In this study, we will evaluate how solo, naive listeners perceive the speech of people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and age-matched speakers produced across interactive and non-interactive contexts with an unfamiliar, naive interlocutor.
Listeners will hear recorded speech of PALS and age-matched speakers and indicate what they heard. Recorded speech consists of vowels and consonants produced in non-interactive and interactive tasks. The perceptual judgements will be compared to see whether interactive contexts have similar perceptual effects across the two groups. Plans for Assignment - This is a single group study in which all participants will engage in the same tasks. Delivery of Intervention: Solo listeners will participate in this study in a remote, asynchronous format. They will be recruited using the online participant recruitment platform Prolific © and will use their own laptop/computer and headphones. Adequacy of Sample size: We will use n = 1300 listeners to achieve 80% power at alpha of .05 to detect between group differences with the assumption of medium effect sizes (Cohen's f = 0.3). Adequacy of Analyses: The proposed statistical analyses (Generalized mixed effects regressions) are standard and will be used to analyze the effect of the intervention on the outcome measures described below.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
1,300
Listeners will hear recorded speech of PALS and age-matched speakers across interactive and non-interactive tasks and indicate what they heard by clicking one of four words displayed on the screen. Standard attention checks and minimum performance thresholds (Theodore, 2021) will be used to ensure that listeners are engaged and are able to provide meaningful perceptual judgments.
Speech Core, Pennsylvania State University
University Park, Pennsylvania, United States
RECRUITINGIntelligibility of recorded speech
Perceptual judgments will be provided by solo, naïve listeners who did not participate in the interactions. Listeners will hear recorded speech of PALS and age-matched speakers recorded across the different tasks and indicate what they heard. The score will be expressed in percent. The possible range is between 0-100%. The higher scores mean a better outcome.
Time frame: one 20 minute session
This platform is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional.