was a greater amount of EM for older listeners than for younger listeners but with no group difference in the amount of IM. Conclusion These results suggest that older listeners received a more negative impact of noise for Mandarin Chinese phonemic and tone recognition and had a larger amount of IM or EM from competing speech noise than younger listeners, depending on the SNR.

Development of Mandarin Chinese Vowel Perception in Young Children With Normal Hearing and Cochlear Implants

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Changxin Zhang ◽  
Mingying Li ◽  
Jie Yu ◽  
Chang Liu
Keyword(s):  
Cochlear Implants ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Young Female ◽  
Preschool Age ◽  
Spectral Processing ◽  
Vowel Identification ◽  
Vowel Perception

Purpose Depicting the development pattern of vowel perception for children with normal hearing (NH) and cochlear implants (CIs) would be useful for clinicians and school teachers to monitor children's auditory rehabilitation. The study was to investigate the development of Mandarin Chinese vowel perception for Mandarin Chinese native–speaking children with the ages of 4–6 years. Method Vowel identification of children with NH and CIs were tested. All children with CIs received CIs before the age of 4 years. In a picture identification task with Mandarin Chinese speech stimuli, listeners identified the target consonant–vowel word among two to four contrastive words that differed only in vowels. Each target word represented a concrete object and was spoken by a young female native Mandarin Chinese talker. The target words included 16 monophthongs, 22 diphthongs, and nine triphthongs. Results Children with NH showed significantly better identification of monophthongs and diphthongs than children with CIs at the age of 6 years, whereas the two groups had comparable performance at age of 4 and 5 years. Children with NH significantly outperformed children with CIs for triphthong identification across all three age groups. For children with NH, a rapid development of perception of all three types of vowels occurred between age 4 and 5 years with a rapid development only for monophthong perception between age 5 and 6 years. For children with CIs, a rapid development of both diphthong and triphthong perception occurred between 4 and 5 years old, but not monophthong, with no significant development between 5 and 6 years old for all three types of vowels. Overall, Mandarin-speaking children with NH achieved their ceiling performance in vowel perception before or at the age of 6 years, whereas children with CIs may need more time to reach the typical level of their peers with NH. Conclusions The development of Mandarin vowel perception for Mandarin-native children differed between preschool-age children with NH and CIs, likely due to the deficits of spectral processing for children with CIs. The results would be a supplement to the development of speech recognition in Mandarin-native children with NH and CIs.

Distinctiveness and Assimilation in Vowel Perception in a Second Language

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (12) ◽  
pp. 4534-4543
Author(s):  
Wei Hu ◽  
Sha Tao ◽  
Mingshuang Li ◽  
Chang Liu
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Vowel Identification ◽  
Vowel Perception ◽  
Perceptual Distance ◽  
Vowel Space ◽  
English Vowels ◽  
Chinese Counterpart ◽  
Vowel Categories

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate how the distinctive establishment of 2nd language (L2) vowel categories (e.g., how distinctively an L2 vowel is established from nearby L2 vowels and from the native language counterpart in the 1st formant [F1] × 2nd formant [F2] vowel space) affected L2 vowel perception. Method Identification of 12 natural English monophthongs, and categorization and rating of synthetic English vowels /i/ and /ɪ/ in the F1 × F2 space were measured for Chinese-native (CN) and English-native (EN) listeners. CN listeners were also examined with categorization and rating of Chinese vowels in the F1 × F2 space. Results As expected, EN listeners significantly outperformed CN listeners in English vowel identification. Whereas EN listeners showed distinctive establishment of 2 English vowels, CN listeners had multiple patterns of L2 vowel establishment: both, 1, or neither established. Moreover, CN listeners' English vowel perception was significantly related to the perceptual distance between the English vowel and its Chinese counterpart, and the perceptual distance between the adjacent English vowels. Conclusions L2 vowel perception relied on listeners' capacity to distinctively establish L2 vowel categories that were distant from the nearby L2 vowels.

IMPACT OF FACEBOOK ADDICTION DISORDER (FAD) ON STUDY HABITS AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF ADOLESCENTS

2021 ◽  
pp. 195-207
Author(s):  
Shivani Vashishtha ◽  
Sona Ahuja ◽  
Mani Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Academic Achievement ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Negative Influence ◽  
Study Habits ◽  
Study Habit ◽  
Significant Negative Impact ◽  
Facebook Addiction ◽  
The Impact

With the present era being technology driven, social media has become an indispensable part of many people irrespective of their age. Among different age groups, the maximum users are adolescents and among different social networking sites (SNS), Facebook shares the major part of usage by them. Many adolescents are tending towards excessive usage of Facebook leading to its addiction. Does this addiction have negative influence on adolescents or it actually helps them to keep up with their counterparts and be socially connected to them for their betterment? This question is unanswered specifically when it concerns the impact that it has on the study habits and academic achievement of adolescents. The hypotheses were tested in order to explore the impact of six dimensions (mood modification, deficient self-regulations, salience, loss of control, withdrawal, and relapse) of Facebook Addiction Disorder (FAD) using Bergens' Facebook Addiction Scale (BFAS), developed by Andreassen (2012). The results are based on the survey conducted on 200 adolescents studying in different schools of India. The findings indicate that there is a significant negative impact of Facebook Addiction Disorder (FAD) on study habits and academic achievement of adolescents. The major implication derived is that the higher the addiction to Facebook the study habit become poor and academic achievement decreases resulting in lower grades.

Aging Effect on Categorical Perception of Mandarin Tones 2 and 3 and Thresholds of Pitch Contour Discrimination

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuxia Wang ◽  
Xiaohu Yang ◽  
Hui Zhang ◽  
Lilong Xu ◽  
Can Xu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Categorical Perception ◽  
Aging Effect ◽  
Pitch Contour ◽  
Tone Perception ◽  
F0 Contour ◽  
Identification Function ◽  
Tone Discrimination ◽  
Mandarin Tones ◽  
Mandarin Tone

Purpose The purpose of the study was to examine the aging effect on the categorical perception of Mandarin Chinese Tone 2 (rising F0 pitch contour) and Tone 3 (falling-then-rising F0 pitch contour) as well as on the thresholds of pitch contour discrimination. Method Three experiments of Mandarin tone perception were conducted for younger and older listeners with Mandarin Chinese as the native language. The first 2 experiments were in the categorical perception paradigm: tone identification and tone discrimination for a series of stimuli, the F0 contour of which systematically varied from Tone 2 to Tone 3. In the third experiment, the just-noticeable differences of pitch contour discrimination were measured for both groups. Results In the measures of categorical perception, older listeners showed significantly shallower slopes in the tone identification function and significantly smaller peakedness in the tone discrimination function compared with younger listeners. Moreover, the thresholds of pitch contour discrimination were significantly higher for older listeners than for younger listeners. Conclusion These results suggest that aging reduced the categoricality of Mandarin tone perception and worsened the psychoacoustic capacity to discriminate pitch contour changes, thereby possibly leading to older listeners' difficulty in identifying Tones 2 and 3.

scholarly journals Exposure to auditory feedback delay while speaking induces perceptual habituation but does not mitigate the disruptive effect of delay on speech auditory-motor learning

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas M. Shiller ◽  
Takashi Mitsuya ◽  
Ludo Max
Keyword(s):  
Motor Learning ◽  
Visual Feedback ◽  
Auditory Feedback ◽  
Detrimental Effect ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Motor Adaptation ◽  
List Type ◽  
Disruptive Effect ◽  
Feedback Delay ◽  
Spectral Perturbation

ABSTRACTPerceiving the sensory consequences of our actions with a delay alters the interpretation of these afferent signals and impacts motor learning. For reaching movements, delayed visual feedback of hand position reduces the rate and extent of visuomotor adaptation, but substantial adaptation still occurs. Moreover, the detrimental effect of visual feedback delay on reach motor learning—selectively affecting its implicit component—can be mitigated by prior habituation to the delay. Auditory-motor learning for speech has been reported to be more sensitive to feedback delay, and it remains unknown whether habituation to auditory delay reduces its negative impact on learning. We investigated whether 30 minutes of exposure to auditory delay during speaking (a) affects the subjective perception of delay, and (b) mitigates its disruptive effect on speech auditory-motor learning. During a speech adaptation task with real-time perturbation of vowel spectral properties, participants heard this frequency-shifted feedback with no delay, 75 ms delay, or 115 ms delay. In the delay groups, 50% of participants had been exposed to the delay throughout a preceding 30-minute block of speaking whereas the remaining participants completed this block without delay. Although habituation minimized awareness of the delay, no improvement in adaptation to the spectral perturbation was observed. Thus, short-term habituation to auditory feedback delays is not effective in reducing the negative impact of delay on speech auditory-motor adaptation. Combined with previous findings, the strong negative effect of delay and the absence of an influence of delay awareness suggest the involvement of predominantly implicit learning mechanisms in speech.HIGHLIGHTSSpeech auditory-motor adaptation to a spectral perturbation was reduced by ~50% when feedback was delayed by 75 or 115 ms.Thirty minutes of prior delay exposure without perturbation effectively reduced participants’ awareness of the delay.However, habituation was ineffective in remediating the detrimental effect of delay on speech auditory-motor adaptation.The dissociation of delay awareness and adaptation suggests that speech auditory-motor learning is mostly implicit.

scholarly journals Association between sleep disorders and child violence assessed in Southern Brazil

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. e39466
Author(s):  
Lilian Bertoletti ◽  
Fernanda Cristina Scarpa ◽  
Michelli Osanai da Costa ◽  
Eduarda Correa Freitas ◽  
Luana Goulart Marin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Sleep Disorders ◽  
Physical Violence ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Sleep Habits ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Experienced Child ◽  
Predominantly Female ◽  
Children’S Sleep

Aims: identifying sleep disorders (SDs) in children who experienced child maltreatment.Methods: the study evaluated the sleep pattern of 123 children (from 2 to 10 years old), who received assistance with child maltreatment, based on the Children’s Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ) – applied in a medical consultation after confirmation of the veracity of the child’s report of a violation. The study applied the questionnaire to children seen by doctors in the sector for 11 months.Results: among the children evaluated, 66.7% had SDs. The sample profile was predominantly female (59.3%) and aged between 4 and 7 years old (48.8%). Physical violence was found in 40.7% of the children, in addition to sexual (35.8%), psychological (24.4%), negligence (14.6%) and other types of violence (OTV) (4.5%). SDs are significantly associated with sexual, psychological and OTV (p=0.016). Regarding the subscales, there was a significant difference between the age groups in the bedtime resistance (BR) factor score (p=0.033). The BR characteristic typifies sexual, psychological and OTV. Sleep anxiety (SA) typifies more psychological, sexual and OTV. Night awakenings (NAs) typify psychological, sexual and physical violence. According to the type of violence, significant differences were found in SA (p=0.039), NAs (p=0.026) and BR (p=0.004).Conclusions: the outcomes highlight the association between SDs and child maltreatment. Certain types of violence have a greater negative impact on children’s sleep and correlate with specific SD.

scholarly journals Mandarin Chinese Tone Recognition with an Artificial Neural Network

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xu Li ◽  
Zhang Wenle ◽  
Zhou Ning ◽  
Lee Chaoyang ◽  
Li Yongxin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Artificial Neural Network ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Tone Recognition ◽  
Artificial Neural

scholarly journals Twin pregnancy and perinatal outcomes: Data from ‘Birth in Brazil Study’

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. e0245152
Author(s):  
Ana Paula Esteves-Pereira ◽  
Antônio José Ledo Alves da Cunha ◽  
Marcos Nakamura-Pereira ◽  
Maria Elisabeth Moreira ◽  
Rosa Maria soares madeira Domingues ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gestational Age ◽  
Oxygen Therapy ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Health Indicators ◽  
Antibiotic Use ◽  
Born Infant ◽  
Low Middle Income Countries ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Maternity Hospitals

Background Twin pregnancies account for 0.5–2.0% of all gestations worldwide. They have a negative impact on perinatal health indicators, mainly owing to the increased risk for preterm birth. However, population-based data from low/middle income countries are limited. The current paper aims to understand the health risks of twins, compared to singletons, amongst late preterms and early terms. Methods Data is from “Birth in Brazil”, a national inquiry into childbirth care conducted in 2011/2012 in 266 maternity hospitals. We included women with a live birth or a stillborn, and excluded births of triplets or more, totalling 23,746 singletons and 554 twins. We used multiple logistic regressions and adjusted for potential confounders. Results Twins accounted for 1.2% of gestations and 2.3% of newborns. They had higher prevalence of low birth weight and intrauterine growth restriction, when compared to singletons, in all gestational age groups, except in the very premature ones (<34 weeks). Amongst late preterm’s, twins had higher odds of jaundice (OR 2.7, 95% CI 1.8–4.2) and antibiotic use (OR 1.8, 95% CI 1.1–3.2). Amongst early-terms, twins had higher odds of oxygen therapy (OR 2.7, 95% CI 1.3–5.9), admission to neonatal intensive care unit (OR 3.1, 95% CI 1.5–6.5), transient tachypnoea (OR 3.7, 95% CI 1.5–9.2), jaundice (OR 2.8, 95% CI 1.3–5.9) and antibiotic use (OR 2.2, 95% CI 1.14.9). In relation to birth order, the second-born infant had an elevated likelihood of jaundice, antibiotic use and oxygen therapy, than the first-born infant. Conclusion Although strongly mediated by gestational age, an independent risk remains for twins for most neonatal morbidities, when compared to singletons. These disadvantages seem to be more prominent in early-term newborns than in the late preterm ones.

scholarly journals Psychological and spiritual well-being aspects of the quality of life in colostomy patients

2018 ◽  
Vol 75 (6) ◽  
pp. 611-617
Author(s):  
Gordana Repic ◽  
Suncica Ivanovic ◽  
Cedomirka Stanojevic ◽  
Sanja Trgovcevic
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Life Questionnaire ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Psychological Well Being ◽  
Spiritual Well Being ◽  
The Mean

Background/Aim. Colorectal cancer and its treatment can have a negative impact on the quality of life which has become an important outcome measure for cancer patients. The aim of this work was assessment of psychological and spiritual dimension of the quality of life in colostomy patients, regarding the gender and age. Methods. This is a cross-sectional study conducted at the Abdominal Surgery Polyclinic in the Clinical Canter of Vojvodina among colostomy patients operated between January 2010 and June 2011. The instrument used in this study was Quality of Life Questionnaire for a Patient with an Ostomy (QOL-O). Results. Majority of respondents were male (M:F = 50.7% : 49.3%). The age ranged between 36?86 years. Respondents did not report difficulties in adjustment to stoma, but their great difficulty was to look at it and the sense of depression and anxiety. The care of stoma was worse perceived by younger respondents (p = 0.014). Respondents were mostly satisfied with their memorizing ability and having the sense of control. The lowest score was found in sensing satisfaction or enjoyment in life. The age had a significant impact on positive aspects of psychological well-being (p < 0.05). Higher scores were found among younger age groups. The mean score of spiritual well-being (6.47 ? 3.01) was lower than the mean score of psychological well-being (7.76 ? 2.35). There were no statistically significant differences regarding gender (t = -0.738, df = 65, p = 0.463) or age (F = 1.307, p = 0.280). Conclusion. Psychological and spiritual well-being in colostomy patients appeared to be at satisfactory level, but it is necessary to provide tailor made support in order to prevent and resolve negative responses to stoma.

scholarly journals Health status and physical activity of children during education at school

2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 238-244
Author(s):  
Valery I. Popov ◽  
Tatiana L. Nastausheva ◽  
Olga A. Zhdanova
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Academic Performance ◽  
Health Status ◽  
Medical Care ◽  
Chronic Diseases ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Disease Incidence ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Medical Care System ◽  
Health Group

Introduction. An increase in children’s disease incidence, including school-caused diseases, was observed during recent years. Study of schoolchildren health status will help determine medical care priorities and optimal terms. The aim of this study. To assess health status, academic performance and physical activity of Voronezh schoolchildren. Material and methods. A questionnaire survey of schoolchildren on academic performance and physical activities and analysis of the pupil’s medical records (form 026u-2000) were conducted. Five hundred seven schoolchildren aged 9-17, students of 3-11 grades of Voronezh schools, were examined. Results. Children from I health group constituted 18.9% in 3-4 grades, 16.0% in 5-7 grades and 15.7% in 8-11 grades; II health group - 64.2% in 3-4 grades, 51.0% in 5-7 grades and 28.5% in 8-11 grades; III health group - 14.9%, 32.0% and 55.2% respectively (p < 0.001). Diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue (23.6%, 40.7% and 47.9% among schoolchildren of 3-4, 5-7 and 8-11 grades) and diseases of the organ of vision (10.8%, 18.0% and 27.9%, respectively) were most frequent. No difference in performance at school was observed in children of various health groups. Discussion. Schoolchildren of 8-11 grades had worse health as the number of chronic diseases increased. Diseases of digestive and cardiovascular systems were less common compared to other regions. Chronic diseases had no negative impact on schoolchildren physical activity and lifestyle. Conclusion. The findings will help upgrade the medical care system for schoolchildren and develop targeted preventive measures for different age groups.

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