Empirical research on requirements quality: a systematic mapping study.

Research has repeatedly shown that high-quality requirements are essential for the success of development projects. While the term "quality" is pervasive in the field of requirements engineering and while the body of research on requirements quality is large, there is no meta-study of the field that overviews and compares the concrete quality attributes addressed by the community. To fill this knowledge gap, we conducted a systematic mapping study of the scientific literature.

Measurement of speech disfluency through magnitude estimation and interval scaling.

The purpose was to assess whether equal-appearing interval or magnitude-estimation scaling resulted in a data set with a closer correlation to the physical stimuli, made up of speech samples with varying amounts of disfluency. 20 young adults completed two tasks. In Task 1, subjects used a 7-point equal-appearing interval scale to rate the disfluency of 10 speech samples having varying within sentence pause, presented randomly at 65 dB SPL.

Possible influence of linguistic musical background on perceptual pitch-matching tasks: a pilot study.

Linguistic background has been identified as important in the perception of pitch, particularly between tonal versus nontonal languages. In addition, a link between native language and the perception of musical pitch has also been established. This pilot study examined the perception of pitch between listeners from tonal and nontonal linguistic cultures where two different styles of music originate.

Effect of phonetics training on lingual awareness.

This investigation assessed the effect of phonetics training on lingual awareness in normal adult speakers of English. The study also compared Trained subjects' scores from a study in 2000 by Lohman and Fucci to subjects' posttraining scores in this investigation. Subjects were 36 students (M age=19.

Perceptual judgment of voice pitch during pitch-matching tasks.

This study investigated the perceptual judgment of voice pitch. 24 individuals were assigned to two groups to assess whether there is a difference in perceptual judgment of voice pitch during pitch-matching tasks. Group I, Naïve listeners, had no previous experience in anatomy, physiology, or voice pitch-evaluation methods.

Relationship between phonemic and lingual awareness.

The purpose of this preliminary investigation was to assess the relationship between knowledge of speech sounds (phonemes) and lingual awareness in normal adult speakers of English. The study also examined subjects' descriptions of lingual contact. 36 subjects (M age=19.

College-age males' ability to produce the acoustic properties of an aging voice.

The purpose of this study was to examine college-age males' ability to produce the acoustic properties of the normally aging voice when reading. The 17 subjects (M age=21.13 yr.

Tactile awareness in children and adults during the production of isolated syllables of English.

The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether tactile feedback is developmental in nature. 90 subjects were placed into three groups of 30 individuals each (M ages: 6.8, 10.

Comparison of tactile awareness in children during the production of isolated syllables of English.

To assess whether lingual-tactile feedback is developmental 60 normally developing children formed two groups of 30. Group 1 were in Grades 1 and 2 (M age=6.6 yr.

Training in lingual awareness during production of isolated syllables of English.

The purpose of this preliminary investigation was to determine the effects of training on lingual awareness during the production of isolated syllables of English. 60 subjects were selected for this investigation. They were placed into two groups of 30 individuals each.

Effects of race and sex on acoustic features of voice analysis.

This study sought to provide preliminary normative data for the vocal productions of 44 Euro-American and 40 African-American elderly speakers and to test the hypotheses that (1) Euro-American elderly speakers do not have significantly different acoustic parameters of voice from African-American elderly speakers, and (2) elderly male speakers (both Euro-American and African-American) do not have significantly different acoustic parameters of voice from elderly female speakers (both Euro-American and African-American). Voice samples from groups of 44 Euro-American (21 men and 23 women) and 40 African-American (20 men and 20 women) elderly speakers (ages 70 to 80 years) from northeastern Arkansas were compared on measures of 15 selected multidimensional voice profile (KAY Elemetrics) acoustic parameters. Analysis show that Euro-American elderly speakers did not differ significantly from African-American elderly speakers on the measurements of all the selected acoustic parameters of voice, and elderly male speakers as a group differed from elderly female speakers on the measurements of absolute jitter, soft phonation index, and standard deviation of the fundamental frequency as well as fundamental frequency in Hz.

Sophisticated and naïve listeners' magnitude estimation scaling judgments of speech intelligibility and speech annoyance.

15 women with formal training in speech and hearing sciences and 15 women with no formal training provided magnitude estimation scaling responses for the intelligibility and annoyance of audiotaped speech samples. Analysis indicated that both groups scaled intelligibility and annoyance the same. As samples became more unintelligible, they also became more annoying.

Comparisons of magnitude estimation scaling of rock music by children, young adults, and older people.

The present study concerned the perceptual processing of complex auditory stimuli in 10 children (M age = 8.1) as compared to 10 young adults (M age = 19.3) and 10 older adult subjects (M age = 54.

Magnitude-estimation scaling of computerized (digitized) speech under different listening conditions.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality of tape-recorded speech sentences and speech sentences digitized at low, moderate, and high sampling rates by young adults under different listening conditions (quiet vs noise) using magnitude-estimation scaling. A single group of 24 young adults participated as subjects. The tape-recorded speech sentences and digitized speech sentences were presented to each subject in quiet and in the presence of background noise at a signal-to-noise ratio of 0 dB.

Comparison of magnitude estimation and interval scaling of loudness.

To identify whether equal-appearing interval or magnitude estimation scaling resulted in a data set with a closer correlation to the physical stimuli involved 20 young adults completing two tasks. In Task 1 subjects used a 7-point equal-appearing interval loudness of 18 10-sec. samples of babble speech, presented randomly at intensities of 5 to 90 dB SPL.

Comparison of listeners' judgments of simulated and authentic stuttering using magnitude estimation scaling.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether normal listeners can differentiate authentic and simulated stuttering. The subjects were 40 graduate and undergraduate students in hearing and speech sciences who were asked to listen to segments of authentic and simulated stuttered speech at varying severities. Using magnitude estimation scaling, each subject was asked to judge the samples of stuttered speech by providing a numerical response that matched the severity of the segment listened to.

Factors related to magnitude estimation scaling of complex auditory stimuli: aging.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of aging on magnitude estimation scaling of the loudness of complex auditory stimuli in the form of rock music. The subjects were 10 young adults (M age = 19.3 yr.

Listener ratings of the intelligibility of tracheoesophageal speech in noise.

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the extent to which listener ratings of the intelligibility of tracheoesophageal puncture (TEP) speech vary as a function of different signal-to-noise ratios. Fifty college students, 25 men and 25 women (Median age = 19.7 years) participated in the study.

Synthetic speech comprehension: a comparison of children with normal and impaired language skills.

This study compared the ability of children with normal language (NL) and children with specific language impairment (SLI) to comprehend natural speech and DECtalk synthetic speech by using a sentence verification task. The effect of listening practice on subjects' ability to comprehend both types of speech also was investigated. Subjects were matched for age and sex.

Magnitude-estimation scaling of complex auditory stimuli: native and nonnative languages.

50 subjects used magnitude-estimation scaling to rate 11 languages on two subjective perceptual tasks. On Task 1, the subjects rated languages according to how similar they were to their native language (English). In Task 2, the subjects rated languages according to how much they like them.

Magnitude estimation scaling of the loudness of a wide range of auditory stimuli.

The study of the perception of loudness lends itself well to the psychophysical scaling technique of magnitude estimation. This study was designed to extend the range of auditory stimuli used to study the magnitude estimation scaling of loudness. The five stimuli chosen were a 1000-Hz pure tone, narrow band noise (700-1300 Hz band width), broad band noise (100-10,000 Hz band width), rock music, and babble speech, i.

Effect of visual cuing on synthetic speech intelligibility: a comparison of native and nonnative speakers of English.

This study compared the effect of visual cuing on the intelligibility of DECtalk for native and nonnative speakers of English in both ideal listening conditions and in the presence of background noise at a signal to noise (S/N) ratio of + 10dB. Visual cuing improved DECtalk's intelligibility for nonnative speakers more than for native speakers, especially in the background noise condition. Implications of these findings and the need for further research are discussed.

Magnitude estimation scaling of annoyance in response to rock music: effects of sex and listeners' preference.

The present study parallels an earlier one Fucci, Petrosino, and Banks in 1994 concerned with sex and listeners' preference effects on magnitude estimation scaling of rock music. The difference between the two studies is that the subjects in 1994 were asked to scale "loudness" while the present subjects were asked to scale "annoyance." The prior results and those of the present study were different, i.

Effects of gender on listeners' judgments of speech intelligibility.

Effects of gender on listeners' judgments of intelligibility were investigated. Subjects (15 women; 15 men) provided magnitude-estimation scaling responses and over-all impression of the intelligibility of a male and female speaker's comparable versions of audiotaped speech samples varying systematically in terms of the number of phonemes produced correctly. There was no significant difference between male and female subjects' magnitude-estimation scaling responses; however, their over-all impressions of the intelligibility of the speakers tended to differ.

The effect of preference for three different types of music on magnitude estimation-scaling behavior in young adults.

The purpose of the present study was to assess the effect of preference for three different types of music on magnitude estimation scaling behavior in young adults. Three groups of college students, 10 who liked rock music, 10 who liked big band music, and 10 who liked classical music were tested. Subjects were instructed to assign numerical values to a random series of nine suprathreshold intensity levels of 10-sec, samples of rock music, big band music, and classical music.