Listener perceptions of stuttering across two presentation modes: A quantitative and qualitative approach

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare participants’ quantitative and qualitative judgments of various forms and frequencies of stuttering, during either audiovisual or audio-only presentation modes. A total of 64 participants voluntarily agreed to participate in the study. Each participant was randomly assigned and exposed to only one of the four conditions of varying stuttering severity levels. The assigned speech sample was presented to the participant in either the audiovisual or audio-only mode. After watching or listening to the sample, participants completed a six-item Likert scale and were asked four open-ended questions. Comments made by listeners were developed into positive and negative comments as well as sorted into five theme clusters. The data analyses revealed a number of non-significant differences across mean Likert scale ratings for the six statements and for the number of positive and negative comments between the two presentation modes. However, the results provided partial support for the notion that as the frequency of stuttering increases, listeners tend to make increasingly more negative comments about the speaker. Additionally, there were no clear differences in comments across the five theme clusters between the two presentation modes. The findings suggest that the type of presentation mode does not appear to affect listeners’ perceptions of stuttering to the same extent that stuttering severity does. Educational objectives: The reader will be able to: (1) describe how listeners perceive and react to various frequencies of stuttering; (2) explain how audiovisual versus audio-only samples impact listener perceptions of stuttering and (3) provide examples of the ways in which qualitative data can enhance the understanding of how listeners react to various levels of stuttering.