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.     

Academic decision making and prospect theory

Two studies are reported that investigate the applicability of prospect theory to college students' academic decision making. Exp. 1 failed to provide support for the risk-seeking portion of the fourfold pattern predicted by prospect theory but did find the greater weighting of losses over gains. Using a more sensitive dependent measure, in Exp. 2 the results of the first experiment were replicated in terms of the gain-loss effect and also found some support for the fourfold pattern in the interaction between probabilities and gain versus loss. The greatest risk-seeking was found in the high probability loss condition.     

The influence of context and UCS intensity on the UCS preexposure effect in a flavor aversion paradigm

Three studies were conducted to evaluate the influence of environmental context and UCS preexposure intensity on the acquisition of a flavor aversion. In the first study, rats were exposed to two UCS-alone presentations at one of three dose levels of LiCl. The rats were given the two UCS preexposures in one of two contexts (familiar or novel). Following the UCS-alone treatment, all of the subjects received two pairings of sucrose and LiCl (1.25 meq) in the familiar context. Animals receiving UCS preexposures in the same context as used during conditioning consumed significantly more sucrose than did saline control animals. In contrast, the influence of prior UCS preexposure was not evident when UCS preexposure was experienced in a context different from that experienced during conditioning. In Experiment 2, all animal received UCS preexposure and conditioning in the novel room. Animals received either two or four preexposures at 0, 1.25, or 3.75 meq dose of LiCl. Two UCS preexposures at 3.75 meq dose produced a stronger UCS preexposure effect than did the 1.25 meq dose. Animals in Experiment 3 received two exposures to either 0-, 1.25-, or 3.75-meq LiCl in one of two contexts, followed by conditioning with the 1.25-meq LiCl dose in the same context as preexposure. Greater UCS interference occurred in animals preexposed to LiCl in the novel rather than familiar environment, with no specific dose effects in either context. These observations are discussed in terms of context blocking and generalization decrement models of the UCS preexposure effect.     

Latent Inhibition of Contextual Stimuli Reduces the US Preexposure Effect in Rats

Two experiments are reported which utilized latent inhibition of contextual stimuli prior to administering unsignaled presentations of the Us in an attempt to further assess the role of contextual stimuli in the US preexposure effect. Specifically in Experiment 1, rats received either 0-, 5-, 10-, or 15-minute exposure to the context in which the unsignaled Uss were to occur (latent inhibition). Following preexposure to the US, animals were trained in a CER paradigm with a tone CS. Measures of suppression to the tone indicated that the greatest US preexposure effect occurred in the 0 group and that no US preexposure effect was evident in the 15 group. Experiment 2 includec two important control groups which were omitted in Experiment 1 (no US preexposures) and an additional dependent variable (time to initiate licking) to measure fear to contextual stimuli. These results are discussed in terms of the role context conditioning may play in US preexposure.

     

How school-aged students define stuttering and stammering

Fifty students from each of the grades 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 were asked to complete a questionnaire containing the following three questions: 1) What is stuttering? 2) What is stammering? 3) How did you know that? Analysis of their responses indicated students were more familiar with stuttering as opposed to the term stammering. From grade 6 onward, we can expect at least three-fourths of the students to define stuttering as a disruption of speech consisting chiefly of sound or syllable repetitions. Only about one-fourth of students in grade 6 and above defined stammering as a speech disruption. This disruption was characterized chiefly by repetitions, injections, and pauses. Most of the students were unable to specify how they learned the definitions. The few who did identified family and friends as their chief source of knowledge.