TY - JOUR
T1 - Effect of training with anchors on auditory-perceptual evaluation of dysphonia in speech-language pathology students
AU - Wong, Denise Wai Man
AU - Chan, Roger W.
AU - Wu, Chia Hsin
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Sherry Fu and Yea-Tzy Chen for their valuable comments and advice on this study. This work was based on a master?s thesis completed by the first author at the National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
PY - 2021/4
Y1 - 2021/4
N2 - Purpose: Auditory-perceptual evaluation is essential for the clinical assessment of voice disorders. Unstable perceptual voice evaluation has been shown for inexperienced listeners as compared to expert listeners. We examined the effects of perceptual training with external auditory anchors with and without immediate feedback on the evaluation of roughness and breathiness of natural, nonsynthesized speech stimuli (reading of a standard passage) in speech-language pathology students. Method: Perceptual voice evaluation and training with anchors using a visual analog scale was implemented with a computer software. Forty-eight speech-language pathology students were randomly assigned into three groups, feedback group (Group F), no feedback group (Group NF), and control group (Group C), attending one training session and four assessment sessions (before training, immediately after training, and 1 and 7 weeks after training). Group F received training with anchors with immediate feedback, Group NF received training without immediate feedback, and Group C received sham training (exposure session). Results: Training with anchors significantly increased the rating accuracy (agreement with expert ratings) on both roughness and breathiness for Group F, with the effects lasting for 7 weeks. No significant changes in rating accuracy with training were observed for Group NF and Group C. No improvements in intra-and interrater reliability as well as intrarater agreement were observed in all three groups, whereas interrater agreement on breathiness (but not roughness) significantly increased for all groups, with the effect lasting for 7 weeks only for Group F. Conclusions: These findings suggested that perceptual training with external auditory anchors and the use of immediate feedback could be effective for facilitating the development of perceptual voice evaluation skills in speech-language pathology students. Further studies involving more extensive training with stimuli covering a full range of dysphonia severity categories and improvements in design of the training protocol are recommended to verify these results.
AB - Purpose: Auditory-perceptual evaluation is essential for the clinical assessment of voice disorders. Unstable perceptual voice evaluation has been shown for inexperienced listeners as compared to expert listeners. We examined the effects of perceptual training with external auditory anchors with and without immediate feedback on the evaluation of roughness and breathiness of natural, nonsynthesized speech stimuli (reading of a standard passage) in speech-language pathology students. Method: Perceptual voice evaluation and training with anchors using a visual analog scale was implemented with a computer software. Forty-eight speech-language pathology students were randomly assigned into three groups, feedback group (Group F), no feedback group (Group NF), and control group (Group C), attending one training session and four assessment sessions (before training, immediately after training, and 1 and 7 weeks after training). Group F received training with anchors with immediate feedback, Group NF received training without immediate feedback, and Group C received sham training (exposure session). Results: Training with anchors significantly increased the rating accuracy (agreement with expert ratings) on both roughness and breathiness for Group F, with the effects lasting for 7 weeks. No significant changes in rating accuracy with training were observed for Group NF and Group C. No improvements in intra-and interrater reliability as well as intrarater agreement were observed in all three groups, whereas interrater agreement on breathiness (but not roughness) significantly increased for all groups, with the effect lasting for 7 weeks only for Group F. Conclusions: These findings suggested that perceptual training with external auditory anchors and the use of immediate feedback could be effective for facilitating the development of perceptual voice evaluation skills in speech-language pathology students. Further studies involving more extensive training with stimuli covering a full range of dysphonia severity categories and improvements in design of the training protocol are recommended to verify these results.
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U2 - 10.1044/2020_JSLHR-20-00214
DO - 10.1044/2020_JSLHR-20-00214
M3 - Article
C2 - 33769849
AN - SCOPUS:85104287915
SN - 1092-4388
VL - 64
SP - 1136
EP - 1156
JO - Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
JF - Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
IS - 4
ER -