A Study of the Judgment Accuracy of Repeated /r/ Stimuli by Graduate Clinicians

In the field of speech-language pathology, communication disorders are treated with evidence-based methodologies. Treatment in many cases relies on the clinician’s auditory perceptual skills for feedback purposes, so that the client is aware of correct and incorrect responses. It has been reported clinically that repeated listening to a client’s articulatory responses over time may result in auditory perceptual confusions. This clinical hypothesis was studied by examining the integrity of judgement accuracy of repeated /r/ stimuli, which varied as a function of correct and incorrect stimuli. Findings showed no statistically significant evidence of auditory perceptual confusions when subjects listened to and evaluated repeated productions of synthesized /r/, /w/ for /r/substitution, and /r/ distortion embedded in a CV word.