Methodological considerations in the measurement of reaction time in persons who stutter

This research note describes potential trends in the reaction time (RT) performance of persons who stutter (PWS). The main purpose of this note is to describe these trends to researchers, encourage further research in this area, and alert researchers to possible concerns about the interaction of certain reaction time research procedures and characteristics of PWS. Post hoc analyses and a brief review of selected studies comparing the RT of PWS and PNS revealed three potential trends: (a) PWS show different practice effects relative to fluent speakers (PNS) on RT measures, (b) practice effect differences between PWS and PNS in RT are dependent upon task complexity, and (c) variable foreperiod intervals (VFI) may differentially affect the RT of PWS and PNS. A 15-item guide is included to aid both clinicians and researchers in the critical review of RT studies and to facilitate planning of future studies incorporating RT as an indicator of potential differences between PWS and PNS.

As a result of this activity the participant will be able to: (1) Define practice effects as they relate to skill learning (2) Summarize the reviewed literature concerning the performance of PWS on motorically simple and complex RT tasks over practice, and (3) Explain the implications for statistical analysis of a significant relationship between variable foreperiod and RT measures for PWS.