A SYNCHRONIZATION EFFECT AND ITS APPLICATION TO STUTTERING BY A PORTABLE APPARATUS1
- 1 December 1968
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis
- Vol. 1 (4), 283-295
- https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.1968.1-283
Abstract
The present study attempted to determine how a rhythmic beat affects ongoing behavior. A regular stimulus beat was presented to normal subjects who had been instructed to push a bar from side to side. Other subjects had been instructed to emit a vocal response. The individual vocal and motor responses became synchronized with the individual beats of the rhythm. The time between stimulus beats determined the modal interresponse time. These results indicate a synchronization effect: ongoing behavior tends to become synchronized with an ongoing stimulus rhythm. An attempt was made to apply these findings to the problem of stuttering, which can be considered as a disturbance of the natural rhythm of speech. Stutterers were instructed to synchronize their speech with a simple regular beat presented to them tactually by a portable apparatus. The result was a reduction of 90% or more of the stuttering for each subject during the period of synchronization. This effect endured for extended periods of spontaneous speech as well as for reading aloud and was found to be attributable to the rhythmic nature of the stimulus and not to other factors.Keywords
This publication has 31 references indexed in Scilit:
- Rhythm as a distractor in the modification of stutteringBehaviour Research and Therapy, 1967
- "Arousal hypothesis" and the effects of music on purchasing behavior.Journal of Applied Psychology, 1966
- Effects of music on employee attitude and productivity in a skateboard factory.Journal of Applied Psychology, 1966
- An experimental analysis oe the effect of rhythm on the speech of stutterersBehaviour Research and Therapy, 1965
- A new technique to control stammering: A preliminary reportBehaviour Research and Therapy, 1963
- EFFECTS OF MUSIC UPON GSR OF CHILDREN1Child Development, 1962
- MUSIC ON THE JOB: ITS INFLUENCE ON WORKER MORALE AND PRODUCTION1Personnel Psychology, 1961
- Instatement of Stuttering in Normally Fluent Individuals through Operant ProceduresScience, 1959
- The effect of music distraction upon reading rate and comprehension.Journal of Educational Psychology, 1952
- “Hearing” with the Sense of TouchThe Journal of General Psychology, 1928