From Grapheme to Phonological Output: Performance of Adults Who Stutter on a Word Jumble Task

Authors

Megann McGill, Portland State UniversityFollow
Harvey Sussman
Courtney T. Byrd, University of Texas at Austin

Published In

PloS ONE

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2016

Subjects

Stuttering -- Research, Stuttering -- Patients

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the present study was to extend previous research by analyzing the ability of adults who stutter to use phonological working memory in conjunction with lexical access to perform a word jumble task.

Method

Forty English words consisting of 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-letters (n = 10 per letter length category) were randomly jumbled using a web-based application. During the experimental task, 26 participants were asked to silently manipulate the scrambled letters to form a real word. Each vocal response was coded for accuracy and speech reaction time (SRT).

Results

Adults who stutter attempted to solve fewer word jumble stimuli than adults who do not stutter at the 4-letter, 5-letter, and 6-letter lengths. Additionally, adults who stutter were significantly less accurate solving word jumble tasks at the 4-letter, 5-letter, and 6-letter lengths compared to adults who do not stutter. At the longest word length (6-letter), SRT was significantly slower for the adults who stutter than the fluent controls.

Conclusion

Results of the current study lend further support to the notion that differences in various aspects of phonological processing, including vision-to-sound conversions, sub-vocal stimulus manipulation, and/or lexical access are compromised in adults who stutter.

Description

This is the publisher's final pdf © 2016 the author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format. The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms. Version of record can be found at: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0151107

*At the time of publication, Megann McGill was affiliated with the University of Texas.

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0151107

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/26080

Citation Details

McGill, M., Sussman, H., & Byrd, C. T. (2016). From grapheme to phonological output: performance of adults who stutter on a word jumble task. PloS one, 11(3), e0151107.