Abstract
The main question in this study was whether Ss stuiter less under DAF when speaking with an accent such as a nasal twang. The hypothesis was verified: A group of 21 Ss stuttered less under DAF when speaking with a nasal accent than when speaking normally. This effect was shown to be due to: (1) The change in the acoustic output as a result of speaking with the accent. A passively produced distortion of the returning feedback (after Held, 1961), which was similar to the actively articulated nasal accent, also caused the Ss to stutter less than normally. (2) Paying less attention to the disruptive feedback. The Ss were shown to pay less attention to nasal feedback, probably because producing a nasal accent requires greater attention to articulation. These results were not due to a reduction in the intelligibility of the nasal feedback, which was just as intelligible as the S’s normal voice, even in noise. The significance of these findings for general theories of DAF and pathological stuttering were discussed.
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This work was supported by a grant from the University of California, Los Angeles (Number 2428), and by funds of the Department of Psychology, UCLA, provided by Dr. F. N. Jones.
The author wishes to thank Drs. Edward Carterette, Donald Lindsley, George Mount, and Donald Walter for generously lending various pieces of equipment for the present studies; and K. Achevski and J. Nosaki for help in setting up and running the experiment, and in analyzing the data.
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MacKay, D.G. To speak with an accent: Effects of nasal distortion on stuttering under delayed auditory feedback. Perception & Psychophysics 5, 183–188 (1969). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03209555
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03209555