• Journal of Audiology & Otology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.83-88
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• 2019

Background and Objectives: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a disorder that usually occurs in the elderly, leading to dementia in some progressive cases. The purpose of this study is to examine the utility of central auditory processing tests as early diagnostic tools for identifying the elderly with MCI. Subjects and Methods: This study was conducted on 20 elderly patients with MCI and 20 healthy matched peers. The speech perception ability in a quiet environment and in the presence of background noise and also temporal resolution were assessed by using Speech Perception in Noise (SPIN) and Gap in Noise (GIN) tests, respectively. Results: The results indicated that the ability to understand speech in a quiet environment did not differ significantly between the two groups. However, SPIN at the three signal-to-noise ratios and the temporal resolution scores were significantly different between the two groups (p<0.001). Conclusions: Individuals with MCI appear to have poorer speech comprehension in noise and a lower temporal resolution than those of the same age, but without cognitive defects. Considering the utility of these tests in identifying cognitive problems, we propose that since the GIN test seems to be less influenced by intervening factors, this test can therefore, be a useful tool for the early screening of elderly people with cognitive problems.

• Korean Journal of Audiology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.83-88
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• 2019

Background and Objectives: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a disorder that usually occurs in the elderly, leading to dementia in some progressive cases. The purpose of this study is to examine the utility of central auditory processing tests as early diagnostic tools for identifying the elderly with MCI. Subjects and Methods: This study was conducted on 20 elderly patients with MCI and 20 healthy matched peers. The speech perception ability in a quiet environment and in the presence of background noise and also temporal resolution were assessed by using Speech Perception in Noise (SPIN) and Gap in Noise (GIN) tests, respectively. Results: The results indicated that the ability to understand speech in a quiet environment did not differ significantly between the two groups. However, SPIN at the three signal-to-noise ratios and the temporal resolution scores were significantly different between the two groups (p<0.001). Conclusions: Individuals with MCI appear to have poorer speech comprehension in noise and a lower temporal resolution than those of the same age, but without cognitive defects. Considering the utility of these tests in identifying cognitive problems, we propose that since the GIN test seems to be less influenced by intervening factors, this test can therefore, be a useful tool for the early screening of elderly people with cognitive problems.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.455-465
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• 2006

Statement of problem: Many factors influence shade determination in clinical practice and shade matching is highly affected by the viewing conditions. Purpose : This study investigated the differences in shade perception among distinct groups of dental personnel (10 prosthodontists, 10 general practitioners, 10 last-year dental students and 10 dental technicians) Material and method: Four groups of dental personnel were investigated. They were tested to eliminate color blindness. To compare shade selection ability, they were asked to match four test tabs of shades A3, B2, C2 and D4 (VITAPAN$^{(R)}$ Classical shade guide. The identification codes of the shade tabs were masked to prevent shade memory. ) against another full set of VITA$^{(R)}$ PAN$^{(R)}$ Classical shade guide under similar lighting conditions. Shade selections were randomly repeated five times every week and then the repeatability between dental personnel was evaluated. To compare value perception ability, they were asked to arrange randomly selected five test tabs (Bl, A2, D2, C3, A4) in descending order from the brightest to the darkest. To compare hue determination ability, they were asked to divide selected eight test tabs (n, A3, B2, B3, C2, C3, D2, D3) into four groups by manufacturer as follows : Group A-Reddish brown, Group B-Reddish yellow. Group C-Grey. Group D-Reddish grey. Results and conclusion : The obtained results were as follows : 1. For the value perception ability and hue determination ability. there was no significant difference among 4 groups: prosthodontists, general practitioners, dental students, dental technicians (P>.05). 2. For shade selection ability, the prosthodontists and dental technicians were significantly higher than dental students(P<.05). 3. The repeatability of selected shade in the dental technicians was significantly higher than that of general practitioners and dental students(P<.05). 4. The prosthodontists and dental technicians had significantly higher selection ability than dental students for shade B2 (P<.05).

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.579-587
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to investigate how Korean learners perceive English vowels and further to test SLM which claims that new L2 vowel categories are more easily acquired than similar L2 vowel categories. Twenty Korean learners participated in English-to-Korean mapping test and English vowel identification test with target vowels /i, ɪ, u, ʊ, ɛ, æ/. The result revealed that Korean participants mapped the English pairs /i/-/ɪ/ and /u/-/ʊ/ onto single Korean vowel /i/ and /u/, respectively. in addition, both of English /ɛ/ and /æ/ were simultaneously mapped onto Korean /e/ and /ɛ/. This indicated that the Korean participants seemed to have perceptual difficulty for the pairs /i-ɪ/, /u-ʊ/, and /ɛ-æ/. The result of the forced-choice identification test showed that the accuracy of /ɪ, ʊ, æ/(ɪ: 81.3%, ʊ: 62.5%, æ: 60.0%) was significantly higher than that of /i, u, ɛ/(i: 28,8%, u: 28.8%, ɛ: 32.4%). Thus, the claim of SLM is confirmed given that /ɪ, ʊ, æ/ are new vowel categories whereas /i, u, ɛ/ are similar vowel categories. Further, the conspicuously low accuracy of the similar L2 vowel categories /i, u, ɛ/ was accounted for by over-generalization whereby the Korean participants excessively replaced L2 similar /i, u, ɛ/ with L2 new /ɪ, ʊ, æ/ as the participants were learning the L2 new vowel categories in the process of acquisition. Based on the findings this study, pedagogical suggestions are provided.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.78-88
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• 2014

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to construct a structural equation model (SEM) that would describe the binge drinking among Korean undergraduate students. Methods: Model construction was based on the theory of planned behavior and prototype/willingness model, using the variables; intention, attitude, descriptive norm, and prototype perception of binge drinking, alcohol use disorders identification test (AUDIT), and binge drinking behavior. The analysis of data was done with both SPSS 20.0 for descriptive statistics and AMOS 20.0 for SEM. Results: The binge drinking intention was found to have a significantly direct effect in influencing binge drinking behavior. In addition, attitude, descriptive norm, and prototype perception of binge drinking were found to have a significantly direct effect in influencing binge drinking intention. The final modified model yielded $x^2$=374.2 (p<.001), df=174, $x^2/df$=2.15, GFI=.87, AGFI=.82, NFI=.89, PNFI=.73 RMSEA=.07, and CFI=.94. Conclusion: This study constructed a model that addressed the factors related to binge drinking and described the relationship of these factors in influencing binge drinking among Korean undergraduate students. Findings from this study can contribute to designing appropriate prevention strategies to reduce problem related binge drinking in undergraduate students.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.101-112
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• 2011

The objective of this study was to examine alcohol consumption rates and the perception of drinking cultures among college students in the Wonju area. An examination of factors such as frequency of drinking, average quantity consumed, and frequency of heavy drinking suggested that the drinking rates were relatively high. Over 70% of subjects drank at least once a week, 66.2% typically drank more than 5 servings at a time, and 19.2% of males and 13.0% of females were heavy drinkers. It was revealed from an AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test) assessment that 71.3% of the subjects tested had various levels of alcohol-related problems. These problems were more severe in subjects that were male, selfboarding, or overweight. Alcohol related knowledge was not high because the subjects didn't know or incorrectly recognized some contents such as blood alcohol concentration, the energy content of alcohol, and the empty caloric characteristics of alcohol. Generally male, self-boarding, and overweight persons were not critical of the undesirable characteristics associated with drinking culture. Two opinions that were generally considered to be permissible were: 'Men should be able to drink' and 'Drinking is essential for a smooth human relationship'.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.1-14
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• 2020

Previous studies have confirmed that /o/ and /u/ in Seoul Korean are undergoing a merger in the F1/F2 space, especially for female speakers. As a substitute parameter for formants, it is reported that female speakers use phonation (H1-H2) differences to distinguish /o/ from /u/. This study aimed to explore whether H1-H2 values are being used as perceptual cues for /o/-/u/. A perception test was conducted with 35 college students using /o/ and /u/ spoken by 41 females, which overlap considerably in the vowel space. An acoustic analysis of 182 stimuli was also conducted to see if there is any correspondence between production and perception. The identification rate was 89% on average, 86% for /o/, and 91% for /u/. The results confirmed that when /o/ and /u/ cannot be distinguished in the F1/F2 space because they are too close, H1-H2 differences contribute significantly to the separation of the two vowels. However, in perception, this was not the case. H1-H2 values were not significantly involved in the identification process, and the formants (especially F2) were still dominant cues. The study also showed that even though H1-H2 differences are apparent in females' production, males do not use H1-H2 in their production, and both females and males do not use H1-H2 in their perception. It is presumed that H1-H2 has not yet been developed as a perceptual cue for /o/ and /u/.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.460-466
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• 2010

It is well-known that Korean EFL learners have difficulties in producing English fricatives which are not in the inventory of Korean and consequently tend to replace English fricatives with stops. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether Korean students also have difficulties perceiving English anterior coronal consonants including fricatives. To this end, forty Korean college students participated in an identification test which consisted of 24 nonce words with English anterior coronal consonants in 4 different prosodic locations (CV, VC, VCVV,VVCV). It was shown that the mean accuracy rates were higher in strong position like CV and VCVV than in weak position like VC and VVCV, providing confusion matrices for each target consonant. It was also found that Korean participants had a great difficulty identifying English[$\theta$] and [$\eth$], which are novel in Korean. Importantly, the confusion patterns found in the perception test tended not to be identical with those found in the previous production studies in that both stops and fricatives were misperceived as fricatives while fricatives were misproduced as stops. Further, perceptual devoicing and intervocalic voicing were attested inVC and intervocalic position, respectively. Based on the findings of this study, pedagogical implications were drawn.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.47-56
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to test the effect of pedagogical agent realism and expertise on persona effect. There were two perspectives of the pedagogical agents' social interaction. Self-identification hypothesis argues that complexity of agent image is better to increase social interaction. Subjective identification insists that simplified image is more helpful to facilitate social interaction. However, from the cognitive load theory perspective, learners' expertise can be a major factor to determine persona effect. Sixty-eight college students (male=19 and female=49) participated. The independent variables were the degree of realism of pedagogical agent (detailed vs. simplified image) and the expertise (high prior knowledge group vs. low prior knowledge group). The dependant variables were comprehension test and the agent persona instrument (API). There was no significant difference in comprehension test score; however, there were significant interaction effect on the most constructs of API: 1) facilitating of learning, 2) credible, and 3) human-like. The follow-up analysis of simple main effect revealed that high expertise group showed significantly higher perception of the three construct with high realism of pedagogical agent. The results of study show that learners' expertise plays a key role of perception of persona effect.

• Proceedings of the Acoustical Society of Korea Conference
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• spring
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• pp.317-320
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• 2000

본 논문은 영어 모국어 화자(남, 여)들이 발성한 영어 모음 12개를 가지고 모음의 길이와 포만트 값(Fl, F2)을 측정하고, 인지실험에 사용할 시료를 만들어 원광대학교 학부생을 대상으로 음성학 수강반 학생 90명, 비 수강반 64명 두 그룹으로 나누어 총 154명을 대상으로 인지실험(Identification test)를 실시하였다. 인지실험결과 음성학 수강반 학생들의 모음인지율이 비 수강반 학생들 보다 대체적으로 좋았으며, 여자화자의 모음인지율이 남자화자의 인지율보다 대체적으로 높았다. 학생들의 인지율 가장 좋은 모음은 hayed, hard였으며, 인지율이 가장 낮은 모음은 head, had 등이였다.