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Biomedical subjects

E M Silverman

Publications and source records attributed to E M Silverman.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Speech fluency fluctuations during the menstrual cycle.

This study sought to determine whether changes in disfluency characteristics accompany biological and emotional changes during the menstrual cycle. Four extemporaneous speech samples were collected from each of 12 women, one at ovulation (when the average woman experiences her greatest feelings of self-esteem and self-confidence) and one at premenstruation (when she experiences a significant increase in anxiety level) for two consecutive cycles. The mean total frequency of the women's speech disfluencies produced at premenstruation was significantly greater than the mean total of their speech disfluencies produced at ovulation. The disfluency type that accounted for much of the difference in total frequency of disfluency between the two cycle points was revision-incomplete phrase. The tendency for these nonstutterers to produce more speech disfluencies at premenstruation than at ovulation is similar to a tendency we have observed in stutterers.

Adolescent↗

Effect of selected work attributes on preschoolers' speech disfluency: initial phoneme and length.

This study was designed to determine whether preschool nonstutterers tend to be disfluent on words that begin with consonants or on words that begin with vowels and whether they tend to be disfluent on long or on short words. Analyses of the spontaneous speech of 10 four-year-old boys sampled both in their nursery school classroom and in an interview situation indicated that initial phoneme exerted no influence on the distribution of their speech disfluencies. Word length, however, exerted an influence in the interview situation where the children tended to be disfluent on monosyllabic words. These data raise questions with respect to the applicability of Bloodstein's (1974) model of the development of stuttering to the disfluency behavior of nonstutterers.

Child, Preschool↗

Effect of threat of shock for being disfluent of fluency of normal speakers.

Each of 20 adult nonstutterers read a 330-word passage six times with a one minute pause between readings. Between the third and fourth reading or the fifth and sixth reading (determined by a table of random numbers) Ss were informed that at the conclusion of the next reading an electric shock would be administered for each instance of disfluency detected by E during that reading. Ss did not become less fluent as a consequence of the experimental condition. Their mean disfluency frequency during the threat-of-shock reading was lower than during the preceding one. Thus, threat of shock for being disfluent may be a condition which differentiates stutterers from nonstutterers since stutterers have been reported to become less fluent under this condition.

Adolescent↗