Semantic and Phonological Encoding in Adults Who Stutter: Silent Responses to Pictorial Stimuli

Area of Science:

• Psycholinguistics
• Speech and Language Pathology

Background:

• Research on language processing in adult stuttering is limited, with conflicting theories on the link between semantic/phonological encoding and fluency.
• Understanding these cognitive processes is crucial for developing effective interventions for adults who stutter (AWS).

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate semantic and phonological encoding efficiency in adults who stutter (AWS) compared to adults who do not stutter (ANS).
• To explore potential differences in silent category and phoneme identification tasks.

Main Methods:

• Fifteen AWS and 15 age/sex-matched adults who do not stutter (ANS) participated.
• Participants performed silent superordinate category (animal/object) and initial phoneme (vowel/consonant) identification tasks using pictorial stimuli.
• Accuracy and response speed were measured, accounting for movement execution latency.

Main Results:

• AWS were slower, but not less accurate, in semantic encoding tasks (category decisions) compared to ANS.
• Both groups showed more errors and slower responses for object than animal categories.
• No accuracy differences were found in phonological encoding (phoneme identification), but AWS were slower in consonant identification, unlike vowel identification.

Conclusions:

• Adults who stutter (AWS) exhibit less efficient semantic encoding compared to adults who do not stutter (ANS).
• A potential consonant-specific phonological encoding weakness may exist in AWS.
• Further research is recommended to validate these findings and explore their role as markers for persistent stuttering.