The Effect of Subject Sex, Verbal Interaction and Topical Focus on Speech Disruption

Abstract

Forty-eight men and forty-eight women participated in four consecutive 5 minute subinterviews, two of which were concerned with personal problem content and two which were concerned with non-problem topics. in one problem and one non-problem subinterview the subject and experimenter engaged in naturalistic verbal interaction; in the other problem and non-problem subinterviews the talking was done only by the subject. The obtained speech samples were scored for proportions of Ah (filled pauses) and non-Ah speech disturbances. Statistical analysis indicated that the Ah ratio differentiated the sex groups although the non-Ah ratio did not. Higher non-Ah ratios were elicited by the interactive and problem subinterviews than by the non-interactive and non-problem subinterviews and there was a significant interaction effect. The male group emitted higher proportions of filled pauses in the interactive and problem subinterviews while the female group emitted higher proportions only in the interactive subinterviews and was not differentially affected by the problem and non-problem subinterviews. A post hoc analysis of verbal rate revealed that, like the non-Ah ratio, it differentiates interactive and non-interactive and problem and non-problem sub-interviews and shows a significant interaction effect. in addition, comparisons were made of the dependent variables with age, educational level, and a brief estimate of verbal intelligence.