The effect of fast speech rate on stuttering frequency during delayed auditory feedback

Delayed auditory feedback (DAF) has been documented to improve fluency in those who stutter. The increased fluency has been attributed to the slowed speech rate induced by DAF, but recent experiments have suggested that increasing the speech rate may also decrease stuttering under DAF. This investigation described the effect of combining a fast speech rate and DAF on the fluency of four people who stutter. Fluency of the two mildly dysfluent subjects was the same for both no DAF and DAF conditions at normal and at fast oral reading rates. In contrast, the two severely dysfluent subjects improved in fluency from the no DAF to the DAF conditions. They were found to be dysfluent at both normal and fast oral reading rates without DAF. The results of the study point to the need for further research on the relationship between speech rate and stuttering frequency under conditions of DAF and no DAF. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: Readers will learn about and be able to describe how the frequency of stuttering is affected by: (1) speech rates; (2) DAF; and (3) how stuttering severity influences such effects.     

Typical intellectual engagement and cognition in the ninth decade of life: The Lothian Birth Cohort 1921

Investment traits-the tendency to seek out and engage in cognitive activity-might affect intellectual growth across the life span, specifically the development from fluid to crystallized intelligence. Here we explore how childhood IQ at age 11 years, IQ at age 79, and the investment trait Typical Intellectual Engagement (TIE) at age 81 affect the mean level and change in verbal fluency scores, used as an indicator of crystallized intelligence, across the ages 79, 83, and 87 in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921 (maximum N = 569; Deary, Whiteman, Starr, Whalley, & Fox, 2004). A first latent growth model showed significant variance in the mean level of verbal fluency and significant decline in verbal fluency from age 79 to age 87. The rate of change was invariant across study participants in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921. A second model found that IQ at age 11 significantly predicted IQ at age 79 (β = .66; p < .001), which in turn predicted verbal fluency and TIE in the ninth decade of life with standardized path parameters of .46 and .15 (p < .001), respectively. TIE had a significant association with verbal fluency (β = .14, p = .002); together, IQ at age 11 and 79 and TIE accounted for 25.5% of the variance in verbal fluency. A final model identified the TIE subfactor of intellectual curiosity as a significant mediator of the effect of IQ on verbal fluency; the TIE subfactors abstract thinking, reading, and problem solving showed no significant associations. In summary, TIE-in particular, intellectual curiosity-significantly mediated the effects of IQ on crystallized intelligence in old age. Because there was no significant between-subjects variance in verbal fluency trajectories in the current study, neither TIE nor IQ were associated with individual differences in cognitive decline. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Differential impacts of age of acquisition on letter and semantic fluency in Alzheimer's disease patients and healthy older adults

The degree to which the typical age of acquisition (AoA) of words and word frequency have separable influences on verbal production tasks has been strongly debated. To examine the overlap between these factors in verbal fluency tasks, the performance of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients (N?=?34) and normal elderly controls (N?=?36) was compared on semantic (e.g., vegetables) and letter (e.g., words that begin with F) fluency tasks. These comparisons revealed that words generated for the semantic fluency task had an earlier AoA while words generated for the letter fluency task had a higher word frequency. Differences in AoA between AD patients and controls were larger for semantic than letter fluency. These results suggest that AoA has an effect on verbal production that is independent of word frequency and that AoA has a semantic locus.     

Creativity and inductive reasoning: The relationship between divergent thinking and performance on wason's 2-4-6 task

This study was an investigation of the relationship between potential creativity—as measured by fluency scores on the Alternate Uses Test—and performance on Wason's 2-4-6 task. As hypothesized, participants who were successful in discovering the rule had significantly higher fluency scores. Successful participants also generated higher frequencies of confirmatory and disconfirmatory hypotheses, but a multiple regression analysis using the stepwise method revealed that the frequency of generating disconfirmatory hypotheses and fluency scores were the only two significant factors in task outcome. The results also supported earlier studies where disconfirmation was shown to play a more important role in the later stages of hypothesis testing. This was especially true of successful participants, who employed a higher frequency of disconfirmatory hypotheses after receiving feedback on the first announcement. These results imply that successful participants benefited from the provision of feedback on the first announcement by switching to a more successful strategy in the hypothesis-testing sequence.     

Strength of German accent under altered auditory feedback.

Borden's (1979, 1980) hypothesis that speakers with vulnerable speech systems rely more heavily on feedback monitoring than do speakers with less vulnerable systems was investigated. The second language (L2) of a speaker is vulnerable, in comparison with the native language, so alteration to feedback should have a detrimental effect on it, according to this hypothesis. Here, we specifically examined whether altered auditory feedback has an effect on accent strength when speakers speak L2. There were three stages in the experiment. First, 6 German speakers who were fluent in English (their L2) were recorded under six conditions--normal listening, amplified voice level, voice shifted in frequency, delayed auditory feedback, and slowed and accelerated speech rate conditions. Second, judges were trained to rate accent strength. Training was assessed by whether it was successful in separating German speakers speaking English from native English speakers, also speaking English. In the final stage, the judges ranked recordings of each speaker from the first stage as to increasing strength of German accent. The results show that accents were more pronounced under frequency-shifted and delayed auditory feedback conditions than under normal or amplified feedback conditions. Control tests were done to ensure that listeners were judging accent, rather than fluency changes caused by altered auditory feedback. The findings are discussed in terms of Borden's hypothesis and other accounts about why altered auditory feedback disrupts speech control.     

The Effects of Alternate Forms of Performance Feedback on Elementary-Aged Students’ Oral Reading Fluency

Within the context of a brief experimental design, the current study examined the effects of providing two different types of performance feedback, performance feedback on words read correctly (PFWC) and performance feedback on words read incorrectly (PFWI), on the oral reading fluency of six elementary-aged students. For all of the participants, PFWI resulted in higher levels of oral reading fluency than PFWC. In addition, for a majority of the participants, PFWC resulted in lower levels of oral reading errors than PFWI. These results suggest that providing students with performance feedback on the number or words read correctly may enhance the reading fluency of students experiencing reading difficulties. The implications of these results for intervention selection are discussed.     

Strength of German accent under altered auditory feedback

Borden’s (1979, 1980) hypothesis that speakers with vulnerable speech systems rely more heavily on feedback monitoring than do speakers with less vulnerable systems was investigated. The second language (L2) of a speaker is vulnerable, in comparison with the native language, so alteration to feedback should have a detrimental effect on it, according to this hypothesis. Here, we specifically examined whether altered auditory feedback has an effect on accent strength when speakers speak L2. There were three stages in the experiment. First, 6 German speakers who were fluent in English (their L2) were recorded under six conditions—normal listening, amplified voice level, voice shifted in frequency, delayed auditory feedback, and slowed and accelerated speech rate conditions. Second, judges were trained to rate accent strength. Training was assessed by whether it was successful in separating German speakers speaking English from native English speakers, also speaking English. In the final stage, the judges ranked recordings of each speaker from the first stage as to increasing strength of German accent. The results show that accents were more pronounced under frequency-shifted and delayed auditory feedback conditions than under normal or amplified feedback conditions. Control tests were done to ensure that listeners were judging accent, rather than fluency changes caused by altered auditory feedback. The findings are discussed in terms of Borden’s hypothesis and other accounts about why altered auditory feedback disrupts speech control.     

Interacting effects of age and time of day on verbal fluency performance and intraindividual variability

We explored the effects of age and time of day (TOD) on verbal fluency ability with respect to performance level and intraindividual variability (IIV). Verbal fluency, which involves complex cognitive operations, was examined in 20 older (mean age = 72.8 years) and 20 younger (mean age = 24.2 years) adults with test start time alternating between morning and evening across four days. Older adults generated more words in the morning and younger adults more in the evening, corresponding with self-report peak TOD. Age by TOD interactions were also observed across fluency tasks on the number of switches among subcategory exemplars during word generation and on the IIV observed in switching behavior. Older adults exhibited greater variability in switching in the evening than in the morning, whereas younger adults showed the opposite pattern. These findings demonstrate that processes involving energization (initiating and sustaining) and attentional control may be particularly sensitive to age differences in TOD influences on cognition.     

Differential impacts of age of acquisition on letter and semantic fluency in Alzheimer's disease patients and healthy older adults

The degree to which the typical age of acquisition (AoA) of words and word frequency have separable influences on verbal production tasks has been strongly debated. To examine the overlap between these factors in verbal fluency tasks, the performance of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients (N = 34) and normal elderly controls (N = 36) was compared on semantic (e.g., vegetables) and letter (e.g., words that begin with F) fluency tasks. These comparisons revealed that words generated for the semantic fluency task had an earlier AoA while words generated for the letter fluency task had a higher word frequency. Differences in AoA between AD patients and controls were larger for semantic than letter fluency. These results suggest that AoA has an effect on verbal production that is independent of word frequency and that AoA has a semantic locus.     

Effects of a Multicomponent Intervention to Improve Reading Fluency in Adult Students

The purpose of the present study was to use a delayed multiple probe design to evaluate the effects of a multicomponent intervention on reading fluency in three adult Norwegian university students. Prior to the study, all the participants had below average reading speed and one had the diagnosis dyslexia. The present procedure consisted of reading support, fluency aim, repeated reading, performance feedback, and error correction. Training involved daily sessions where a passage was read four times in a session or until a predetermined fluency aim was reached. Each participant read 10 passages during the intervention. Maintenance, generalization, and reading comprehension were tested to evaluate characteristics of fluent performance. The main findings indicate that reading fluency of all the participants improved. Results are discussed with regard to (i) conducting a multicomponent intervention; (ii) maintenance of the achieved improvements; (iii) possible effects on reading comprehension; and (iv) social validity of the study. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Covariates of Production and Perseveration on Tests of Phonemic,Semantic and Alternating Fluency in Normal Aging

ABSTRACT

Standard measures of phonemic and semantic fluency, as well as fluency measures that impose additional demands upon set-switching were administered to younger and older adults. No age effect was found for total output on semantic fluency, while older participants generated significantly more responses relative to their younger counterparts on the phonemic measure. However, older adults made significantly more perseverative errors on both these measures. For tests of alternating fluency, only where participants were required to switch between two semantic dimensions, was an age deficit observed. Although the correlation between phonemic repetitions and age remained significant when performance on the Digit Symbol Test or a measure of fluid intelligence was partialled out, age effects for semantic repetitions and semantic alternating fluency were substantially reduced. The age benefit for number of correct responses upon phonemic fluency was significantly attenuated when a measure of crystallized intelligence was entered as a control variable. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.     

Acquired stuttering following right frontal and bilateral pontine lesion: a case study

We report neurological information and experimental data regarding acquired neurogenic stuttering in a 57-year-old male following ischemic lesion to the orbital surface of the right frontal lobe and the pons. The experimental data consist of stuttering frequency measures under various conditions that are well known to enhance fluency in most individuals with developmental stuttering. Specifically, we report data for adaptation, unison reading, delayed auditory feedback (DAF), and frequency altered feedback (FAF). This work is the first published report of such a comprehensive examination of a variety of fluency-enhancing conditions in acquired stuttering. The patient read six 200-word texts under different conditions: Six solo readings (Text 1), five unison readings followed by five solo readings (Text 2), five readings with non-altered auditory feedback (Text 3), five readings with 50 ms delayed auditory feedback (Text 4), five readings with increased FAF (Text 5), and five readings with decreased FAF (Text 6). Results indicate that, unlike the typical situation for developmental stuttering, this individual with acquired neurogenic stuttering did not show increased fluency during an adaptation paradigm or under unison, DAF, and FAF conditions. We discuss possible implications of these findings and emphasize the need for further research on acquired neurogenic stuttering.     

Age-related differences in word-retrieval but not in meaning generation

ABSTRACT

This study examines age-associated changes in retrieval on a picture-naming task, phonemic and semantic fluency tasks, and the Homophone Meaning Generation Test (HMGT). The sample included 152 Hebrew-speaking adults, half young (mean age 22.75) and half old (mean age 76.05). Groups differed on the picture-naming task and on both verbal fluency tasks, but not on the HMGT. Age explained a greater share of the variance than did education level on these three tests, whereas the opposite pattern of results was seen on the HMGT. We suggest that age-related word finding difficulties are attenuated when performance allows for semantic rather than phonological access.     

Unique designs,errors and strategies in the Five-Point Test: The contribution of age,phonemic fluency and visuospatial abilities in Italian children aged 6–11 years

Performances on the Five-Point Test of 161 Italian children aged 6 to 11 years were investigated, along with phonemic fluency, visual-motor integration, visual perception, motor coordination, visuospatial memory, and fluid intelligence. Five-Point Test accuracy was significantly related to phonemic fluency and visual-motor integration, while phonemic fluency was linked to motor coordination. The two fluency measures increased linearly with age, but the developmental progression of Five-Point Test accuracy was less influenced by age. Different age effects were also found on the relationship between fluid intelligence and the two fluency measures. The inspection of qualitative aspects of Five-Point Test performance (errors and strategies) suggested that strategy usage enhanced both productivity and accuracy in children; age-related changes were observed in the relationship between the number of errors and the total number of designs produced.     

Language after temporal or frontal lobe surgery in children with epilepsy

The purpose of this study was to compare language function in children undergoing temporal or frontal lobe surgery to control intractable epilepsy. Language measures (expressive vocabulary, receptive vocabulary, comprehension, reading, spelling, phonemic fluency, and category fluency) were administered to 9 children with frontal lobe epilepsy (mean age: 10.8 +/- 2.7 years) and 10 children with temporal lobe epilepsy (11.5 +/- 2.6 years). The results indicate that no differences exist, in language function, before and after surgery between children with frontal and temporal lobe epilepsy (all p > or = .05). Children with left hemisphere lesions had significantly lower scores than those with right on category fluency and comprehension, but laterality effects were not seen on the other measures. In both groups, language function was not significantly affected by surgery.     

Word fluency performance and strategies in children with cochlear implants: age‐dependent effects?

Löfkvist, U., Almkvist, O., Lyxell, B. & Tallberg, I.‐M. (2012). Word fluency performance and strategies in children with cochlear implants: age‐dependent effects? Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 53, 467–474. Word fluency was examined in 73 Swedish children aged 6–9 years divided into two age groups, 6–7 and 8–9 years; 34 deaf children with cochlear implants (CI) (15 girls/19 boys) and 39 age‐matched children with normal hearing (NH) (20 girls/19 boys). One purpose was to compare the ability to retrieve words in two different word fluency tasks; one phonemically based (FAS letter fluency) and one semantically based (animal fluency). A second purpose was to examine retrieval strategies in the two tasks by conducting an analysis of clustering and switching of word sequences. In general we found that age was an important factor for word fluency ability, in both the CI and the NH groups. It was also demonstrated that children with CI aged 8–9 years retrieved significantly fewer words and used less efficient strategies in the retrieval process, especially on the phonemically based task compared to children with NH of the same ages, whereas children 6–7 years performed similarly in both groups regarding number of retrieved words and use of strategies. The results are discussed with respect to factors such as age differences in performance for children with CI, especially for the phonemically based task.     

Recorded Readings: A Taped Parent-Tutoring Intervention

Parent tutoring has been successfully used to increase children’s oral reading fluency. However, commonly used procedures pose a challenge for parents who are not proficient in reading or who speak English as a second language. A taped reading program that included listening passage preview, repeated reading, and performance feedback was developed for parental implementation during home tutoring sessions. A multiple baseline design across participants was used to evaluate the effects of parent tutoring on the oral reading fluency of two elementary-aged English language learners. Data were collected on oral reading fluency using high- and low-word overlap passages. Results revealed an immediate increase in generalized oral reading fluency for one child upon intervention implementation and continued growth for both children 2 months following termination. Findings suggest recorded readings was an effective and acceptable parent tutoring intervention for increasing reading performance for language minority families.     

Delayed Auditory Feedback in Polyglot Simultaneous Interpreters

Twelve polyglot students of simultaneous interpretation and 12 controls (students of the faculty of Medicine) were submitted to a task of verbal fluency under amplified normal auditory feedback (NAF) and under three delayed auditory feedback (DAF) conditions with three different delay intervals (150, 200, and 250 msec). The control group showed a significant reduction in verbal fluency and a significant increase in the number of mistakes in all three DAF conditions. The interpreters′ group, however, did not show any significant speech disruption neither in the subjects′ mother tongue (L1) nor in their second language (L2) across ah DAF conditions. Interpreters′ general high verbal fluency along with their ability to pay less attention to their own verbal output make them more resistant to the interfering effects of DAF on speech.     

Environmental contributions to preschoolers' semantic fluency

Semantic fluency was examined in Hebrew‐speaking 5‐year‐old monozygotic and dizygotic twins (N = 396, 198 pairs), 22% of them with mother‐reported speech‐related problems. There were positive correlations of similar magnitudes among monozygotic, same‐sex dizygotic, and opposite‐sex dizygotic twins. Analyses showed no genetic effects, alongside significant shared (39%) and non‐shared environmental (61%) effects on fluency scores. The presence of speech‐related problems in one twin affected the fluency score of the co‐twin. A multivariate regression analysis revealed that parental education and length of stay at daycare significantly predicted fluency scores. We suggest that semantic fluency performance is highly affected by environmental factors at age 5 although genetic effects might emerge later on.     

The differential effect of three auditory stimuli on the frequency of stuttering behaviors

In view of the frequent clinical use of external auditory stimuli in fluency building programs, the purpose of the present experiment was to compare the effects of rhythmic pacing, delayed auditory feedback, and high intensity masking noise on the frequency of stuttering by dysfluency type. Twelve normal hearing young adult stutterers completed an oral reading (approximately 250 syllables) and conversational speech task (3 min) while listening to the three auditory stimuli and during a control condition presented in random order. The results demonstrated that during oral reading all three auditory stimuli were associated with significant reductions in stuttering frequency. However, during conversational speech, only the metronome produced a significant reduction in total stuttering frequency. Individual dysfluency types were not differentially affected by the three auditory stimuli.