This paper describes 2 studies that evaluated a new instrument, the Perceived Ethnic Discrimination Questionnaire-Community Version (PEDQ-CV). The PEDQ-CV can be used across ethnic groups to assess perceived racism or ethnic discrimination. The scales measure several subdimensions of racism, permitting the examination of different forms of this race-related stressor. The first study evaluated the psychometric properties of the PEDQ-CV in a large sample of community-dwelling adults. The second evaluated psychometric properties of a brief version of the PEDQ-CV, developed for research protocols requiring a shorter administration time. Tests were made of reliability and several forms of construct validity. Both versions of the PEDQ-CV have good reliability and construct validity. The PEDQ-CV can facilitate the development of an integrative body of knowledge across different ethnic groups regarding the existence, determinants, and consequences of discrimination.Racism or ethnic discrimination3 has been hypothesized to contribute to the well-documented racial and ethnic disparities in health (Anderson & Armstead, 3There is little consensus on the best terms to use to distinguish among groups based on phenotypic or cultural characteristics, and both scientific and political factors influence the debate. Some terms (e.g., Black) have been used to refer to racial groups, Vootnote continues on the nexr puge)

This study investigated the effects of language experience and consonantal context on American English (AE) listeners' discrimination of contrasts involving Parisian French vowels /y, oe, u, i/. Vowels were produced in /rabVp/ and /radVt/ nonsense disyllables in carrier phrases by 3 speakers and presented in a categorial AXB discrimination task. Two groups were tested: AE listeners who had studied French extensively beginning after age 13 (Exp) and non-French-speaking AE listeners (Inexp). Overall, the Exp group performed better than the Inexp group on /u-oe/, /i-y/ and /y-oe/ (mean errors: Exp=5%, Inexp=24%). However, for /u-y/, the groups did not differ (Exp=30% vs Inexp=24% errors). The Inexp group confused /i-y/ more often in bilabial context, but /u-y/ more often in alveolar context, whereas the Exp group confused /u-y/ more often in both contexts. For all contrasts, the Inexp group performed better in bilabial than in alveolar context (16% vs 32% errors), whereas the Exp group revealed no context effect. Results suggest that learning a second language (L2) includes learning its coarticulatory rules. Implications for models of L2-speech perception are discussed.

Recent research has called for an examination of perceptual assimilation patterns in second-language speech learning. This study examined the effects of language learning and consonantal context on perceptual assimilation of Parisian French ͑PF͒ front rounded vowels /y/ and /oe/ by American English ͑AE͒ learners of French. AE listeners differing in their French language experience ͑no experience, formal instruction, formal-plus-immersion experience͒ performed an assimilation task involving PF /y, oe, u, o, i, , a/ in bilabial /rabVp/ and alveolar /radVt/ contexts, presented in phrases. PF front rounded vowels were assimilated overwhelmingly to back AE vowels. For PF /oe/, assimilation patterns differed as a function of language experience and consonantal context. However, PF /y/ revealed no experience effect in alveolar context. In bilabial context, listeners with extensive experience assimilated PF /y/ to / j u/ less often than listeners with no or only formal experience, a pattern predicting the poorest /u-y/ discrimination for the most experienced group. An "internal consistency" analysis indicated that responses were most consistent with extensive language experience and in bilabial context. Acoustical analysis revealed that acoustical similarities among PF vowels alone cannot explain context-specific assimilation patterns. Instead it is suggested that native-language allophonic variation influences context-specific perceptual patterns in second-language learning.

Cross-language perception studies report influences of speech style and consonantal context on perceived similarity and discrimination of non-native vowels by inexperienced and experienced listeners. Detailed acoustic comparisons of distributions of vowels produced by native speakers of North German (NG), Parisian French (PF) and New York English (AE) in citation (di)syllables and in sentences (surrounded by labial and alveolar stops) are reported here. Results of within- and cross-language discriminant analyses reveal striking dissimilarities across languages in the spectral/temporal variation of coarticulated vowels. As expected, vocalic duration was most important in differentiating NG vowels; it did not contribute to PF vowel classification. Spectrally, NG long vowels showed little coarticulatory change, but back/low short vowels were fronted/raised in alveolar context. PF vowels showed greater coarticulatory effects overall; back and front rounded vowels were fronted, low and mid-low vowels were raised in both sentence contexts. AE mid to high back vowels were extremely fronted in alveolar contexts, with little change in mid-low and low long vowels. Cross-language discriminant analyses revealed varying patterns of spectral (dis)similarity across speech styles and consonantal contexts that could, in part, account for AE listeners' perception of German and French front rounded vowels, and "similar" mid-high to mid-low vowels.

Second-language (L2) speech perception studies have demonstrated effects of language background and consonantal context on categorization and discrimination of vowels. The present study examined the effects of language experience and consonantal context on the production of Parisian French (PF) vowels by American English (AE) learners of French. Native AE speakers repeated PF vowels /i-y-u-oe-a/ in bilabial /bVp/ and alveolar /dVt/ contexts embedded in the phrase /raCVCa/. Three AE groups participated: speakers without French experience (NoExp), speakers with formal French experience (ModExp), and speakers with formal-plus-immersion experience (HiExp). Production accuracy was assessed by native PF listeners' judgments and by acoustic analysis. PF listeners identified L2 learners' productions more accurately when the learners had extensive language experience, although /y-u-oe/ by even HiExp speakers were frequently misidentified. A consonantal context effect was evident, including /u/ produced by ModExp misidentified more often in alveolar context than in bilabial, and /y/ misidentified more often in bilabial than in alveolar context, suggesting cross-language transfer of coarticulatory rules. Overall, groups distinguished front rounded /y/ from /u/ in production, but often in a non-native manner, e.g., producing /y/ as /(j)u/. Examination of perceptual data from the same individuals revealed a modest, yet complex, perception-production link for L2 vowels.

Background: More than 6,000,000 individuals worldwide are diagnosed with Parkinson's disease (PD). Nearly 90% develop speech signs that may substantially impair their speech intelligibility, resulting in losses in their communication and quality of life. Benefits of intensive speech treatment have been documented for a range of speech signs. However, the critical question of whether speech is more intelligible after treatment has not been investigated in a randomised controlled trial (RCT). We hypothesised that intensive speech treatment would improve speech intelligibility in PD. Method: Sixty-four patients with hypokinetic dysarthria secondary to PD participated in this single-centre, parallel arm, statistically-powered RCT. Reporting follows CONSORT guidelines for non-pharmacological treatment. Patients were recruited from US clinics and randomised using a statistician-derived minimisation algorithm, to intensive speech treatment (16 1-hour sessions/1 month) targeting voice (voice group) or targeting articulation (articulation group) or to an untreated group (no treatment group). Speech treatments were delivered by speech clinicians who specialised in treating patients with PD. Trial design minimised bias and supported equipoise. For intelligibility assessment, blinded listeners (n = 117) orthographically transcribed 57 patients' recorded, self-generated narrative speech samples, randomly presented in multi-talker babble noise. Listeners were American-English speakers, ages 18À35 years, with normal hearing. The primary outcome was baseline (pre-treatment) to post-treatment change in transcription accuracy (TA), recognised as the most objective measure of intelligibility. TA was defined as the percentage of words transcribed correctly. Listeners, data collectors, and data managers were blinded to treatment conditions and groups. Reliability was evaluated using intraclass correlation coefficients and differences amongst groups were evaluated by mixed-effects models, in accordance with the intention-to-treat approach. This trial was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00123084. Findings: Between June 23, 2016 and August 14, 2017, blinded listeners transcribed baseline and post-treatment speech samples for intelligibility assessment of 57 patients in the voice (n = 19), articulation (n = 19) and no treatment (n = 19) groups. Between-group differences (d) in changes from baseline to post-treatment in TA indicated significantly greater increases following treatment targeting voice than treatment targeting articulation (d = 26¢2%, 95% CI 1¢5 À 51¢0; p = 0¢04; ES=1¢0). Differences between TA changes in the treatment targeting voice and in the no treatment group were significant (d = 42¢8%, 95% CI 22¢4 À 63¢2; p = 0¢0002; ES=1¢8). Differences between TA changes in the treatment targeting articulation and in the no treatment group were not significant (d = 16¢5%, 95% CI -6¢1 À 39¢2; p = 0¢147; ES=0¢9).

A quantitative "cross-language assimilation overlap" method for testing predictions of the Perceptual Assimilation Model ͑PAM͒ was implemented to compare results of a discrimination experiment with the listeners' previously reported assimilation data. The experiment examined discrimination of Parisian French ͑PF͒ front rounded vowels /y/ and /oe/. Three groups of American English listeners differing in their French experience ͑no experience ͓NoExp͔, formal experience ͓ModExp͔, and extensive formal-plus-immersion experience ͓HiExp͔͒ performed discrimination of PF /y-u/, /y-o/, /oe-o/, /oe-u/, /y-i/, /y-ε/, /oe-ε/, /oe-i/, /y-oe/, /u-i/, and /a-ε/. Vowels were in bilabial /rabVp/ and alveolar /radVt/ contexts. More errors were found for PF front vs back rounded vowel pairs ͑16%͒ than for PF front unrounded vs rounded pairs ͑2%͒. Overall, ModExp listeners did not perform more accurately ͑11% errors͒ than NoExp listeners ͑13% errors͒. Extensive immersion experience, however, was associated with fewer errors ͑3%͒ than formal experience alone, although discrimination of PF /y-u/ remained relatively poor ͑12% errors͒ for HiExp listeners. More errors occurred on pairs involving front vs back rounded vowels in alveolar context ͑20% errors͒ than in bilabial ͑11% errors͒. Significant correlations were revealed between listeners' assimilation overlap scores and their discrimination errors, suggesting that the PAM may be extended to second-language ͑L2͒ vowel learning.

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