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.     

Portable delayed auditory feedback device: A preliminary report

This writing is a preliminary report describing a prototype of a portable delayed auditory feedback device called the DYSTECH 1000. This writing and our observations are presented to stimulate review and feedback by our colleagues of the DYSTECH 1000 as a clinical and generalization tool.     

Stuttering and fluency: Exclusive events or points on a continuum?

In recent years, several studies have been conducted in which the fluency of stutterers was compared with that of normal speakers. These investigations have been of two basic types, some involving objective measures of physiologic, aerodynamic, or acoustic features of the subjects' fluent speech signal, and others involving experiments performed in which listeners attempted to distinguish the fluency produced by stutterers from that generated by normal speakers. The body of literature pertaining to each of these two types of investigations is reviewed and interpreted. The interpretations offered are then developed in an effort to shed further light on both fluency and stuttering. Implications for further research, as well as for the evaluation, treatment, and post-therapy assessment of stutterers are drawn.     

A perceptual comparison: All-voiced versus typical reading passage read by children

The present investigation tested the modified vocalization hypothesis (Hutchinson and Brown, Journal of Fluency Disorders, 1978, 3, 149) in young stuttering subjects. In this study, stuttering children ages 7–13 yr were instructed to read two experimentally constructed passages. One passage contained both voiced and voiceless phonemes; the second passage was constructed using only voiced phonemes. Results indicated there was neither a quantitative nor a qualitative difference in the stuttering blocks during the reading of either experimental passage. These results would appear not to be supportive of the modified vocalization hypothesis in children; however, as has been indicative of similar studies, 8 of 22 subjects did demonstrate more dysfluencies during the reading of the passage that contained both voiced and voiceless phonemes.     

Stammering: A stress index in Caribbean classrooms

Speech communities in the British West Indies typically include two major dialect or code distinctions: (1) a standard variety of British West Indian English, and (2) a local variety of English-based dialect. Each dialect or code is intimately linked with political, social, racial, and economic class distinctions. In bicultural settings, characterized by diglossia, there are special situations in which loyalty to one's mother tongue conflicts with social, economic, and political expediency. “No win” speech events or contests, the product of conflicting sociocultural values, become salient features of this particular kind of bicultural setting. A comparatively high incidence of teacher-reported stammering found in two British West Indian speech communities supports this notion and suggests that stress, originating at a sociocultural level, is symbolically expressed through attitudes toward and usages of language. These results further suggest that the classroom, now a “battleground”, will suffer as an effective teaching/learning environment. This paper presents arguments for the teaching of Standard English as a second language with an emphasis on giving regional dialects appropriate and long overdue recognition.