This study determined through psychophysical comparison of scaling data that speech naturalness judgments of stutterers and nonstutterers from audiovisual recordings form a metathetic (or qualitative) rather than prothetic (or quantitative) continuum. Both direct magnitude estimation and equal-appearing interval scaling were valid, but interval…

In this study, 30 judges identified disfluency types they perceived in audiovisually recorded speech stimuli, first individually and then with a partner. Although intrapair and interpair agreement was higher in the partner than the individual condition, agreement for occurrences still averaged below 50 percent. Findings suggest caution in use of…

Two experiments investigating interval-by-interval interjudge and intrajudge agreement for stuttered and nonstuttered speech intervals found that training of judges could improve reliability levels; judges with relatively high intrajudge agreement also showed relatively higher interjudge agreement; and interval-by-interval interjudge agreement was…

Three groups of judges (n=18) differing in stuttering judgment experience identified stuttering events in repeated speech samples, to investigate a measurement methodology based on time-interval analyses. Results showed interjudge agreement was affected by the particular speech sample, the judges' previous experience, and the length of the…

This replication study of time-interval judgments of stuttering found higher interjudge agreement than previously reported for event-based analyses of stuttering judgments or time-interval analyses of event judgments. Judges with high intrajudge agreement levels also showed higher interjudge agreement levels than did judges with low intrajudge…

Unsophisticated raters judged speech naturalness and stuttering severity in audio-only and audiovisual presentations of speech samples. For stutterer samples, raters judged the audiovisual presentation more unnatural than the audio presentation, but for the nonstutterer samples, there was no difference. Stuttering severity ratings did not differ…

Fifteen listeners using the Listener Comfort Scale rated videos of 10 adults before and after stuttering treatment and videos of 10 controls. Results were compared with those of 15 listeners who used the Speech Naturalness Scale. Reliability of the Speech Naturalness Scale was superior; however, the Listener Comfort Scale captured different…

Forty stutterers and forty nonstutterers in Japan were tested for susceptibility to delayed auditory feedback while reading passages under amplified delay conditions. Susceptibility was higher for stutterers than nonstutterers and for nonstuttering men than nonstuttering women. Stutterers appeared to rely on auditory feedback for speech control…

A rating instrument is described that can be used to assess the results of stuttering treatments. The instrument yields a comprehensive and detailed description of speech quality in terms of articulation, phonation, pitch, and loudness, as well as naturalness. Psychometric characteristics of the instrument are analyzed, and methodological problems…

The study of 35 posttreatment stutterers found that magnitude estimation and interval scaling were both valid procedures for measuring speech naturalness. Speech of nonstutterers was judged more natural than speech of treated stutterers. The acoustic parameters most highly correlated with speech naturalness were voice onset time measure and…

Selected visible and audible features of stuttered speech were studied to determine whether these phenomena suggested a basis for differentiating among stutterers. Forty-six visible and audible phenomena of stuttering were examined in 23 stutterers, using a frame-by-frame analysis of sound motion picture film. Significant inter-subject differences…

Preliminary to a survey of a national sample of 40,000 subjects intended to estimate prevalence of speech and hearing disorders in the United States public school population, a mobile unit collected data on a pilot sample of subjects in grades 1 through 12. Speech testing of 6,290 subjects indicated about 85% had articulation which did not deviate…