Effects of stuttering and sound avoidance on reference production and memory

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience of Language
• Speech and Language Pathology

Background:

• Adults who stutter (AWS) often employ linguistic monitoring to manage disfluencies.
• This monitoring may affect cognitive resource allocation, impacting language production and memory.
• The precise cognitive consequences of this monitoring remain unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if increased linguistic monitoring in AWS incurs dual-task costs, limiting memory encoding.
• To determine if this monitoring enhances memory through deeper conceptual processing.
• To compare cognitive performance in AWS versus adults who do not stutter (AWNS) and a simulated monitoring group.

Main Methods:

• Thirty-two AWS and sixty-four AWNS participated in a referential communication task.
• Half of the AWNS performed a sound avoidance task to simulate AWS' monitoring.
• Participants completed a recognition memory test for previously presented referents.

Main Results:

• AWS showed language production and memory performance more similar to AWNS than to the simulated monitoring group (AWNS-SA).
• AWS' memory performance decreased on a trial-by-trial basis during moments of stuttering.
• Linguistic monitoring in AWS did not appear to impose significant overall dual-task costs.

Conclusions:

• Linguistic monitoring in AWS does not impose substantial cognitive dual-task costs.
• Stuttering events can cause transient disruptions in memory encoding for AWS.
• These findings underscore the adaptive nature of linguistic monitoring in supporting language and memory in AWS.