How speakers interrupt themselves in managing problems in speaking: evidence from self-repairs
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 4, 2026

The Adventures of Fundi Intervention Based on the Cognitive and Emotional Processing in Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder Patients
Published on: June 12, 2020
Mandana Seyfeddinipur1, Sotaro Kita, Peter Indefrey
1Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-2130, USA. mandsey@stanford.edu
Abstract:
When speakers detect a problem in what they are saying, they must decide whether or not to interrupt themselves and repair the problem, and if so, when. Speakers will maximize accuracy if they interrupt themselves as soon as they detect a problem, but they will maximize fluency if they go on speaking until they are ready to produce the repair. Speakers must choose between these options. In a corpus analysis, we identified 448 speech repairs, classified them as major (as in a fresh start) or minor (as in a phoneme correction), and measured the interval between suspension and repair. The results showed that speakers interrupted themselves not at the moment they detected the problem but at the moment they were ready to produce the repair. Speakers preferred fluency over accuracy.
More Related Videos
07:56Assessing the Coherence of Parents' Short Narratives Regarding their Child Using the Five-Minute Speech Sample Procedure
Published on: September 19, 2019
07:59Using Practice Testing, Public Speaking, and Source Monitoring to Examine the Influences of Learning Strategies and Stress on Episodic Memory
Published on: June 14, 2019
Related Concept Videos
Self-Presentation: Self-Monitoring and Self-Handicapping
Self-Discrepancy Theory
Impression Management Techniques III: Aligning Actions
Coping Strategies: Problem Focused
For example, consider a student who struggles to understand their...
Self-Help Support Groups
Accessibility and Cost-Effectiveness
One of the primary strengths of self-help...
Interference and Decay
Interference occurs when competing memories hinder the retrieval of particular information. It can be classified into two types: proactive and retroactive interference. Proactive...