Behavioral Dimensions of Stuttered Speech

Abstract

Nineteen stutterers provided samples of speech and reading from which scores representing 46 visible-audible phenomena were correlated. An analysis of the correlations revealed 10 factors which accounted for 83% of the variance. Six of the factors identified dimensions of stuttering similar to those described in the literature, but not previously derived empirically: overall stuttering severity, type of audible disfluency, adaptation, unilateral deviations, tension, and stuttering differences between spontaneous speech and reading. Applications are suggested to two-factor learning theory and to the classification of stutterers.