• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.10-17
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• 1997

The purpose of this study were to compare light touch, two-point discrimination, position sense, and static balance ability and to examine the relationship of static balance ability and different senses in those who are wearing various heights of high-heeled shoes. Each 29 women was classified two different heights (below 3 cm, above 7 cm) by experience in wearing shoes. A t-test was used to determine the differences between low- and high-heeled shoe in light touch, two-point discrimination, position sense, and static balance ability. Pearson correlation was used to examine the relationship of static balance ability to these sensation. The results were as follows: 1) No significant differences in average light touch, position sense between two groups were found(p>0.05). But significant differences in average two-point discrimination, static balance ability were found(p<0.05). 2) Static balance ability was not significantly correlated with light touch, position sense, two-point discrimination(p>0.05). The results suggest that long time experience in wearing high-heeled shoe may be caused local sensory change and decreased static balance ability. Even though, static balance ability was not significantly affected but correlated with two-point discrimination, position sense, and light touch in order.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.95-102
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to identify the characteristics of the phonological discrimination ability and phonological working memory of 10 typically developing children aged 4, and 10 other children with Specific Language Impairments whose language age is similar. In orders to compare their phonological discrimination ability among phonological awareness, discrimination tasks were conducted at the syllable and phoneme levels. Also, in order to compare their phonological working memory, the subjects repeated nonsense syllables. The research results may be summarized as follows: First, the children with Specific Language Impairments demonstrated a lower performance than the typically developing children in phonological discrimination ability at both syllable and phoneme levels, and the difference between the groups was statistically significant. Second, the children with Specific Language Impairments exhibited a lower phonological working memory performance in all syllables compared with normal children. Although there was no significant difference in 2 and 3 syllables, a significant difference appeared as the length of the syllables became longer from 4 to 6 syllables. It is deemed necessary to conduct research into qualitative and quantitative differences through an formal assessment of the phonological awareness and phonological working memory of children with Specific Language Impairments.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.342-348
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• 2014

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of pressure ulcer classification system education on hospital nurses' knowledge and visual discrimination ability of pressure ulcer classification system and incontinence-associated dermatitis. Methods: One group pre- and post-test was used. A convenience sample of 96 nurses participating in pressure ulcer classification system education, were enrolled in single institute. The education program was composed of a 50-minute lecture on pressure ulcer classification system and case-studies. The pressure ulcer classification system and incontinence-associated dermatitis knowledge test and visual discrimination tool, consisting of 21 photographs including clinical information were used. Paired t-test was performed using SPSS/WIN 18.0. Results: The overall mean difference of pressure ulcer classification system knowledge (t=4.67, p<.001) and visual discrimination ability (t=10.58, p<.001) were statistically and significantly increased after pressure ulcer classification system education. Conclusion: Overall understanding of pressure ulcer classification system and incontinence-associated dermatitis after pressure ulcer classification system education was increased, but tended to have lack of visual discrimination ability regarding stage III, suspected deep tissue injury. Differentiated continuing education based on clinical practice is needed to improve knowledge and visual discrimination ability for pressure ulcer classification system, and comparison experiment research is required to evaluate its effects.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.23-32
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• 2010

This study aimed at discovering whether Korean language learners who had never been exposed to Korean phones before could distinguish Korean phones and whether learners who had comparatively better ability of identifying phonetic differences displayed a better result in acquiring Korean phonemes. The study conducted two experiments on 25 learners. In Experiment I, an oddball test (ABX) was performed to investigate the learners' ability to discriminate Korean phones on the first day of the course. In Experiment II, an identification test was administered to analyze the ability of identifying Korean phones on the same learners after three weeks of language instruction. The results revealed that the true-beginner learners demonstrated different phonetic discrimination abilities, but these abilities did not seem to correlate with the rate of acquisition.

• MALSORI
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• no.33_34
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• pp.91-98
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• 1997

Auditory discrimination which represents a very basic and important perceptual skill in children is a necessary condition for effective learning. It is necessary, therefore, to devise a standardized test tool for a reliable assessment of the auditory discrimination ability of children. The Korean Auditory Discrimination Test(KADT) is a tentative test tool that the authors have devised to meet such demand, i.e., to test the auditory discrimination ability of Korean children, both normal and hearing- and speech-impaired, between the ages of 4 and 8. The KADT consists of 40 pairs of words arranged in a systematic manner, of which thirty are 'minimal pairs' of words and the rest homophonous synonyms. The 30 minimal pairs are composed in such a way that major phonological contrasts involving consonants and vowels at initial, medial and final positions are duly represented. The test score will be determined by the number of right responses made by the children. Further attempts will be made to refine and improve KADT in future.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.59-67
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to scientifically examine Kuhl's (2011), originally Johnson and Newport's (1989) critical period graph, from a perspective of auditory perception and linguistic discrimination. This study utilizes two types of experiments (auditory perception and linguistic phoneme discrimination) with five different age groups (5 years, 6-8 years, 9-13 years, 15-17 years, and 20-26 years) of Korean English learners. Auditory perception is examined via ultrasonic sounds that are commonly used in the medical field. In addition, each group is measured in terms of their ability to discriminate minimal pairs in Chinese. Since almost all Korean students already have some amount of English exposure, the researchers selected phonemes in Chinese, an unexposed foreign language for all of the subject groups. The results are almost completely in accordance with Kuhl's critical period graph for auditory perception and linguistic discrimination; a sensitive age is found at 8. The results show that the auditory capability of kindergarten children is significantly better than that of other students, measured by their ability to perceive ultrasonic sounds and to distinguish ten minimal pairs in Chinese. This finding strongly implies that human auditory ability is a key factor for the sensitive period of language acquisition.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.189-211
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• 2012

The purpose of the study was to explore ways to improve the test items on the Korean scholastic ability test. More specifically, the researchers investigated whether use of the target language in test items would make a difference in total scores, discriminatory power, and item difficulty. A total of 288 high school seniors participated in the study. The subjects were divided into the experimental group (N=145) and the control group (N=143). A 25-item test resembling the Korean scholastic ability test was administered to both groups. The experimental group was given items whose questions and alternatives were all presented in English, whereas the control group was given items whose questions and alternatives were presented in Korean only. Statistical analyses revealed that use of English vs. Korean in the questions and alternatives made a significant difference in total scores, item discrimination, and item difficulty level. The findings strongly suggest that use of English is one way to improve the quality of the Korean scholastic ability test by enhancing item discrimination and face validity. Considering that the test in question is a high-stakes exam in Korea, further research on how to improve the Korean scholastic ability test is urgently called for.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.69-82
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• 1987

The purpose of this study was to investigate the degree of discrimination and current usage of traditional furniture by people in contemporary society. Interest and preference for traditional furniture were also examined. The major findings were; 1) The traditional furniture owned by respondents were mainly document chest(mungab), dining table(soban) and open etagre(sabang-takja). Book cases(chaikjang) were rarely owned. Function of some furniture such as single shelf chest(danchung-jang), kitchen cabinet(chantak) and desk(suban) have been changed. 2) Highly discriminated tiradtional furniture were document chest(mungab), wardrobe(chest-jang) and dining table(soban). The degree of discrimination of letter rack(gobi), kitchen cabinet(chantak) and bookcases(chaikjang), however, were very low. 3) There was significant relation between discriminating ability and interest for the furniture and the status of posession of it. 4) Some socio-demographic variables were related to distriminating ability of the furniture. The group in high educational and economic level showed high discriminating ability of the furniture than those in lower levels. 5) These was positive correlation between discriminating ability and interest. The more interest, the higher discriminating ability. 6) Most preferred traditional furniture at present were three shelved clothing chest(samchung-jang), document chest(mungab), wardrobe chest(euiguri-jang) and open etagere(sabang-takja).

• Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.79-94
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to compare phonological awareness ability of students with Down Syndrome(DS) and typically developing children(TD). TD and DS were equal the reading abilities(reading recognition). The subject were 10 DS and 10 TD, and were examined by test of phonological awareness. The test of phonological awareness was composed according to phonological units(word, syllable, phoneme) and task types(deletion, discrimination, blending). The results obtained in this study were as follows: The total score of phonological awareness ability of DS were significantly lower than TD. And the score of phonological awareness ability according to phonological units and task types were significantly lower than TD. But both DS and TD performed better on phonological deletion and blending task than discrimination. TD and DS represented different correlation between task types and phonological units. This means that TD performed better on all types of tasks and phonological units than DS.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.207-215
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• 2016

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the differences in the facial emotion recognition and discrimination ability between children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Methods: Fifty-three children aged 7 to 11 years participated in this study. Among them, 43 were diagnosed with ADHD and 10 with ASD. The parents of the participants completed the Korean version of the Child Behavior Checklist, ADHD Rating Scale and Conner's scale. The participants completed the Korean Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-fourth edition and Advanced Test of Attention (ATA), Penn Emotion Recognition Task and Penn Emotion Discrimination Task. The group differences in the facial emotion recognition and discrimination ability were analyzed by using analysis of covariance for the purpose of controlling the visual omission error index of ATA. Results: The children with ADHD showed better recognition of happy and sad faces and less false positive neutral responses than those with ASD. Also, the children with ADHD recognized emotions better than those with ASD on female faces and in extreme facial expressions, but not on male faces or in mild facial expressions. We found no differences in the facial emotion discrimination between the children with ADHD and ASD. Conclusion: Our results suggest that children with ADHD recognize facial emotions better than children with ASD, but they still have deficits. Interventions which consider their different emotion recognition and discrimination abilities are needed.