Lexical and acoustic speech features relating to Alzheimer’s disease pathology

INTRODUCTIONIn this study, we compared digital speech features of AD and lvPPA patients in a biologically confirmed cohort and related them to specific neuropsychiatric test scores and CSF proteins.METHODSWe extracted language variables with automated lexical and acoustic pipelines from oral picture descriptions of 44 AD and 21 lvPPA patients with autopsy or CSF confirmation of AD pathology. We correlated distinct speech features with MMSE and BNT test scores and CSF p-tau levels.RESULTSLvPPA patients produced fewer verbs, adjectives, and more fillers with lower lexical diversity and higher pause rate than AD. Both groups showed some shared language impairments compared with normal speakers.DISCUSSIONOur speech measures captured differences in speech between the two phenotypes. Also, shared speech markers were linked to the common underlying pathology. This work demonstrates the potential of natural speech analysis in detecting underlying AD pathology.

Feasibility Study of Using Huffman Code Calculator in Learning Achievement of Data Compression

In the world of education there is already a curriculum that must be carried out with learning outcomes that must be achieved by students, as well as lecturers who also have duties as facilitators in these achievements. With the Learning Outcomes, it makes students have the ability or competence in accordance with the requirements to meet the predefined study program profiles. One of the competencies that graduates of the Broadband Multimedia field must achieve is in the field of data processing including data compression. The most widely used data compression technique is the Huffman code. Some research on the Huffman code has been done a lot, and someone has made the Calculator application. The calculator is used to determine the code for each character. The code for each character is not fixed, depending on the frequency of appearance in a text. The more often the character appears, the shorter the code. In this study, it has proven that the feasibility of the Huffman Calculator as a tool for Learning Outcomes can be done where data compression with language variables, in this case English and Bahasa Indonesia to the compression ratio, produces the same compression ratio, which ranges from 1.51 to 1.64 for Bahasa Indonesia while English is 1.56 to 1.83, with the average entropy for English 4.35 and Bahasa Indonesia 4.41. Keywords: competence , data compression, huffman code, learning outcomes.

The Use of Generalizability Theory to Inform Sampling of Educator Language Used With Preschoolers With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Purpose A myriad features can impact the nature, frequency, and length of adult–child interactions important for language learning. Empirical investigations of language learning opportunities for young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) provide limited generalizable insight, with inferences more constrained to the sample than is often considered. The aim of this study was to explore a multidimensional understanding of reliability and define optimal measurement procedures for a measurement approach used to examine the language of preschool educators interacting with children with ASD. Method We employed the logic of Generalizability Theory to differentiate sources of error for two measurement facets, occasion and observer . We video-recorded four 15-min occasions of educator–child interactions for 11 participants with ASD during free-play in their respective inclusive preschool classrooms. Two trained observers coded all videos for six educator language variables: open-ended questions/statements, choice questions, yes/no questions, imitation prompts, statements, and other talk. Results The generalizability studies illustrated that, across all variables measured, observer accounted for little to no error. Occasion, however, accounted for much of the error for all language variables. To determine the number of occasions needed to achieve stable estimates of the variables, we manipulated occasion in the decision study. Five to more than 15 occasions were needed to achieve stability in educator language variables. Conclusion To advance our understanding of the language learning environments of preschool classrooms that serve children with ASD, researchers must understand how aspects of the measurement design in those environments, such as occasion, impact the inferences they make.

Head vs. Heart: Which Path do you Take? Self-Location Shapes Language Use, Indicating Rational and Experiential Thinking Styles

Self-location is a novel construct that identifies a bodily organ (head vs. heart) to represent self-concept. However, how self-location influences verbal performance is not well understood. This research investigates language use associated with self-location, an individual difference construct based on two different metaphoric concepts (use your head vs. follow your heart). Study 1 established the associations between self-location and verbal performance assessed by language variables in two writing tasks. Findings showed that self-location was related to specific language variables (nouns vs. verbs). In Study 2a, self-location was presented as a manipulation of the head-heart metaphor to predict language variables in a decision-making story recalled by participants. In Study 2b, a manipulation check was added, and the Heinz dilemma was used as a writing topic to control responses in different conditions. Studies 2a and 2b demonstrate that the metaphor could facilitate use of specific language variables. Implications of manipulating self-location are discussed.

Features of speech in German and US-American mother–toddler dyads during toy play and book-reading

Previous research indicates that features of speech during mother–toddler interactions are dependent on the situational context. In this study, we explored language samples of 69 mother–toddler dyads collected during standardized toy play and book-reading situations across two countries, Germany and the United States (US). The results showed that features of speech differed across situational contexts. However, situational differences were mostly found among the sample from the US but not from Germany. Few significant associations between mothers’ and toddlers’ language variables were found. Findings are discussed with regard to variations in language across situations and countries.

Gender and language use in scientific grant writing

Women in science, technology, engineering, and math are not equally represented across tenure-track career stages, and this extends to grant funding, where women applicants often have lower success rates compared with men. While gender bias in reviewers has been documented, it is currently unknown whether written language in grant applications varies predictably with gender to elicit bias against women. Here we analyse the text of ∼2000 public research summaries from the 2016 Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) individual Discovery Grant (DG) program. We explore the relationship between language variables, inferred gender and career stage, and funding levels. We also analyse aggregated data from the 2012–2018 NSERC DG competitions to determine whether gender impacted the probability of receiving a grant for early-career researchers. We document a marginally significant gender difference in funding levels for successful grants, with women receiving $1756 less than men, and a large and significant difference in rejection rates among early-career applicants (women: 40.4% rejection; men: 33.0% rejection rate). Language variables had little ability to predict gender or funding level using predictive modelling. Our results indicate that NSERC funding levels and success rates differ between men and women, but we find no evidence that gendered language use affected funding outcomes.