Listener perceptions of stuttering, prolonged speech, and verbal avoidance behaviors

Abstract

This study examined listener perceptions of different ways of speaking often produced by people who stutter. Each of 115 independent listeners made quantitative and qualitative judgments upon watching one of four randomly assigned speech samples. Each of the four video clips showed the same everyday conversation between three young men, but differed in how the target person spoke. The four ways of speaking comprised: (1) stuttered speech, i.e., a speech containing repetitions, prolongations, and blocks, (2) hesitant speech, i.e., a speech containing verbal avoidance behaviors like interjections and revisions, (3) a mix of both, and (4) prolonged speech learned in fluency-shaping therapy. Quantitative data revealed that listeners perceived a speaker producing hesitant speech as less pleasant, self-confident, and communicatively competent than a speaker producing stuttered speech or prolonged speech. There were no differences between stuttered speech and prolonged speech. Ratings were partly dependent on the listeners’ implicit theory of speaking difficulties, that is, whether they assumed a chronic speech defect or a temporary problem. Implications of these findings are discussed.Learning outcomes: The reader will: (1) be able to summarize how different ways of speaking produced by people who stutter are connected with different listener perceptions; (2) be able to explain how the listener's implicit theory of speaking problems influences these perceptions; (3) learn about the clinical implications of the data from this study.