Abstract
The label 'cleft palate,' any facial disfigurement associated with cleft lip and/or palate and the description 'hypernasal' were studied relative to their effects on ratings of speech. Sixty—four listeners rated hyperna-sality and articulation characteristics of ten males with cleft lip and/or palate. Results indicated that the speech ratings assigned to this group of individuals did not change significantly with this additional information. Severity of speech defectiveness, mode of stimulus presentation and listener reliability were identified as important variables to be considered in the interpretation of these data. The influence of an examiner on the validity of behavioral evaluations has been defined as examiner effect (Rosenthal, 1966). One type of effect identified by Rosenthal is ex— aminer expectancy. This occurs when an ex-aminer's assessment of behavior is detectably biased in the direction of his expectancies. The effect of examiner expectancy on the validity of behavioral evaluations has been well documented (Rosenthal, 1966; Schwartz and Flanigan, 1971; Clifford, 1973). Facial disfigurement, diagnostic labels and case his— tory information have been identified as fac— tors which may bias an examiner's assessment of behavior (Wright, 1960; Monohan, 1971; Hersh, 1971; Clifford, 1973; Machowsky, 1973). Although these factors are usually present during evaluations of speech, only a few investigators, such as Beasley and Harlton, 1973; Meitus et al., 1973; and Podol and Salvia, 1976, have studied their effect on the validity of speech evaluations. Furthermore, the results of these studies are in conflict. Beasley and Harlton (1973) and Meitus et a1. (1973) concluded that speech evaluations are not influenced by biasing information. On the other hand, Podol and Salvia (1976) reported
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