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PubMed1983

Initiation versus execution time during manual and oral counting by stutterers.

Severe stutterers were found to be significantly slower than control subjects in performing a speech counting task that was judged to be fluent and in silently counting on their fingers. For both counting tasks the time taken to execute the numerical series accounted for more of the difference between severe stutterers and controls than the time taken to prepare and initiate the task. Mild stutterers were not significantly slower than controls on either counting task.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

The effect of manipulating phonation duration on stuttering.

Two single-subject experiments with two adult stutterers were conducted to assess the effect of changing the frequency of phonation intervals that were shorter or greater than prescribed durations during spontaneous speech. Both subjects modified the frequency of prescribed phonation intervals and showed changes in the frequency of these intervals that were positively related to decreases and increases in stuttering frequency. A perceptual analysis of the subjects' speech quality during phonation control conditions showed that when stuttering frequency was reduced, listeners could detect changes in the speech quality of both subjects; however, only one subject's speech during these conditions was described as nonnormal sounding. The therapeutic and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Analysis of stutterers' voice onset times and fundamental frequency contours during fluency.

The purpose of this study was to examine stutterers' and nonstutterers' fluent voice onset time (VOT) and fundamental frequency (Fo) contour measures from target syllables located at the beginning of a carrier phrase. Ten adult male stutterers were matched within one year of age with 10 adult male nonstutterers. Oscillographic and spectrographic analyses of subjects' VOT and Fo at vowel onset, average vowel Fo, and speed and range of Fo change were obtained from fluent productions of 18 stop consonant-vowel syllables. Results showed that VOTs for voiced stops and the range of Fo change for voiceless stops were associated with significant between-group differences. All other dependent measures were not significantly different between the two groups. When compared with past research, these findings indicate that greater differences emerge between stutterers and nonstutterers when measures of fluency are taken at the beginning than in the middle of a carrier phrase. Implications for future research are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

Onset of voicing in stuttered and fluent utterances.

Electroglottographic (EGG) and acoustic waveforms of the first few glottal pulses of voicing were monitored and voice onset time (VOT) measured during an adaptation task performed by stutterers and controls. The fluent utterances of stutterers resembled those of control subjects. After dysfluencies, however, the EGG signal increased gradually, lending physiological support to the technique of "easy onset" of voicing. EGG waveforms also served to help differentiate mild from severe stutterers. Idiosyncratic ritualized laryngeal behavior, sometimes including physiological tremor, was evident in the EGG record.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Acoustic measures of stutterers' and nonstutterers' fluency in two speech contexts.

The purpose of this study was to compare stutterers' and nonstutterers' fluency during multiple productions of two dissimilar speech contexts. Twenty-two adult stutterers were matched within 1 year of age to 22 nonstutterers. Spectrographic analyses were performed on subjects' five consecutively fluent productions of a simple isolated phrase and a phrase extracted from an oral reading passage. Measures of fluent voice onset time (VOT), and vowel, consonant, and total phrase durations were calculated from the five repetitions of each phrase. From the isolated phrase, there were a total of five fluent durational measures (i.e., one VOT, two vowel, one consonant, & one phrase duration). For the phrase taken from the oral reading passage, six fluent measures were obtained (i.e., one VOT, three vowel, one consonant, & one phrase duration). Results demonstrated that only one of the five measurements taken during the isolated phrase condition was significantly different between the groups. Three of the six measures obtained from the phrase taken from the oral reading condition revealed significant between-group differences. No group differences were associated with the repetitions of either phrase for any of the dependent measures for both groups. These findings suggest that the length and complexity of the speech tasks used to obtain acoustic measures of stutterers' fluency play an important role in the discovery of differences between the fluency of the two groups.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Vocal reaction times of stuttering subjects to tachistoscopically presented concrete and abstract words: a closer look at cerebral dominance and language processing.

The present study was an attempt to investigate further the issues pertaining to cerebral organization for visual language processing in the stuttering population. Employing a lexical decision task, vocal reaction times were obtained for a group of 14 stutterers to unilateral, tachistoscopically presented concrete and abstract words. Results of an analysis of variance showed that a significant interaction occurred between visual fields and stimuli. Posthoc tests showed that the right hemisphere was superior for analyzing the concrete words while the left hemisphere was responsible for processing the abstract items. Compared to past data from normal subjects, these findings were interpreted as suggesting that some form of linguistic competition may exist between the two hemispheres, possibly reflecting a disturbance in functional localization in the stuttering population.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

An experimental increase in stuttering frequency.

The purpose of the present experiment was to investigate whether stuttering frequency could be increased from baseline by an experimental condition. Initially, 10 adult stutterers spoke spontaneously while alone. Next, they continued speaking, but with an adult, male conversationalist. Finally, the subjects again spoke while alone. Percent stuttering increased in the conversational situation compared with the baseline (alone) situation, and decreased in the final baseline (alone) situation compared with the conversational situation.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

The selection of "fluent" samples in research on stuttering: conceptual and methodological considerations.

The characteristics of stutterers' fluency has been the object of much research in recent years, but it is not always clear what the term "fluency" refers to in this research. This paper reviews the concept of fluency and considers the ways in which it has been employed in research on stuttering. The methods that have been used to identify fluent intervals in stutterers' speech are reviewed along with their reliability and validity. It is concluded that there is an urgent need to clarify the reference for fluency in such studies, and to develop procedures for measuring and quantifying fluency. Additional avenues for research are also discussed.

Humans↗
PubMed1990

Variations in self-paced behaviors in stutterers and nonstutterers.

Ten stuttering and 10 nonstuttering subjects performed self-paced rhythmic tasks with the finger and jaw and were asked to repeat "ah." The tasks were performed at three rates: "comfortable" rate; and "slightly higher" and "slightly lower" than comfortable, but still in the comfortable range. The stutterers performed each of the three tasks more slowly than the nonstutterers and were less variable than nonstutterers. The reduced rates and more constrained variability of the stutterers were interpreted as manifestations of less flexible systems, which may be more susceptible to breakdown.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Following up on treated stutterers: studies of perceptions of fluency and job status.

The present research aimed to investigate perceptions of fluency of persons treated with a fluency shaping technique called smooth speech. Four separate studies were conducted. The first showed that virtually all those treated were satisfied with their fluency following treatment. However, this satisfaction decreased to under half in the long term. The second study showed considerable opportunity in the long term for job promotion and upgrade in occupation for persons successfully completing a smooth-speech program. The third study compared employer perceptions of their employees' speech between a group who had received treatment for stuttering and a nontreatment control. The employers' perceptions of the treatment group were significantly enhanced, whereas no significant change occurred in employers' perceptions for the control group. The last study explored possible determinants of relapse in a population of treated stutterers. Results showed that most had experienced some degree of relapse, but had subsequently recovered. Few believed their relapse was associated with being embarrassed about using smooth speech. The majority believed their relapses were related to feeling pressured to speak faster. Investigating perceptions of fluency following treatment for stuttering seems an important goal for research in order to enhance treatment effectiveness. Directions for further research into this area are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Modifying electroglottograph-identified intervals of phonation: the effect on stuttering.

Single-subject experiments were conducted with an adolescent and an adult male who stutter to assess the effect on stuttering of changing the frequency of phonation intervals that were within prescribed duration ranges during spontaneous speech. Electroglottograph-identified intervals of phonation were measured using a computer-assisted biofeedback system. Both subjects demonstrated that their stuttering could be controlled by modifying the frequency of phonation intervals within short duration ranges. The experimental effects not only replicated earlier findings but were demonstrated to be independent of changes in speaking rate, or alterations to other intervals of phonation, and produced little disruption to speech naturalness. The theoretic implications of these findings are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Constancy of interstress intervals in the fluent speech of people who stutter during adaptation trials.

The constancy of interstress intervals (ISIs) was studied in the fluent speech of 2 people who stutter during five adaptation trials. Counter to prediction, ISI constancy did not improve as an accompaniment to the reduction of stuttering from Readings 1-5. Overall, the subjects' ISIs were substantially more variable in duration than those of 2 nonstutterers. This was accounted for by the subjects' unusually long ISIs in utterances that placed greater demands on speech motor control processes. Implications for impairment source factors in stuttering are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

Fundamental frequency, jitter, and shimmer in preschoolers who stutter.

This investigation examined acoustic correlates of phonatory control in the speech of 10 preschool-aged boys who were stutterers (mean age = 45 months) recorded relatively close to the time of stuttering onset and in the speech of 10 boys who were nonstutterers (mean age = 46 months). For each subject, acoustic measurements of fundamental frequency, jitter, and shimmer were extracted from the 100 msec midportion of 30 vowels selected from fluent utterances in spontaneous speech. Significant differences between the two groups for shimmer measures are among the few positive findings in recent publications concerning the fluent speech of children who stutter.

Child Language↗
PubMed1993

Time-interval measurement of stuttering: modifying interjudge agreement.

This paper reports the results of two experiments that investigated interval-by-interval inter- and intrajudge agreement for stuttered and nonstuttered speech intervals (4.0 sec). The first experiment demonstrated that interval-by-interval interjudge agreement could be significantly improved, and to satisfactory levels, by training judges to discriminate between experimenter-agreed intervals of stuttered and nonstuttered speech. The findings also showed that, independent of training, judges with relatively high intrajudge agreement also showed relatively higher interjudge agreement. The second experiment showed that interval-by-interval interjudge agreement was not significantly different if judges rated 4-sec speech intervals from different samples under three conditions: in random order, separated by 5-sec recording intervals; in correct order, also separated by 5-sec recording intervals; or after brief judgment signals that occurred every 4 sec during continuous samples. The implications of these findings for stuttering measurement are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Time-interval measurement of stuttering: systematic replication of Ingham, Cordes, and Gow (1993).

The study reported in this paper was designed to replicate and extend the results of an earlier study (Ingham, Cordes, & Gow, 1993) that investigated time-interval judgments of stuttering. Results confirmed earlier findings that interjudge agreement is higher for these interval-recording tasks than has been previously reported for event-based analyses of stuttering judgments or for time-interval analyses of event judgments. Results also confirmed an earlier finding that judges with intrajudge agreement levels of 90% or better show higher interjudge agreement than judges with lower intrajudge agreement scores. This study failed to find differences between audiovisual and audio-only judgment conditions; between relatively experienced and relatively inexperienced student judges; and, most importantly, between the judgments made, and the agreement levels achieved, by judges from two different clinical research settings. The implications of these findings for attempts to develop a reliable measurement method for stuttering are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Development of a two-stage procedure for the automatic recognition of dysfluencies in the speech of children who stutter: II. ANN recognition of repetitions and prolongations with supplied word segment markers.

This program of work is intended to develop automatic recognition procedures to locate and assess stuttered dysfluencies. This and the preceding article focus on developing and testing recognizers for repetitions and prolongations in stuttered speech. The automatic recognizers classify the speech in two stages: In the first the speech is segmented and in the second the segments are categorized. The units segmented are words. The current article describes results for an automatic recognizer intended to classify words as fluent or containing a repetition or prolongation in a text read by children who stutter that contained the three types of words alone. Word segmentations are supplied and the classifier is an artificial neural network (ANN). Classification performance was assessed on material that was not used for training. Correct performance occurred when the ANN placed a word into the same category as the human judge whose material was used to train the ANNs. The best ANN correctly classified 95% of fluent, and 78% of dysfluent words in the test material.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Effect of altered auditory feedback on people who stutter during scripted telephone conversations.

The effect of altered auditory feedback (AAF) conditions on stuttering during scripted telephone conversations was investigated. Nine adult participants made 15 scripted telephone calls to business in New York City. Alterations in the participants' auditory feedback signal were generated by a commercially available digital signal processor (Casa Futura Technologies Desktop Fluency System Model BTD-400) that shifted participants' speech one-half octave down in frequency, produced a 50-ms delay, or produced non-altered auditory feedback. The AAF effects produced by the digital signal processor were not perceived by the recipients of the telephone calls. The proportion of stuttering events per scripted telephone conversations were significantly reduced in the AAF conditions relative to the non-altered auditory feedback condition (p = .0004). Stuttering frequency was reduced by 55% and 60% for the FAF and DAF, respectively. These findings demonstrate the applicability of this technology to situations of daily living involving telephone use.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

A note on vowel centralization in stuttering and nonstuttering individuals.

Inferences were made regarding vocal tract vowel space during fluently produced utterances through examination of the first two formant frequencies. Fifteen adult males served as subjects, representing separate groups of untreated and treated individuals who stutter and nonstuttering controls. The steady-state portion of formant one (F1) and formant two (F2) was examined in the production of various CVC tokens containing the vowels /i/, /u/, and /a/. Vocal tract vowel space was estimated three ways. The first analysis scheme involved measurement of formant frequency spacing. The second measure involved calculating the area of the vowel space triangle. The third measure was based on calculating the average Euclidean distance from each subject's midpoint "centroid" vocal tract position to the corresponding /i/, /u/, and /a/ points on the vowel triangle. The formant frequency spacing measures proved to be most revealing of group differences, with the untreated stutterers showing significantly greater vowel centralization than the treated group and control group. Discussion focuses on the vocal tract articulation characterizing fluent speech productions and possible treatment implications for persons who stutter.

Adult↗