Publication Date

1962

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Katz, Jack||Williams, J. David||Shearer, William M.

Degree Name

M.A. (Master of Arts)

Legacy Department

Department of Speech

LCSH

Staggered Spondaic Word Test; Hearing

Abstract

Twenty young normal listeners, with a mean age of twenty, and twenty elderly listeners, with a mean age of sixty-nine and no marked deviation in auditory sensitivity or discrimination, were administered a competing message test. This “distorted speech" technique incorporated partially overlapping spondaic words and is known as the Staggered Spondaic Word (SSW) test. The old age group had far more incorrect responses compared to the control group. Differences were most divergent in the competing conditions. The subjects seventy years of age or above differed significantly from the subjects below seventy years of age on the SSW test. It appears that the total SSW score and/or the particular response pattern of an individual might reflect qualitative differences which may eventually provide further insight concerning the locus and extent of central nervous system degeneration. Thus, these results tend to confirm the hypothesis upon which this test is based. Nevertheless, the results indicate that the SSW test is not completely free of peripheral factors.

Comments

Includes bibliographical references.

Extent

vi, 32 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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