The Effects of Simultaneously Punishing Stuttering and Rewarding Fluency

Abstract

Two adult, male stutterers read orally for eight experimental sessions separated by at least one week. Stuttering frequency was continuously recorded during all sessions. After stuttering frequency stabilized, the subject was introduced to the response-contingent verbal stimuli. For two sessions, a wrist strap was attached during the time the verbal stimuli were presented. In subsequent sessions the strap was attached, but no verbal stimuli were delivered. The findings were: (a) Presentation of response-contingent verbal stimuli resulted in a decrease in stuttering frequency. (b) Removal of the verbal stimuli was followed by an increase in stuttering frequency to base-rate level. (c) The wrist strap functioned as an effective discriminative stimulus. After it was paired with the verbal stimuli for a period of time, attachment of the strap alone resulted in decreased stuttering frequencies in several different experimental environments.