Biomaterial Database

Direct magnitude estimation and interval scaling of hypernasality. 2002

Tara L Whitehill, and Alice S Y Lee, and Joyce C Chun

Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Hong Kong, 34 Hospital Road (5/F), Hong Kong. tara@hku.hk

Hypernasality is most commonly assessed using equal-appearing interval (EAI) scaling. Recently, the validity of EAI scaling for the evaluation of hypernasality has been questioned. The issue of validity rests on the psychophysical nature of the dimension to be rated. The purpose of this study was to compare EAI scaling with direct magnitude estimation (DME), in order to determine whether EAI scaling is a valid procedure for the evaluation of hypernasality. Connected speech samples from 20 individuals with repaired cleft palate and hypernasality were used. Twenty listeners undertook the listening tasks, which included EAI scaling, DME with modulus (DME-M), and DME without modulus (DME-WM). The results showed a curvilinear relationship between EAI and DME-M and between EAI and DME-WM, suggesting that EAI may not be a valid method for the evaluation of hypernasality; DME is recommended.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008297	Male		Males
D002648	Child	A person 6 to 12 years of age. An individual 2 to 5 years old is CHILD, PRESCHOOL.	Children
D002675	Child, Preschool	A child between the ages of 2 and 5.	Children, Preschool,Preschool Child,Preschool Children
D002972	Cleft Palate	Congenital fissure of the soft and/or hard palate, due to faulty fusion.	Cleft Palate, Isolated,Cleft Palates,Palate, Cleft,Palates, Cleft
D005260	Female		Females
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000293	Adolescent	A person 13 to 18 years of age.	Adolescence,Youth,Adolescents,Adolescents, Female,Adolescents, Male,Teenagers,Teens,Adolescent, Female,Adolescent, Male,Female Adolescent,Female Adolescents,Male Adolescent,Male Adolescents,Teen,Teenager,Youths
D000704	Analysis of Variance	A statistical technique that isolates and assesses the contributions of categorical independent variables to variation in the mean of a continuous dependent variable.	ANOVA,Analysis, Variance,Variance Analysis,Analyses, Variance,Variance Analyses
D013067	Speech Perception	The process whereby an utterance is decoded into a representation in terms of linguistic units (sequences of phonetic segments which combine to form lexical and grammatical morphemes).	Speech Discrimination,Discrimination, Speech,Perception, Speech
D013068	Speech Production Measurement	Measurement of parameters of the speech product such as vocal tone, loudness, pitch, voice quality, articulation, resonance, phonation, phonetic structure and prosody.	Measurement, Speech Production,Measurements, Speech Production,Production Measurement, Speech,Production Measurements, Speech,Speech Production Measurements