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Student learning of macroeconomic principles by computer assisted instruction is compared to student performance by conventional methods. (KM)

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships which exist between various predictor measures obtained on students while in training at private post-high school trade, technical, and business schools and a particular global definition of vocational success. The data were collected from 518 students who responded to mailed questionnaires, and through a fifth-year follow-up questionnaire. The Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient, multiple regression analysis, and the Eta statistic were used to analyze the data. Specific findings were: (1) In response to questions concerning relationships between various predictor measures and a global criterion of vocational success, no significant relationships were shown for any of the predictor variables for all students combined or for male students, however, five hypotheses were rejected for female business students, and (2) Of the 148 null hypotheses tested, a total of 18 were rejected at the .05 level and 10 of those were among the 37 tested for female business school students. This indicates a sex rather than a type of school factor at work. (Author/GEB)

The present work was comprised of a series of experiments that investigated the application of clear speech (CS) in a group of electrolaryngeal (EL) speakers. Three experiments were conducted to assess the impact of CS on three important aspects of EL speech. More specifically, Experiment 1 sought to identify the impact of CS on EL speakers’ word and consonant intelligibility; Experiment 2 examined the influence of CS on the acoustic characteristics of words and vowels in EL speech; and finally, Experiment 3 sought to identify the influence of CS produced by EL speakers on auditory-perceptual ratings by naïve listeners. Results revealed that overall word and consonant intelligibility were minimally different when EL speakers used CS compared to their everyday, ‘habitual’ speech (HS) (Experiment 1). Secondly, EL speakers’ use of CS significantly increased word durations, but did not have a substantial impact on fundamental and formant frequency characteristics of vowels (Experiment 2). Finally, due to the productive changes associated with CS involving a slower rate of speech, over-articulation, and increased mouth-opening, listeners judged EL speech to be significantly less acceptable to listen to when compared to HS. However, no significant effect of speaking condition was noted on listeners’ comfort levels (Experiment 3). Overall, findings suggest that the acoustic deficits in EL speech might be too complex to derive further benefit from CS in the areas of speech intelligibility, the acoustic structure of EL speech and/or auditory-perceptual ratings of EL speakers. Clinical implications and future directions for research are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to examine relationships between communicative participation and postlaryngectomy speech outcomes, including listener-rated speech intelligibility and acceptability, and patient-rated speech acceptability and voice handicap.Thirty-six laryngectomized individuals completed the Communicative Participation Item Bank (CPIB) short form and the Voice Handicap Index-10 (VHI-10). They provided recordings from the Sentence Intelligibility Test (SIT) and a reading passage, and rated their own speech acceptability. Forty-eight inexperienced listeners transcribed the SIT sentences to derive intelligibility scores. Eighteen additional listeners judged the speech acceptability using the rating scales.Listeners judged tracheoesophageal speakers as significantly more intelligible and acceptable than electrolaryngeal speakers (p.05). Speech acceptability was significantly more acceptable to speakers than listeners (p.05). Weak, nonsignificant relationships were found between communicative participation and listener-rated outcomes. Stronger, significant relationships were found between communicative participation and self-rated speech acceptability and voice handicap (p.05).Patient-reported communication outcomes are complementary to listener-rated outcomes. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 38: E1955-E1961, 2016.