Naive listener judgments of esophageal air intake noise acceptability

Abstract

IThe purpose of this study was to determine the judgements by naive listeners of the acceptability of esophageal air intake noise and compare those ratings to their judgements of overall esophageal speech proficiency. The primary question this study sought to answer was: Are naive 2 listener judgements of overall esophageal speech proficiency significantly correlated with naive listener judgements of esophageal air intake noise acceptability? The secondary question asked was: Are naive listener acceptability judgements of air intake noise significantly correlated with sophisticated listener acceptability judgements of air intake noise?Tape-recorded samples of 18 laryngectomized individuals reading a paragraph using esophageal speech were played for 12 naive listeners. The naive listeners rated overall esophageal speech proficiency on a 5-point scale.After the proficiency rating task, they participated in a short training session to become familiar with esophageal air intake noise. The speech samples were played again and the judges were instructed to rate the acceptability of air intake noise on a 5-point scale. Interjudge and intrajudge reliability scores were determined by Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients. Unclear terminology used on the rating scales places limitations on the interpretation of the results of this study. Intrajudge reliability for ratings of overall esophageal speech proficiency was quite variable (~=.47-.95).Results of the primary question indicate that naive listener judgements of overall esophageal speech prof iciency were found to be positively correlated (~=.81) with their judgements of esophageal air intake noise A special thanks to Vincent Eccleston for his support, interest, and research data which laid the groundwork for this project and are greatly appreciated.Many thanks are extended to the "naive listeners" who gave their time and energy and were committed to furthering research in the area of alaryngeal communication.Thanks, also, to my sister, Barbara, who contributed her knowledge of computers and typing skills on a moments notice.Thanks to my graduate committee: