Time-interval measurement of stuttering: establishing and modifying judgment accuracy

Area of Science:

• Speech-language pathology
• Communication sciences and disorders

Background:

• Accurate measurement of stuttering is crucial for research and clinical practice.
• Interval judgments of stuttering require reliable and valid assessment methods.
• Existing methods for judging stuttering intervals may lack sufficient accuracy and agreement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if accuracy training for stuttering interval judgments generalizes to untrained speakers and intervals.
• To determine the effect of training on interjudge agreement in stuttering assessments.
• To explore the potential for improving stuttering measurement systems through targeted training.

Main Methods:

• Ten speech-language pathology students participated in accuracy training for judging stuttered speech intervals.
• Training involved single-subject experiments with multiple baselines and generalization probes.
• Judgment accuracy was validated against expert opinions on stuttering.
• Participants judged 5-second audiovisual speech intervals as stuttered or non-stuttered.

Main Results:

• Accuracy in judging stuttering intervals increased post-training for both trained and untrained speakers.
• Training led to slight improvements in interjudge and intrajudge agreement.
• Generalization of training effects to unfamiliar speakers was observed.
• The findings suggest that interval judgment training enhances accuracy and reliability.

Conclusions:

• Accuracy training for interval judgments of stuttering can generalize to novel speakers.
• This training approach shows promise for enhancing the reliability of stuttering measurement.
• Further development of such training may lead to a more valid and reliable stuttering measurement system.