Differential item functioning in a Spanish translation of the PTSD Checklist: Detection and evaluation of impact.

This study demonstrated the application of an innovative item response theory (IRT) based approach to evaluating measurement equivalence, comparing a newly developed Spanish version of the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-Civilian Version (PCL-C) with the established English version. Basic principles and practical issues faced in the application of IRT methods for instrument evaluation are discussed. Data were derived from a study of the mental health consequences of community violence in both Spanish speakers (n = 102) and English speakers (n = 284). Results of differential item functioning (DIF) analyses revealed that the 2 versions were not fully equivalent on an item-by-item basis in that 6 of the 17 items displayed uniform DIF. No bias was observed, however, at the level of the composite PCL-C scale score, indicating that the 2 language versions can be combined for scale-level analyses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Incomplete psychometric equivalence of scores obtained on the manual and the computer version of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test?

The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) assesses executive and frontal lobe function and can be administered manually or by computer. Despite the widespread application of the 2 versions, the psychometric equivalence of their scores has rarely been evaluated and only a limited set of criteria has been considered. The present experimental study (N = 100 healthy adults) therefore examined the psychometric equivalence of 4 scores (i.e., Total Correct, Percentage of Errors, Perseverative Errors, and Failure-to-Maintain-Set) obtained on the 2 versions of the WCST in terms of 4 key criteria identified within the framework of classical test theory. The results showed considerable differences in variances, small to modest parallel-forms reliability coefficients, and small to modest temporal stability coefficients. Taken together, our results suggest that scores on the manual version and the computer version of the WCST show incomplete psychometric equivalence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Communication and noise. Speech intelligibility of airplane pilots with and without active noise compensation

Noise exposure measurements were performed with pilots of the German Federal Navy during flight situations. The ambient noise levels during regular flight were maintained at levels above a 90 dB A-weighted level. This noise intensity requires wearing ear protection to avoid sound-induced hearing loss. To be able to understand radio communication (ATC) in spite of a noisy environment, headphone volume must be raised above the noise of the engines. The use of ear plugs in addition to the headsets and flight helmets is only of limited value because personal ear protection affects the intelligibility of ATC. Whereas speech intelligibility of pilots with normal hearing is affected to only a smaller degree, pilots with pre-existing high-frequency hearing losses show substantial impairments of speech intelligibility that vary in proportion to the hearing deficit present. Communication abilities can be reduced drastically, which in turn can affect air traffic security. The development of active noise compensation devices (ANC) that make use of the "anti-noise" principle may be a solution to this dilemma. To evaluate the effectiveness of an ANC-system and its influence on speech intelligibility, speech audiometry was performed with a German standardized test during simulated flight conditions with helicopter pilots. Results demonstrate the helpful effect on speech understanding especially for pilots with noise-induced hearing losses. This may help to avoid pre-retirement professional disability.     

Reliability of monosyllabic discrimination tests in white noise for differentiating among hearing aids

In spite of criticism, monosyllabic discrimination tests are widely employed for hearing aid selection. The current study was designed to investigate the following questions: (1) How reliable is aided speech discrimination of monosyllables in a background of white noise? (2) Can differences among hearing aids be reliably demonstrated by measuring intelligibility of monosyllables in a background of white noise? and (3) Do hearing aids interact with hearing loss? Twenty subjects with mild-moderate sensorineural hearing losses participated in two experimental sessions. Four hearing aids were evaluated using the NU-6 monosyllables in a background of white noise (s/n = +20 dB). Since the standard deviation of the test-retest differences was 6%, differences between aids were not considered significant unless they exceeded 12%. An interaction between subjects and hearing aids was found; that is, the best aid for one person was not the best for all. Measuring monosyllabic word intelligibility in a background of white noise does not reliably identify a single best aid. However, one or more inferior aids were consistently eliminated in 80% of the subjects.     

Speech enhancement based on a sinusoidal model

Sinusoidal modeling is a new procedure for representing the speech signal. In this approach, the signal is divided into overlapping segments, the Fourier transform computed for each segment, and a set of desired spectral peaks is identified. The speech is then resynthesized using sinusoids that have the frequency, amplitude, and phase of the selected peaks, with the remaining spectral information being discarded. Using a limited number of sinusoids to reproduce speech in a background of multi-talker speech babble results in a speech signal that has an improved signal-to-noise ratio and enhanced spectral contrast. The more intense spectral components, assumed to be primarily the desired speech, are reproduced, whereas the less intense components, assumed to be primarily background noise, are not. To test the effectiveness of this processing approach as a noise suppression technique, both consonant recognition and perceived speech intelligibility were determined in quiet and in noise for a group of subjects with normal hearing as the number of sinusoids used to represent isolated speech tokens was varied. The results show that reducing the number of sinusoids used to represent the speech causes reduced consonant recognition and perceived intelligibility both in quiet and in noise, and suggests that similar results would be expected for listeners with hearing impairments.     

An adaptive noise canceller for hearing aids using two nearby microphones

An adaptive noise cancellation scheme based on two-stage adaptive filtering as proposed by Van Compernolle [Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (IEEE, New York, 1990)] was tested for two identical directional microphones mounted in an endfire configuration within a single behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aid. Speech intelligibility tests were carried out with two normal hearing subjects and three hearing aid users with moderate hearing losses, in a realistic test environment using open set words and sentences. A significant improvement, on average more than 5 dB, of speech reception threshold (SRT) in background noise was obtained.     

Hearing handicap--an addition to audiometric hearing loss. Results of an exploratory study of auditory communication disorders in the elderly

Hearing problems in elderly patients cannot be evaluated completely with conventional audiological tests in most cases. Two hundred and one subjects aged 60 years or more complaining of hearing problems were studied. The following tests were employed: pure-tone audiometry, the "Basler Satztest" (a German version of the SPIN-test assessing speech perception in noise), and a German version of a "Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly" (HHIE). These latter versions were developed in our institution. An auditory handicap was found in one-third of subjects with mild hearing losses (PTA < 30 dB; n = 135) and in two-thirds of subjects with greater hearing losses (PTA > and = 30 dB; n = 65). The relatively weak correlations of the pure-tone audiogram (r = 0.49) or speech audiometry (r = 0.41) with HHIE indicate that more than 50% of the variance of the hearing handicap was due to non-audiologic factors. For this reason, we recommend that the handicap questionnaire be added to the audiometric evaluation.     

The French SF-36 Health Survey: translation, cultural adaptation and preliminary psychometric evaluation

This article reports on the main developmental stages and on the preliminary psychometric assessment of the final French version of the SF-36. A standard forward/backward translation procedure was followed. When translating survey items, the emphasis was placed on conceptual equivalence. When translating response choices, we attempted to select a set of response choices that replicate the U.S. version. The distance between the response choices was checked using visual analogue scales (N = 30). The adaptation procedure also included formal ratings of the difficulty of the translation, of the quality of the translation, and of the equivalence between the American source version and the French target version. The face validity was checked during lay panel sessions at which the translated questionnaire was administered to subjects from the general public, hospital employees, and subjects with a low level of education. Standard psychometric techniques were used to evaluate the cultural adaptation of the SF-36, using data from a general population survey. The main objective of this analysis was to determine how well the scaling assumptions (summated rating or Likert-type scaling construction) of the SF-36 were satisfied. The results support the claim that the scaling properties of the French version of the SF-36 are adequate and that health outcomes may be reliably assessed using this version of the instrument.     

Speaking clearly for the hard of hearing IV: Further studies of the role of speaking rate

The contribution of reduced speaking rate to the intelligibility of "clear" speech (Picheny, Durlach, & Braida, 1985) was evaluated by adjusting the durations of speech segments (a) via nonuniform signal time-scaling, (b) by deleting and inserting pauses, and (c) by eliciting materials from a professional speaker at a wide range of speaking rates. Key words in clearly spoken nonsense sentences were substantially more intelligible than those spoken conversationally (15 points) when presented in quiet for listeners with sensorineural impairments and when presented in a noise background to listeners with normal hearing. Repeated presentation of conversational materials also improved scores (6 points). However, degradations introduced by segment-by-segment time-scaling rendered this time-scaling technique problematic as a means of converting speaking styles. Scores for key words excised from these materials and presented in isolation generally exhibited the same trends as in sentence contexts. Manipulation of pause structure reduced scores both when additional pauses were introduced into conversational sentences and when pauses were deleted from clear sentences. Key-word scores for materials produced by a professional talker were inversely correlated with speaking rate, but conversational rate scores did not approach those of clear speech for other talkers. In all experiments, listeners with normal hearing exposed to flat-spectrum background noise performed similarly to listeners with hearing loss.     

Reliability and validity of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test in studies of autism.

Three studies were conducted with the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) with autistic individuals. In Study 1, it was found that the traditional WCST is a highly reliable test for use with both autistic children and children with learning disabilities over time. In Study 2, the equivalence of the standard and computerized versions of the WCST was examined. Low-to-moderate alternate format reliability for both autistic and nonautistic samples was revealed. Study 3 dealt with group differences in performance as a function of WCST format. Although autistic children were significantly impaired relative to controls on the standard WCST, group differences on the computerized version of the test were attenuated. Autistic children tended to perform better on the computer than with the traditional format, suggesting that alternative forms of the test are not equivalent for this group. The potential contribution of social-motivational factors to this finding is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Acquired transplant tolerance

For many people with profound hearing loss conventional hearing aids give only little support in speechreading. This study aims at optimizing the presentation of speech signals in the severely reduced dynamic range of the profoundly hearing impaired by means of multichannel compression and multichannel amplification. The speech signal in each of six 1-octave channels (125-4000 Hz) was compressed instantaneously, using compression ratios of 1, 2, 3, or 5, and a compression threshold of 35 dB below peak level. A total of eight conditions were composed in which the compression ratio varied per channel. Sentences were presented audio-visually to 16 profoundly hearing-impaired subjects and syllable intelligibility was measured. Results show that all auditory signals are valuable supplements to speechreading. No clear overall preference is found for any of the compression conditions, but relatively high compression ratios (> 3-5) have a significantly detrimental effect. Inspection of the individual results reveals that compression may be beneficial for one subject.     

Antibody-directed enzyme prodrug therapy: pharmacokinetics and plasma levels of prodrug and drug in a phase I clinical trial

OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to determine the major factors that underlie auditory/audiological performance measures in an elderly population, with particular emphasis on finding those factors responsible for speech understanding under specific conditions of interference. DESIGN: Audiological status and auditory performance of a group of elderly (60- to 81-yr-old) and normal-hearing young (18- to 30-yr-old) individuals was determined through a test battery. When present, the hearing loss of elderly subjects was symmetrical in the two ears and, at most, moderate. The battery included tests of speech intelligibility on the word and sentence levels, with and without the presence of interfering speech. In addition to pure-tone and speech reception thresholds, perception of spectrally or temporally distorted speech as well as auditory resolution of frequency, time, and space were tested. Two tests received special consideration: the Speech Perception In Noise Test and the Modified Rhyme Reverberation Test. Taking the overall results as well as various subsets of the results, principal component analyses were conducted to identify major factors underlying auditory performance. RESULTS: The factors extracted by the principal component analyses present a portrayal of the auditory performance profile in which effects of interference, high-frequency hearing, and basic auditory function play a major role. Interference factors include general susceptibility to noise as well as segregation of concurrent speech sounds on the basis of temporal dissimilarities and spatial separation. Comparison of factors extracted from various subsets of tests indicate that factors underlying the decline of the "cocktail party effect" in the elderly are addressed mostly by tests specifically designed to assess speech understanding in spatially distributed babble or in a reverberant environment. CONCLUSIONS: Factor analysis of test measures obtained from a group of elderly individuals with normal hearing or mild-to-moderate hearing loss led to two main findings. First, it portrayed hearing loss as a component of different factors rather than as a factor on its own. Second, the independence of measures of speech understanding in babble or reverberation from other measures suggests that such tests should become an integral part of audiological test batteries designed to assess auditory functions in aging.     

U-83836E prevents kainic acid-induced neuronal damage

Tsukuba College of Technology is the first national university established as an institute of higher education for the visually and hearing impaired. We have been systematically conducting a University Personality Inventory (UPI) survey on our students since 1989 to understand their mental health. In this study, we compared the UPI scores of the new students of Tsukuba College of Technology in 1993 and 1994 with unimpaired students from the University of Tsukuba (control group), but found no significant difference in the UPI scores of the visually impaired and the control group. However, we noticed a significant difference in the average UPI scores between the hearing impaired and the control group. The visually impaired group were divided into four subgroups, UPI scores descended in order from degree 1 (total blindness), to degrees 2 and 3 (amblyopia), to degree 4 (visual acuity > or = 0.3). The UPI scores of the degree 4 subgroup were significantly lower than those of the control group. An investigation of the items for which the check rate was at least 50% showed that the visually impaired students had a variety of psychological problems, most of which seemed to concern depression or anxiety as did the normal control group. The number of affirmative responses increased with low visual acuity. The only one belonging to the 'lie' scale item was observed in the group of hearing impaired students. Thus, comparing these three groups from the viewpoint of mental health, we noticed the hearing impaired group was slightly different from the other two groups, but the visually impaired group was similar to the normal control group.     

Word discrimination for listeners with flat sensorineural hearing losses

This study examined discrimination scores among listeners (742 ears) with flat sensorineural hearing losses. The discrimination data were analyzed in terms of degree of hearing impairment and subject age. Contrary to previous findings, the results showed that the average subject exhibited a discriminative ability of 70% or better for hearing levels less than 60 dB. A 10 to 20% decline in intelligibility, however, was found for losses 60 dB and greater. Listeners' performance decreased somewhat as a function of age especially for subjects with the greatest hearing losses. Finally, a subject's word discrimination was similar whether hearing loss was based on a three- or a five-frequency average.     

Effects of time compression and time compression plus reverberation on the intelligibility of Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6

The Tonal and Speech Materials for Auditory Perceptual Assessment, Disc 1.0 audio compact disc developed in 1992 includes several sets of degraded speech materials, two of which, time compression and reverberation, are described in this paper. The digital techniques used to compress the NU No. 6 materials (female speaker) on an 80386-based computer are described, along with a series of experiments on subjects with normal hearing that document the effects of the time compression on recognition performance. Experiment I examined at 70 dB SPL the effect on word recognition of 45, 55, 65, 70, and 75 percent compressions. Experiment II developed psychometric functions for the 45, 65, and 75 percent time-compression conditions. Experiment III defined the effects that time-compression degradation (45% and 65%) plus reverberation degradation (0.3 sec) had on the recognition performance on the NU No. 6 materials. Based on the experiments, four conditions (45% compression, 65% compression, 45% compression plus 0.3-sec reverberation, and 65% compression plus 0.3-sec reverberation) were selected and recorded on the compact disc. In the compact disc trials, normative data on the four conditions were developed from 120 listeners with normal hearing.     

Clinical and genetic studies of spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 in Japanese kindreds

The Urdu and English versions of the GHQ-28 were administered in Pakistan to bilingual students using a crossover design, in order to evaluate the equivalence and reliability of the translation in relation to the original, and to determine convergent validity using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) as a comparison measure. Satisfactory findings at each of level of analysis indicated that the Urdu GHQ-28 was comparable to the original English version.     

Intelligibility of tracheoesophageal speech among naive listeners

Tracheoesophageal (TE) speech is now the most common method of voice rehabilitation after total laryngectomy. The speech intelligibility of laryngectomees who use TE speech as their primary mode of communication was evaluated by 20 "naive" listeners. Two speech intelligibility tests were administered using phonetically balanced rhyming words or lists of spondee words. The overall intelligibility for the group of laryngectomees was 76%, with a wide range of variability among the individual TE speakers. We concluded that TE speech is significantly less intelligible to naive listeners than normal laryngeal speech; further refinement of voice rehabilitation for laryngectomees is needed.     

An examination of the psychometric properties and nomological validity of some revised and reduced substitutes for leadership scales.

Confirmatory factor analysis in 2 large samples (N?=?411 and N?=?1,235) was conducted to examine the convergent and discriminant validity of the 74-item (revised) and 41-item (reduced) versions of the substitutes for leadership scales recently developed by P. M. Podsakoff et al (see PA, Vols 80:27703 and 81:3713). Following this, the liabilities and subscale intercorrelations of the 2 versions of the scale were compared in order to determine how faithfully the 41-item version represents the 74-item scale. Next, the reliabilities of both versions were compared with the reliability of S. Kerr and J. M. Jermier's (see record 1980-10792-001) original scale, and their nomological validity was evaluated. The overall pattern of results indicated that both versions were reasonably reliable and valid, and both were better than Kerr and Jermier's original scale. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)