Progressive changes in articulatory patterns in verbal apraxia: A longitudinal case study

This research reports findings in a 10-year study of an apraxic adult, who was one of five subjects described by Shankweiler and Harris, (Cortex, ,2 277–292, 1966). Confusion matrices and feature analysis were used to compare 1965 and 1975 performances. Results indicate that over the 10-year period, errors of place, manner, and omission were markedly reduced. Voicing errors, however, while reduced in total number, still constituted a significant percentage of the patient's residual errors. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Effects of neutral and positive stimuli on stuttering: “Calling attention to stuttering” revisited

This study investigated the effects of presumably positive and neutral response-contingent stimuli on the occurence of stuttering. Eight adult stutterers spoke spontaneously during a 60-min experimental session, which was divided into three 20-min periods. During Condition I no stimuli were delivered. During Condition II a digital counter and a pair of yellow lights were activated each time the subject stuttered. During Condition III these same response-contingent stimuli were delivered, but with the additional factor that the subject would earn 5¢ each time the counter moved forward and the lights were illuminated. Conditions II and III were counterbalanced across subjects. The experimenter was unaware of which of the two contingencies were operative during Conditions II and III. Results showed no significant changes in occurence of stuttering due to either response-contingent stimulus. A discussion of theoretical and experimental implications is given.     

An individualistic approach to the evaluation and remediation of stuttering

A decision model is presented to facilitate the evaluation of stuttering behavior. This model calls for the evaluation to be conducted along a continuum with specified initiation and termination points. Following the evaluation, the information is formulated into an organized remediation procedure leading to fluent productions in the individual. This approach allows evaluation and remediation to be individualized to meet the needs and capabilities of each stutterer while allowing the professional the flexibility to choose remediation materials on the basis of objective information. Two case studies are presented to illustrate the use of the approach.     

Individual and organizational correlates of promotion refusal

Individual and organizational correlates of employees who refuse seniority-based promotions in union lines of progression are examined. The sample consisted of 313 production employees of a large manufacturing complex. Correlational and discriminant analyses revealed that age, being female, and number of employees in the department related positively to promotion refusal, while years of education and pay showed a negative relationship. Of these variables, years of education was the strongest predictor. Potential explanations for the results relate to stress avoidance, perceived inabilities, and equity theory. Areas for future research are suggested.     

Selective involvement of the auditory-verbal modality in an acquired communication disorder: Benefit from sign language therapy

A 39-year-old female suffered bitemporal infarctions and exhibited an unusual behavioral syndrome of muteness and impaired auditory comprehension, with milder aphasic deficits in reading and writing. The anatomic basis of this modality-selective communication disorder appeared to involve both peripheral perceptual and motor as well as “central” language mechanisms. The patient's ability to communicate was greatly aided by instruction in Amerind and Ameslan Sign Language, in which she learned more than 100 signs. Patients whose acquired language deficits spare modalities of input or output may be ideal candidates for sign language therapy.     

The lexicon and sentence generation in aphasia

The experiment tested a prediction, derived from the lexicalist model of grammar (J. Bresnan 1978, in M. Halle, J. Bresnan, & G. A. Miller (Eds.), Linguistic theory and psychological reality, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, pp. 1–59), that difficulty in accessing a verb from the lexicon should impair the generation of the associated to-complement clause while not significantly affecting the generation of word-independent constructions such as questions. Four aphasic subjects with word-finding difficulties but relatively high BDAE ratings on grammatical ability were examined. A modified story completion paradigm was used to elicit the favored constructions. Consistent with the hypothesis, all subjects showed greater difficulty in generating to-complements.     

Syntactic influences on stuttering in young child stutterers

This study examined the location and rate of stuttering in the spontaneous speech of nine young stutterers (4.0–6.6 yr) in relation to certain aspects of syntax. It was designed to answer the following questions: Is there more stuttering at clause onset (boundary) than at other points in the clause? Does the type of clause influence rate of stuttering? Is there more stuttering on complex than on simple sentences? The syntactic analysis defined 10 clause types (seven pertaining to complex sentences and three pertaining to simple sentences); clause boundaries (taking into account “filler” words occuring in such positions); and hierarchical constituent structure within sentences. Stuttering was found with significantly greater frequency at clause boundaries than at internal (nonboundary) positions of clauses. This was apparent for nine of the 10 clause types, the exception being complement clauses. The word “and” at the beginning of simple and complex sentences provoked a high rate of stuttering. The hierarchical structure within the clause did not influence the location of stuttering, and sentence complexity was not a factor in the rate of stuttering.     

Are there constraints on childhood disfluency?

Analysis of the spontaneous speech of eight stuttering and eight normally fluent children reveals that (a) the location of both stuttering and normal disfluent moments is constrained by sentential constituent structure, and (b) stuttering children experience fluency breakdown with a particular type of constituent (verb phrase) not usually disfluently produced by normals. A view of early stuttering as a sentence planning and integration disorder is present.