INTERFERENCE AND ENTRAINMENT BETWEEN MANUAL AND LINGUISTIC ACTIVITIES.
Item
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Title
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INTERFERENCE AND ENTRAINMENT BETWEEN MANUAL AND LINGUISTIC ACTIVITIES.
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Identifier
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AAI8501113
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identifier
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8501113
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Creator
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ALPERN, CAROL SOBER.
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Contributor
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Michael-Studdert Alpern
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Date
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1984
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Health Sciences, Speech Pathology
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Abstract
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A verbal-manual interference paradigm assessed the cognitive and/or motoric basis for the association between handedness and the control of language function by the left hemisphere. Twelve normal adult subjects engaged in two kinds of finger tapping tasks (index and sequential finger tapping) while performing a variety of language tasks. Language tasks were contrasted on the basis of their hypothesized degree of left hemisphere dependence: the more left hemisphere dependent were expected to result in greater interference with right hand tapping rates than the less left hemisphere dependent. Experiment 1 contrasted phonetic and semantic tasks; Experiments 1 and 2 contrasted the degree of rhythmicity of the language tasks.;Neither study demonstrated differential laterality effects as a function of the characteristics of the concurrently performed language task. Whether these results reflect brain organization or insensitivity of the technique cannot be determined.;Both studies showed greater interference to right-handed than left-handed tapping rates as a function of speaking in general. However, in Experiment 1, which contrasted input and output tasks, this effect was demonstrated only for output tasks, indicating that lateralized interference is largely motoric. In Experiment 2, the effect was demonstrated only by females, a result difficult to interpret.;Motoric interference was examined further in Experiment 2 (1) by comparing the sequential finger tapping task used in Experiment 1 with an index finger tapping task, and (2) by examining the interaction between tapping and speech output. While the type of tapping task did not differentially affect tapping rate decrements in the dual-task condition, it did affect speech rate decrements: A faster tapping rate, associated with index tapping, and a slower tapping rate, associated with sequential tapping, became entrained with speech, so that speech was significantly faster during index than sequential tapping. Tapping rate also became entrained to speech rate, so that pauses in speech output due to clause boundaries or speech errors resulted in slower tapping rates. Entrainment effects were not lateralized. It was suggested that while structural interference within the left hemisphere could account for lateralized decrements in tapping rates, entrainment may reflect capacity limitations.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Speech and Hearing Sciences
