The effects of pacing and masking on stutterers' and nonstutterers' speech initiation times

The present study was undertaken to determine whether pacing and masking would facilitate improved speech initiation times (SITs) both for stutterers and for nonstutterers. All subjects were tested in control, pacing, and masking conditions. The results showed that both stutterers and nonstutterers (1) improved their SITs during the pacing condition as compared with the control condition (p = 0.01), (2) had slower SITs in the masking condition as compared with the control condition (p = 0.05), and (3) had faster SITs during the pacing as compared with the masking condition (p = 0.01). The SIT between-group findings demonstrated that stutterers were slower than nonstutterers across all SIT conditions (p = 0.08). The discussion of these results centers on the facilatory nature of novel stimulation in modifying speech-system functioning.     

Disfluency characteristics of 2-, 4-, and 6- yr-old males

Fluency characteristics of 36 nonstuttering males aged 2, 4, and 6 yr are presented in terms of patterns of disfluency and relationships among disfluency variables. The most frequently occuring disfluency types at each age level were revision-incomplete phrase and interjections; the least noted type was part-word repetitions for 2- and 4-yr olds and disrhythmic phonations for 6-yr-olds. Patterns of disfluency appear to be similar at all age levels studied, except that the 2-yr-old pattern showed greater magnitudes in various disfluency types. A range exists in the relationships among individual disfluency types, from moderately strong relationships between, for example, revision-incomplete phrase and interjections to lack of linear relationships between, for example, interjections and phrase repetitions. A linguistic factor may be strong within certain disfluency types. e.g., revision-incomplete phrase, interjections, and word repetitions, whereas a motor factor may be operative in others, e.g., part-word repetitions and disrhythmic phonations.     

Extraversion and the effects of frequency and intensity on the auditory brainstem evoked response

Extraversion was positively correlated with the latency of wave I of the auditory brainstem evoked response (BER) at 75, 80 and 85 dB of intensity. Extraverts also tended to display longer latency for wave V than introverts to high frequency, 80-dB tone bursts and to click stimuli at intensity levels which ranged from 55 to 85 dB (SPL). These results are consistent with reports of greater auditory sensitivity (d') and enhanced amplitude of the late (N₁–P₂) cortical evoked response for introverts. The absence of differences in interpeak latency, or central transmission time. center the effects on wave I which is thought to be generated by the cochlear nerve. The present findings may require the elaboration of the neurophysiological bases of extraversion, which presently focuses on differences in cortico-reticular arousal systems, to accomodate individual differences in axonal or synaptic transmission.     

Images of engineering and liberal arts majors

In an attempt to gain insight into social-psychological barriers that inhibit women from entering engineering, 110 male and 84 female undergraduate students completed a variant of the Semantic Differential questionnaire. Subjects evaluated either male or female liberal arts and engineering majors. While female engineering majors were judged similar to male engineers on work-related traits, they were evaluated as less attractive than their female liberal arts counterparts. In particular, the data revealed reciprocal negative social images held by male engineering students for female engineers and by female engineering students for male engineers.     

Vocal and nonvocal discriminative performance in monkeys

Discriminative performance of a lever press and a vocal call was compared in five macaques. The animals exhibited similar scores for Response Rate, Efficiency, and Error Index. Total vocal responses were slightly higher than total lever responses. Latency for vocal responses was significantly greater than lever press. Similar scores in measures of performance of the two behaviors indicate that discriminative vocalization is not exceedingly difficult. Failure by others to achieve discriminative vocalization in studies employing weak positive-reinforcement contingencies suggest that certain experimental paradigms are unsatisfactory for vocal conditioning.     

Rate reduction strategies used by normally fluent and stuttering children and adults

Speech rate can be reduced by prolonging the duration of phonetic units, by pausing between words, or through a combination of these approaches. Child and adult normally fluent speakers and stutterers were tested in basal and modified speaking rate conditions. Subjects' utterances in both conditions were converted to spectrographic displays so that measures of phonetic and pause durations could be made. Comparisons of these measures across conditions revealed that all four groups of subjects spontaneously extended pause and phonetic durations, the former more than the latter, when instructed to voluntarily reduce speech rate.     

Issues to consider in the differential diagnosis of normal childhood nonfluencies and stuttering

Historically more attention has been focused on the adult stutterer than on the young stutterer. This article discusses three key issues in the differential diagnosis of normal childhood nonfluencies and childhood stuttering. The three issues are (1) whether early childhood disfluencies are heterogeneous or homogeneous phenomena, (2) whether the relationship between normal childhood nonfluencies and early stuttering is continuous or dichotomous, and (3) whether normal nonfluencies and stuttering differ quantitatively or qualitatively. Theoretical research as well as clinical implications of these issues are discussed.     

Speech timing skills of normally fluent and stuttering children and adults

This study was designed to explore the speech timing skills of normally fluent and stuttering children and adults producing two sentences, ten consecutive times at basal and modified speaking rates. Spectrographic displays of subjects' utterances in both conditions were made in order to obtain consonant, vowel, pause, and utterance duration measures. Results showed that (1) the two groups of children produced speech durational values similar to those of the two adult groups and (3) there were no consistent between- and within-group differences in the basal and modified rate conditions. Findings are discussed in terms of methodological and sampling differences that exist between the present study and past research on stutterers' speech production abilities.