Tokens for stuttering

Four young stutterers were observed during 10 weekly sessions. Each session was divided into pretreatment, treatment, and posttreatment segments. Redeemable tokens were administered contingent upon stuttering behaviors in the treatment segment of the Experimental condition. In a Parallel Control condition, no tokens were administered during the entire session. The differences between the pretreatment and treatment segments were compared for the two conditions. Three subjects had dramatically fewer stuttering behaviors when tokens were being administered, while the fourth had more stuttering under the same condition. The subject whose stuttering increased had a history of therapy in which voluntary, “faked” stuttering had been called for, and the behaviors that increased were judged to be of this type. The decreases were interpreted as suggesting that the contingent tokens acted to countercondition the aversiveness of the stuttering experience, which reduced the anticipation of stuttering and hence the stuttering itself. The increase was felt to be simple reinforcement. The counterconditioning interpretation was borne out in two clinical applications in which money was presented contingent on stuttering behaviors judged to be aversive to the stutterer, and in which dramatically sudden, but long-lasting, improvement was seen.     

Effect of audience reaction upon fluency rates of six stutterers

Each of six male stutterers spoke to a 14 member audience for 40 min. This speaking time was divided into eight 5-min periods during which several consequence conditions were in operation. Those consequence conditions consisted of various combinations of “good” and “stop” statements delivered by the audience following fluent and disfluent utterances, respectively. In one condition the speaker applied the consequences. It was found that while various combinations of consequences do not alter the total number of words spoken per minute, they affect the number of occasions of disfluences occuring per minute. It could not be determined which condition resulted in optimum rate changes. Suggestions are presented for maintaining fluent speech.     

Electromyographic indications of laryngeal-area activity during stuttering expectancy

Using surface electrodes, mean microvolt values of laryngeal-area muscle activity were determined for 13 male and 6 female stutterers during 10-sec periods in which single words were silently read and stuttering expectancy was indicated. No significant differences in levels of laryngeal-area muscle activity were found between periods of fluency expectancy and stuttering expectancy preceding both fluent and stuttered speech. The results were interpreted as being nonsupportive of the hypothesis that a breakdown in stutterers' laryngeal-area muscle activity occurs during moments of stuttering expectancy. In addition, the results suggest that the most common rationale for the utilization of laryngeal biofeedback procedures to enhance fluency should be questioned.     

The Selection of Trainees,Trainers, Facilities,and Meeting Times for In-Service Training for Teachers

If in-service training is to improve instruction, then careful planning must be done. The approach taken in assigning responsibility for the training, selection of trainees and trainers, provision of adequate facilities, and establishment of meeting times can have a tremendous influence on the success of the training.     

Comment on internal feedback as a theory of judgment: a reply to Levin

Levin's suggestion that internal feedback strategies be employed in judgmental and learning tasks is discussed. The predictions of an internal feedback notion are seen as inconsistent with Veit's ratio and difference task data. Scale-free frameworks and scale-convergence criteria used in previous research are described as useful techniques for separating integration from judgmental processes in information-integration as well as learning-task situations.     

The Rescorla-Wagner model: losses in associative strength in compound conditioned stimuli

This series of experiments demonstrated that compound conditioned stimuli (CSs) highly conditioned in isolation lose conditioned response strength when compound-CS-unconditioned stimulus (US) pairings are given. This loss in conditioned responding was a positive function of the number of compound-CS-US pairings and was greater for the more salient stimulus. Finally, if a previously neutral stimulus was compounded with two previously conditioned cues, the neutral stimulus could acquire conditioned inhibitory properties with only compound-CS-US pairings. These results provide support for some aspects of the Rescorla-Wagner model.     

Prediction as a means of inducing tolerance

Female subjects were exposed individually to the attitude item responses of a similar or dissimilar stranger. They were asked either to copy down the stranger's attitudes or to predict (with accurate feedback) how the stranger answered each item. Predict subjects were found to be more tolerant of the dissimilar stranger than were Copy subjects, while both groups were equally attracted to the similar stranger. It was suggested that training people to anticipate disagreements may be a useful way of fostering tolerance.