Publications by authors named "Michael P Rastatter"

The inhibitory effects of continuously presented audio signals (/a/, /s/, 1,000 Hz pure-tone) on stuttering were examined. Eleven adults who stutter participated. Participants read four 300-syllable passages (i.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Various factors have been shown to influence the reading comprehension of reading disordered individuals including altered auditory feedback. This study investigated the influence of frequency altered feedback (FAF) on the reading comprehension and decoding accuracy of reading disordered and normal reading adults. Participants consisted of 30 college students with normal and disordered reading abilities.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The effects of frequency altered feedback (FAF) on the reading comprehension levels and error types of normal children and children with reading disorders were examined. Participants read aloud third, sixth, and ninth grade level material in non-altered auditory feedback (NAF) and FAF conditions. Comprehension improved significantly when the reading disordered children read aloud under the FAF listening condition, regardless of the reading level.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Primary Objective: To compare confrontation-naming in adults with MTBI to a group of normal adults under increased processing load conditions.

Research Design: A randomized block, repeated measures design was used to examine confrontation-naming response latency and accuracy using a computerized experimental program.

Methods And Procedures: Twenty-four adults having sustained a MTBI (aged 18-53) and 24 age-matched controls named pictures from three levels of vocabulary as quickly and accurately as possible.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This study investigated use of choral reading with filtered components of speech and whispered speech on the frequency of stuttering. Three passages read by a normal adult male were lowpass filtered with kneepoint frequencies at 100 Hz (approximate glottal source), 500 Hz (source and first formant), and 1 kHz (source and the first two formants). Along with a whispered passage, a normal passage, and a control condition, these stimuli were used in a repeated-measures design with 12 adult stutterers as they read passages while listening to one of the stimuli.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Despite the important influence of prosody on comprehension, it remains unclear how the individual parameters of prosody contribute to the process. Therefore, this study examined the magnitude of one prosodic cue, duration of the pause, that precipitates comprehension when the pause is located either early or late in an ambiguous phrase. Adults between the ages of 20 and 40 years (men: M = 27.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This study examined fluency enhancement in people who stutter via the concomitant presentation of silently mouthed visual speech. Ten adults who stutter recited memorized text while watching another speaker silently mouth linguistically equivalent and linguistically different material. Relative to a control condition, in which no concomitant stimulus was provided, stuttering was reduced by 71% in the linguistically equivalent condition versus only 35% in the linguistically different condition.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In accord with a proposed innate link between speech perception and production (e.g., motor theory), this study provides compelling evidence for the inhibition of stuttering events in people who stutter prior to the initiation of the intended speech act, via both the perception and the production of speech gestures.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We explored a possible temporal window for central stuttering inhibition via exogenously presented speech signals. Thirteen adults who stutter were asked to read while listening to a continuous vowel /a/, or a repeating 1 s vowel /a/ followed by 1, 3 and 5 s silences. In all conditions, stuttering was significantly reduced.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The present study measured naming reaction times of normal and reading disordered (RD) children to a series of centrally presented picture stimuli of varying vocabulary age and spatial dimension. Results of the ANOVA on reaction times indicated significant interactions of Group x Dimension and Group x Vocabulary. Post hoc tests on the former interaction suggested that the feature of dimension differentially affected naming reaction times for the two groups.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: This investigation examined the effect of a speeded, computer-controlled task on detecting differences in latency and accuracy of within-category name generation in adults having sustained a mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI).

Methods: Twenty-four adults in acute recovery and 24 age-matched controls were instructed to view 72 pictures on a computer monitor, and then name another item belonging to the same category as the visual stimulus as quickly as possible.

Results: The MTBI group demonstrated significantly longer latencies (p < 0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: This survey investigated the effect of 'pseudostuttering' experiences on self-perceptions of 29 female, graduate students enrolled in a graduate seminar in stuttering while in a programme of study to become professional speech language pathologists.

Method: Perceptions of self prior to, and immediately after, participation in five scripted telephone calls that contained pseudostuttering were measured via a 25-item semantic differential scale.

Results: Participants perceived themselves as significantly more (p < 0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The design and operating characteristics of the first self-contained in-the-ear device to deliver altered auditory feedback is described for applications with those who stutter. The device incorporates a microdigital signal processor core that reproduces the high fidelity of unaided listening and auditory self-monitoring while at the same time delivering altered auditory feedback. Delayed auditory feedback and frequency-altered feedback signals in combination or isolation can be generated to the user in a cosmetically appealing custom in-the-canal and completely-in-the-canal design.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This study investigated stuttering frequency as a function of grammatical word type (i.e., content and function).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This study investigated the effect of short and long auditory feedback delays at two speech rates with normal speakers. Seventeen participants spoke under delayed auditory feedback (DAF) at 0, 25, 50, and 200 ms at normal and fast rates of speech. Significantly two to three times more dysfluencies were displayed at 200 ms (p<0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Unlabelled: This investigation involved measures of the reaction times of normally developing children who were asked to name a series of centrally presented picture stimuli of varying vocabulary age and dimension. Results of the ANOVA on reaction times indicated a significant main effect of vocabulary level and an interaction of Dimension x Vocabulary level for the normally developing children. Post-hoc tests showed significant differences between two- and three-dimensional pictures for higher-level vocabulary items, but not for lower-level vocabulary items.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF