Changes in the Probability of Stuttering Following a Stutter: A Test of Some Recent Models

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Abstract
To test the models of stuttering proposed by Still and Sherrard (1976), six stutterers (two adults and four children between 12 and 14 years old) read 33 or more passages of prose of approximately 200 words, in sessions of 16 or 17 passages. Predictions tested concerned changes in stuttering probability as words elapse following the last stutter. Such changes may be confounded with sequential dependencies among word classes, together with correlations between word classes and stuttering. To allow for this, a multiple regression was carried out on six independent variables—initial phoneme, grammatical class, length of word, position in sentence, session, and familiarity of passage. From this analysis, predicted changes in stuttering probability were generated, and compared with observed probabilities. There was a significant decrease in the difference between observed and expected probabilities over the first 30 words following a stutter. Also, two subjects (the adults) showed an initial increase in rate of stuttering. These results support a combination of the anxiety and feedback models of Still and Sherrard.

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