"Welcome to Minnesota State University Mankato's Undergraduate Research Conference. Today, we recognize and celebrate the research and creative activities of our undergraduate students. These projects, representing five colleges, are the result of collaboration between talented and motivated undergraduate students and their dedicated faculty mentors. In its fifth year, the Conference provides a dynamic showcase for the wide range of on-going, outstanding scholarly and creative activity on our campus. . . . The entire University community congratulates all participating students and their faculty mentors." Richard Davenport, President, Minnesota State University, Mankato.
Shannon Leppi, Sara Doelger, Christina Carson, Catherine Armendariz . Faculty mentor, Patricia Hargrove
One of the characteristics of language that has been the frequent topic of research is children's production of word endings such as "ing," "ed," and the possessive (s). These are called bound morphemes. Interestingly, the production of bound morphemes in the speech of children with Williams Syndrome (WS) has received little attention. WS is a rare chromosomal disorder that occurs in approximately 1 in 25,000 births. Common features include mouth and facial abnormalities, early feeding and sleeping problems, and developmental disabilities. Of special interest to speech-language pathologists is that their language is often reported to be superior to their overall cognitive (intellectual) development. In this study, we compared incidences of bound morphemes in the speech of children with WS to those of typically developing children by using a story retelling task. A companion paper explores bound morphemes in spontaneous speech. Our findings revealed that the use of bound morphemes in this group was similar, which was not congruent with our hypothesis.
Hilary Penner, Samantha Schindle, Emi Karino, Miranda Davis, Christen Conrad Faculty mentor, Patricia Hargrove
Williams Syndrome (WS) is a rare genetic disorder resulting in facial abnormalities, small stature, mental impairment, and heart disease. Children with WS are believed to have stronger communication skills that expected based on their I.Q. The purpose of our research was to explore one aspect of communication that has not been investigated previously in children with WS. We attached the use of word endings such as "ing," "ed," "s," and "'s" (bound morphones) in the spontaneous speech of children with WS and typically developing children. The result indicated that there was not a significant difference in the number of bound morphemes in the two groups of children. This was contrary to our original hypothesis.
Shannon Leppi, Sam Schindle, Christina Carson Faculty mentor, Bruce Poburka
Physiological and psychological effects of vocal warm-up were studied in a group of 25 college-aged theatre arts students. Physiological variables relating to voice production included phonation threshold pressure, noise-to-harmonics ratio, and fundamental frequency range. These physiologic measures relate to ease of voicing, vocal quality, and pitch range respectively. Psychological variables included self-assessments of confidence before performing a voice task and a self-evaluation of vocal performance after the task. Mean values for each variable in each condition will be statistically compared using a paired samples t-test. It is predicted that vocal warm-up positively affects both the physiological and psychological variables.
