Psy. D., Antioch University, 2013, Antioch Seattle: Clinical Psychology

This study is a preliminary investigation of the validity of using time-based measures to quantify sustained attention in children ages 6-12. Problems with sustained attention negatively affect childhood learning and development. The prevalence of disorders known to impact sustained attention performance continue to rise in the United States. Currently, commercially available, objective measures of sustained attention use normative comparisons that provide limited information about the effect such problems have on child performance in natural settings. We reviewed test data from 290 charts of children ages 6-12 referred for neuropsychological evaluation. The Test of Everyday Attention for Children (TEA-Ch) is an ecologically oriented measure of attention; however, the test provides only normative data about child sustained attention. We examined the validity of two time-based scores derived from the Code Transmission subtest of the TEA-Ch. The Code Transmission Time on Task (CT-TOT) estimates the total time a child spends processing the subtest stimulus and the Code Transmission Longest Duration (CT-LD) estimates the maximum duration of a child's sustained attention before an attentional lapse. We correlated CT-TOT and CT-LD scores with age, criterion sustained attention measures from the TEA-Ch, and a measure of intelligence. Analysis of the data revealed significant differences in performance on the time-based measures by age-band. Correlations reached significance for both measures with the four criterion measures, with the CT-TOT achieving higher correlations with all criterion measures. Correlations were non-significant between both measures and intelligence. Overall, the findings of the present study suggest that the CT-TOT may provide additional, valid performance-based information about childrens' sustained attention that, to date, is missing from any commercially available measure of sustained attention for children. The electronic version of this (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2023, Speech Pathology and Audiology

Joint attention provides children with important opportunities for language learning. To engage in JA children must be able to visually attend to their parents and an object. Children with autism tend to struggle with visual attention. Deaf parents of deaf children have been shown to be more adept at facilitating visual attention in their deaf children. Both autistic and deaf children have unique visual attention needs. To determine if Deaf parents are also more adept at facilitating visual attention in autistic children, we sought to identify the strategies used by Deaf parents of autistic children. We obtained videos of our participants playing with their children and identified 15 strategies which occurred in a single modality or bimodally. We found that most frequently deaf parents were using gaze shifts, linguistic utterances, touching their child's body, and object manipulation to gain and maintain their attention. Additionally, they use the same adaptations Deaf parents use in child directed sign, as well as the unique adaptation of shifting their eye gaze toward their own signs. Eventually, we hope to determine the efficacy of these strategies and if they carry over to hearing and heterogeneous dyads.

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2022, Computer Science and Engineering

Natural Language Processing techniques are being widely used in the industry these days to solve a variety of business problems. In this work, we experiment with the application of NLP techniques for the use case of understanding the call interactions between customers and customer service representatives and to extract interesting insights from these conversations. We focus our methodologies on understanding call transcripts of these interactions which fall under the category of long document understanding. Existing works in text encoding typically address short form text encoding. Deep Learning models like Vanilla Transformer, BERT and DistilBERT have achieved state of the art performance on a variety of tasks involving short form text but perform poorly on long documents. To address this issue, modifications to the Transformer model have been released in the form of Longformer and BigBird. However, all these models require heavy computational resources which are often unavailable in small scale companies that run on budget constraints. To address these concerns, we survey a variety of explainable and light weight text encoders that can be trained easily in a resource constrained environment. We also propose Hierarchical Self Attention based models that outperform DistilBERT, Doc2Vec and single layer self-attention networks for downstream tasks like text classification. The proposed architecture has been put into production at the local industry organization that sponsored the research (SafeAuto Inc.) and helps the company to monitor the performance of its customer service representatives.

Master of Arts in Psychology, Cleveland State University, 2023, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

Clinicians who perform psychoeducational assessments for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are typically unaware of the utility of Symptom Validity Tests (SVTs) and often rely on clinical interviews and self-report checklists for diagnosis (Suhr et al., 2008, Young & Gross, 2011). This type of methodology, however, has been found to have serious limitations as it assumes that the respondents are truthful and introspective. This is particularly evident because most self-report checklists rely on direct questioning, increasing social desirability bias. Consequently, these checklists often overestimate pathology in adults with various psychiatric conditions, producing clinically significant levels of ADHD symptoms (Harrison, 2004). The 40-item Keshev Dimensional Scale - Adult (KDS-A) was developed to address the limitations of existing measures. The development utilized facet theory (Guttman 1959; Shye 1978; Tversky & Hutchinson 1986) using the DSM-V (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) criteria. Results showed that the KDS-A had comparable internal consistency with an existing self-report measure of ADHD commonly used today, and that the KDS-A was also highly correlated with the existing measure supporting the concurrent validity. The KDS-A was also shown to have slightly higher sensitivity and specificity than the existing measure used in this study. Future research needs to be conducted on the effect of embedding the KDS-A within an existing multi-scale personality measure, along with the development of norms for the measure as well.

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2024, Music History

This dissertation examines the social contexts for music livestreams, in order to lay the groundwork for future studies of both livestreaming as a whole and individual case studies. No frameworks currently exist for analyzing music livestreams. Although the technologies of livestreaming have been evolving over the past few decades, there have been no organized or successful attempts to standardize the ways we understand and study this fast-growing medium for music performance. Chapter 1 provides basic definitions of livestreaming, and then emphasizes the framework of liveness, arguing that although livestreaming technologies developed relatively recently, the practice of transmitting and receiving live music has been developing since the late-nineteenth century. I examine livestreaming as a continuation of broadcast media wrapped up with conceptions of liveness that have been constantly transforming over the long twentieth century. Chapter 2 connects livestreaming with the social media platforms that have emerged in the past two decades. I also position livestreaming within discussions and anxieties surrounding attention and distraction in the context of digital media. In Chapter 3 the discussion of attention extends into the realm of joint attention, and the ways livestreaming engages our attentive capacities in groups to facilitate specific modalities of participation—observational, reactive, and generative. Finally, the conclusion pulls these frameworks together to demonstrate their use in an analysis of music livestreaming during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the patterns of behavior and audience engagement, conceptions of liveness during the pandemic, and the effects of these factors on the social aspects of live music.

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2023, Arts and Sciences: Psychology

Attention is a cognitive process that, when stable, allows the mind to focus on relevant information. While attention can shift and fluctuate nonlinearly, research shows that a two-factor model can be used to capture the stability of selective sustained attention. Nevertheless, nonlinear dynamics of attention remain elusive under this two-factor model of attention. Hence, a one-sided focus on attentional stability undermines ways to control the processes of focusing and ignoring. To shed light on non-linear shifting in attention, I applied ideas from complexity science, a framework that anticipates such nonlinear phenomena. Specifically, I sought to apply a cusp model of selective sustained attention to explore the extent to which complexity science could be a useful approach to attention. The following demonstrates how a cusp model anticipates the presence of two orthogonal factors that align with those already identified in extant research on selective sustained attention. I also found that the empirical findings of selective sustained attention are conducive of fitting data to a cusp model. This research provides the first step in establishing a consistent framework for taking a dynamical complexity approach to the study of attention that inherently changes.

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2023, Psychology

Accurately categorizing items requires humans to selectively attend to stimulus dimensions that are relevant to a task. However, learning to direct attention toward the relevant dimensions is often achieved through trial and error. Therefore, category learning models should seek to describe a neurally plausible account of how humans adjust their attention over time. The Adaptive Attention Representation Model (AARM) attempts to describe this dynamic process by employing a between-trial attention updating function in the form of a feedback-based error gradient. To provide neural validation for AARM's attentional mechanisms we conducted a simulation study, fit AARM to behavioral data from Mack et al (2016), and conducted three model-based fMRI analyses. The simulation demonstrated a priori expectations of the model's behavior in the context of the Shepard VI paradigm. The behavioral fits showcased AARM's capacity to capture choice accuracy and attentional dynamics in a complex learning environment. The fMRI analyses revealed a brain-wide system that supports flexible attention updating. This neural system includes areas believed to support attention orienting (prefrontal and parietal cortices), visual perception (visual pathways), memory encoding and retrieval (hippocampus and MTL), prediction error (basal ganglia), and goal maintenance (PFC). These results support AARM's specification of attentional tuning as a dynamic property of distributed cognitive systems.

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2023, Music Composition

The Inconsistent Continuities is a single movement chamber piece with fixed media. The Inconsistent Continuities was composed for Hypercube Ensemble, whose performing forces include saxophone, electric guitar, percussion, and piano. An additional fixed media component is being controlled over time by one of the performers. The piece's theme is inspired by my personalized perception of living and coping with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). The Inconsistent Continuities aims to sonically portray my personalized experiences living and coping with ADHD. Each ensemble member, plus the fixed media, personifies one or multiples of the three main ADHD traits: fixation; distraction; and inattentiveness. The single-movement piece comprises three sections. The first section establishes the four ensemble members as a theoretical “brain” attempting to formulate a musical melodic gesture or “idea.” This idea loops, signifying the characteristics of fixation. An external distraction from the fixed media then attempts to distract the ensemble from their original melodic thought. The musical content introduced by the fixed media is distant and obtrusive compared to the fixated thought from earlier. The remaining role (inattentiveness) is introduced during this section and attempts to bypass the first thought and the distraction. This section represents the mind being overly stimulated and the traits of ADHD that are more prevalent and controlling. The second section begins as a collective dialogue between all three characteristics that eventually reaches critical mass, followed by an abrupt breath inhale by the ensemble. This represents the mind being overwhelmed during social situations and everyday life while desperately seeking a moment of clarity. The final section unites each member, but the melodic idea of the piece changes, representing the mind solving the task or completing its thought through the tangential ADHD thought process.

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2022, Psychology/Clinical

This qualitative study examines the lived experience of adult women diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) with a specific focus on gender roles and social support. Previous research has identified a potential conflict between symptoms of ADHD and societal expectations of women, in addition to a negative correlation between levels of social support and ADHD symptoms. In the present study, in-depth semi-structured interviews that focused on societal expectations of women and social support were conducted with nine women from ages 25 to 45 diagnosed with ADD or ADHD. Results of content analysis of interview transcripts indicate that most participants perceived themselves as possessing different personal qualities than those societally expected of women. Participants described reacting to these perceived differences by attempting to modify themselves to meet societal expectations, pretending to meet expectations, or intentionally flouting societal expectations. Most participants reported that increased ADHD symptoms led to a decrease in social connectedness, whereas nearly one half of participants reported that increased social connectedness led to a decrease in ADHD symptoms. All participants reported that increased ADHD symptoms led to an increase in comorbid symptomatology. Some participants identified an optimal level of social connectedness and described an increase in ADHD and comorbid symptoms when deviating either above or below the optimal level. Future research should examine adaptive responding to conflicts between socially dictated gender norms and qualities of women with ADHD and examine the concept of an optimal middle level of social connection

MS, University of Cincinnati, 2022, Engineering and Applied Science: Electrical Engineering

The rapid advances in video storage, processing and streaming services, improvements of cellular communication speed, enhancement of mobile phone cameras and increase in social media engagement led to explosive growth in the number of videos generated every minute. Therefore, content-based video searching, browsing, and information retrieval technologies have received significant attention in recent years adapting to the massive number of videos generated. Video summarization techniques are among methodologies which can help users browse the video fast and retrieve information more efficiently by either solely extracting key-frames/segments or assembling the important segments further as video skims, highlights or summaries. In this research, the current video summarization pipeline, collected datasets, and related evaluation metrics are reviewed. Furthermore, various video summarization models which rely on the fusion of video title and visual features using attention networks will be proposed and evaluated using publicly available datasets: 1. A baseline video summarization model which uses correlation among visual features of video frames using attention network is studied. The training procedure and evaluation metrics will be compared against similar recent studies. 2. Extracting Video Title embeddings using pre-trained language models, various methodologies for integrating video title information in the baseline model are studied and evaluated. Re-shaping self-attention to cross-attention, a model which takes advantage of correlation among video title and frame visual features is proposed. Given that the correlation of visual frames in long sequences does not necessarily provide video storyline, the fusion of title information in the proposed model improved the video summarization performance as expected. 3. Finally, to further improve the performance of the proposed model, loss function is modified to combine the accuracy of frame-level score pr (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Speech and Hearing Science

The three manuscripts presented here examine concepts related to speech perception in noise and ways to overcome poor speech intelligibility without depriving listeners of environmental sound recognition. Because of hearing-impaired (HI) listeners' auditory deficits, there is a substantial need for speech-enhancement (noise reduction) technology. Recent advancements in deep learning have resulted in algorithms that significantly improve the intelligibility of speech in noise, but in order to be suitable for real-world applications such as hearing aids and cochlear implants, these algorithms must be causal, talker independent, corpus independent, and noise independent. Manuscript 1 involves human-subjects testing of a novel, time-domain-based algorithm that fulfills these fundamental requirements. Algorithm processing resulted in significant intelligibility improvements for both HI and normal-hearing (NH) listener groups in each signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and noise type tested. In Manuscript 2, the range of speech-to-background ratios (SBRs) over which NH and HI listeners can accurately perform both speech and environmental recognition was determined. Separate groups of NH listeners were tested in conditions of selective and divided attention. A single group of HI listeners was tested in the divided attention experiment. Psychometric functions were generated for each listener group and task type. It was found that both NH and HI listeners are capable of high speech intelligibility and high environmental sound recognition over a range of speech-to-background ratios. The range and location of optimal speech-to-background ratios differed across NH and HI listeners. The optimal speech-to-background ratio also depended on the type of environmental sound present. Conventional deep-learning algorithms for speech enhancement target maximum intelligibly by removing as much noise as possible while maintaining the essential characteristics of the target speech signal (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, Psychology

Recent studies of spatial attention suggest that the distribution of attention mapped by the flanker task shows local suppression of attention at small regions around the target (surround inhibition). I explored how facilitatory and inhibitory selective attention mechanisms form and modulate the distribution of attention, using a newly developed cognitive model that dissociates the two mechanisms assumed to underlie the distribution of attention: facilitation and inhibition. The model assumed that distinct facilitatory and inhibitory control mechanisms modulate the breadths of different parts of the attentional distribution. Two flanker task experiments sought to modulate selectively the operations of the two mechanisms, also reflected by changes in two parameters of a computational model of selective attention in the task. The behavioral and modeling results showed that inhibition and facilitation were not selectively modulated by the experimental manipulations. However, assessment of two alternative measures of selective attention in the flanker task, the magnitude of flanker interference and the breadth of the attentional distribution, showed evidence for distinct facilitatory and inhibitory control mechanisms.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Wright State University, 2019, Computer Science and Engineering PhD

Current commercial tracking systems do not process images fast enough to perform target-tracking in real- time. State-of-the-art methods use entire scenes to locate objects frame-by-frame and are commonly computationally expensive because they use image convolutions. Alternatively, attention mechanisms track more efficiently by mimicking human optical cognitive interaction to only process small portions of an image. Thus, in this work we use an attention-based approach to create a model called C-DATM (Conditional Dilated Attention tracking Model) that learns to compare target features in a sequence of image-frames using dilated convolutions. The C-DATM is tested using the Modified National Institute of Standards and Technology handwritten digits. We also compare the results achieved by C-DATM to the results achieved by other attention-based networks like Deep Recurrent Attentive Writer and Recurrent Attention Tracking Model that appear in the literature. C-DATM builds on previous attention principles to achieve generic, efficient, and recurrent-less object tracking. The GOTURN(General Object Tracking using Regression Networks) model which won the VOT 2014 dataset challenge contains similar operating principles to C-DATM and is used as an exemplar to explore the advantages and disadvantages C-DATM. The results of this comparison demonstrate that C-DATM has a number of significant advantage over GOTURN including faster processing of image sequences and the ability to generalize to tracking new targets without retraining the system.

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2019, Antioch New England: Clinical Psychology

This study aimed to examine the phenomenon of Psy.D. students' multitasking on the computer while in the classroom. Using an online survey of 45 questions, the study invited Psy.D. students from across the US to answer questions pertaining to their non-class-related use of computers in the classroom, including an exploration of their relationship with computers and the internet, feelings and judgments regarding multitasking in the classroom, and opinions on the behavior and its potential impact on their profession. A total of 166 people visited the survey with 145 respondents who answered it to completion. Of the 145 participants, 86% (125) were female, 10% (14) were male, and 3.5% (5) were non-binary. The mean age was 28.5, with ages ranging from 22 to 52 and over. Approximately 85% (124) of the respondents acknowledged multitasking on their computers or devices while in class. A significant negative relationship was found between whether or not students viewed this topic as a problem and how much time they spent multitasking in class. A significant positive relationship was found between the students' age and their level of negative judgment of others who multitask. The overall amount of neutrality and positivity towards multitasking among students was greater than expected, which illuminated this topic as being much more complex than originally conceived. This raised further questions about the current academic context within which students are multitasking, with considerations for finding ways to adapt teaching methods that can respond to ongoing neurological shifts in a new generation of students.

Master of Science (MS), Wright State University, 2017, Human Factors and Industrial/Organizational Psychology MS

Previous research has found that Video Game Players, or VGPs, perform better on a variety of attention tasks (i.e. attentional blink, useful field of view, flanker compatibility, etc.) as compared to Non-Video Game Players, or NVGPs. We examined the extent of this previously observed VGP attentional advantage on a target identification task. Most VGP studies have examined the VGP advantage on tasks that primarily require detection but not identification. Identification is an important process beyond detection for encoding and later retrieving information. VGPs and NVGPs were tested on briefly flashed strings of digits subtending less than 10 degrees of visual angle. They were tasked with identifying a target among distractors. Some of the strings were visually crowded and others were spaced such that crowding was not present. Our results indicated that the previously observed VGP attentional advantages do not extend to an identification task. VGPs and NVGPs performed similarly on all conditions of number of digits and spacing. One previous study indicated that VGPs had a lower crowding threshold than NVGPs even at 0 degrees of visual angle. We did not find that this reduction in crowding threshold allowed for better performance on an identification task. Future research is needed to fully investigate whether VGPs are able to perform with better accuracy than NVGPs on identification or a similar task.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2016, Speech-Language Science (Health Sciences and Professions)

Background: Models of adult sentence comprehension are emerging that suggest object relative (OR) sentence processing is subserved by memory abilities. Though the developmental literature lacks similar models of comprehension, investigations of children's cognitive abilities and sentence comprehension suggest that working memory capacity (WMc) and focus attention switching are related to children's sentence comprehension. Typically developing children (as young as 6 years old) have demonstrated the ability to reactivate NP1 at the syntactically relevant gap location (verb offset). Importantly, Roberts, Marinis, Felser, and Clahsen (2007) found that WMc appears to play a role in children's ability to reactivate NP1 at the gap, leading authors to suggest that perhaps children with lower WMc need more time to reactivate and integrate a dislocated NP constituent during sentence processing. Extending the work of Roberts et al., this study investigated the influence of two memory mechanisms, working memory and attention switching, on lexical reactivation (NP1). Two sentence locations were investigated: (a) the syntactic gap, and (b) the post-gap (500 msec after the gap), a reasonable temporal point from estimates in the adult literature that should reflect the possible delayed NP1 reactivation in children (delay defined as “not immediate” reactivation). Aims: The two primary aims were to investigate the contributions of WMc and attention switching on NP1 reactivation time at (a) the syntactic gap (Gap) and (b) 500 msec after the syntactic gap (Post-Gap) during children's OR sentence processing. Methods: Typically developing children, 9-11 years of age, completed three experimental tasks: a working memory capacity task (WMc), an attentional focus switching task, and a cross-modal picture priming task to capture NP1 reactivation during sentence processing. Results and Conclusion: GLM modeling suggested that WMc and attention switching both contributed to (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2015, Speech and Hearing Science

This study seeks to further our understanding of auditory development by investigating “spectral attention bands” (spectral region of attention for an expected target) and the ability to integrate or segregate information across frequency bands in children. The ability to attend to a target signal and discriminate speech from noise is of special importance in children. On a daily basis children must listen and attend to important auditory information in noisy classroom environments. A comparison of spectral attention bandwidth in children and adults might clarify where aspects of processing/listening efficiency breaks down. The current three experiments investigate the shape of spectral attention bands in children age 5 to 8 as compared to adults and indicate that the spectral attending listening strategy may effect understanding speech in noise. This study indicates that children do in fact listen differently than adults, using less efficient listening strategies that may lead them to be more susceptible to noise. This study also shows that between the ages of 5 and 8, enough substantial refinements in listening strategies occur to see a change to more adult-like performance in the older child age range.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Wright State University, 2009, Human Factors and Industrial/Organizational Psychology PhD

The present study tested the hypothesis that three visual pathways (i.e. parvocellular, magnocellular, and koniocellular pathways) may influence the degree of dual-task interference using dual-task methodology. The magnocellular pathway consists of feature-coding mechanisms that are sensitive to transients and motion, and is thought to process information about the locations and movements of objects. The parvocellular pathway consists of feature-coding mechanisms that are sensitive to red-green and brightness information, while the koniocellular pathway consists of feature-coding mechanisms that are sensitive to blue-yellow chromatic information. Both the parvocellular and the koniocellular pathway are thought to process information useful for identifying objects. The hypothesis predicted that engaging in two search tasks that were mediated by feature-coding mechanisms in two different pathways would result in less dual-task interference in performance than two tasks that were mediated by feature-coding mechanisms in the same pathway. Magnocellular stimuli were defined by brief luminance transients and motion, and parvocellular and koniocellular stimuli were defined by color. The most interference was observed for task pairs that were different in nature and mediated in one pathway. Two tasks mediated by the two different pathways resulted in a small interference, while two identical task pairs mediated by one pathway resulted in no dual-task interference. No significant negative contingency was observed in any task pair. Dual-task interference consistent with a sampling model (e.g. Bonnel et al., 1992) and an independence model (e.g. Morrone et al., 2002 and 2004) were observed. No task pairs produced dual-task interference consistent with the prediction of a switching model (e.g. Duncan, 1996).

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2011, Arts and Sciences: Psychology

Numerous studies have been conducted to investigate the underlying neuropsychological differences between children with and without ADHD. Studies focused on reaction times have shown that children with ADHD demonstrate greater reaction time (RT) variability across a variety of computerized tasks than children without ADHD. Although several researchers have hypothesized that this RT variability represents lapses in attention, only a few studies have investigated the behavioral correlates of this phenomenon. The results of these studies suggest that RT variability may be more highly correlated with symptoms of inattention than hyperactivity or impulsivity. However, these studies have utilized parent and teacher rating scales, which often take into account behavior across long periods of time (e.g., past week). Observed behavior, coded on a continuous basis, may be more highly associated with RT variability than rating scales and provide us with a better understanding of the behavioral correlates of RT variability. This study examined the relationship between RT variability and attention during two educational tasks. Coefficient of variation (RT SD divided by mean RT) and the Ex-gaussian parameter tau were utilized as indicators of RT variability and mean duration of on-task behavior was used as an indicator of task attention. To explore the specificity of the relationship between RT variability and observed attention, associations between RT variability and hyperactive behavior (fidgeting) and associations between on-task behavior and a different neuropsychological indicator (task accuracy) were also examined. One-hundred, forty-nine participants (96 with ADHD and 53 controls) completed five computerized neuropsychological tasks. Each participant was also video-recorded while completing math problems for twenty minutes and watching an educational video. Behavior was coded in a continuous fashion for each of these videos using Noldus Observer XT® computer software. In (open full item for complete abstract)

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2013, Antioch Seattle: Clinical Psychology

This study investigated the early effects of the Tomatis Method, hypothesizing improvement in processing speed, phonological awareness, reading efficiency, attention, behavior and brain physiology by the end of Phase 1 of the Tomatis Method. This study documented the effects of the first phase of the Tomatis Method on children with ADD ages 7-13. Of the 25 participants, 15 received solely the Tomatis treatment while 10 served as controls and were stabilized on ADD medication three months prior to and throughout the study. Therefore, this research study compared Tomatis versus non-Tomatis intervention, not ADD medication treatment with Tomatis intervention. The Tomatis group received 15 consecutive 2 hour sessions; participants received no additional vestibular or visual-motor exercises throughout the research. Results revealed statistically significant improvements for the Tomatis when compared to the non-Tomatis group: the experimental group showed significant improvement in processing speed, phonological awareness, phonemic decoding efficiency when reading, behavior, and auditory attention. A statistically significant increase in slow brain activity at central and parietal midline recording sites in the Tomatis group was observed when comparing pre- and posttreatment theta/beta ratios within each group. Taken in isolation, these are paradoxical findings as they do not concur with the gains documented. The peak alpha frequency values and the z-scored theta/beta ratios of the pre- and post- qEEGs for each participant in the Tomatis group were further explored. The paradoxical increase in theta/betha ratios obtained from individual raw values were not observed to the same extent when using z-scores. The z-scores suggested that the theta/beta ratio, although higher for the Tomatis group after training, remains within the average range for all participants. The individual analysis showed that the changes observed still fell within normal values, which may se (open full item for complete abstract)