Joan Dubofsky

Publication Date

1963

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Williams, J. David||Shearer, William M.||Wood, Margaret Louise

Degree Name

M.A. (Master of Arts)

Legacy Department

Department of Speech

LCSH

Reading

Abstract

Similarities have been observed between stuttering and the speech behavior produced under the effects of delayed sidetone. These similarities include struggle reactions, repeated words, syllables, and/or phonemes, mispronounced words, and increased reading duration and loudness of voice. This study had a two-fold purpose: 1) to investigate possible differences in reaction to delayed sidetone between male and female readers as measured by fluency and reading duration; and 2) to discover possible differences in adaptation to delayed sidetone between the sexes. It was hypothesized that females are more effective speakers than males and would tend to exhibit superior fluency adaptation and less fluency breakdown, but inferior adaptation in reading duration and more duration breakdown. That is, the more effective speakers would be willing to talk slower and less willing to be nonfluent. Forty normal hearing subjects, twenty male and twenty female students at Northern Illinois University, read a prose passage eight times in succession. One reading was performed under normal or non-delay conditions; the remaining seven readings were performed under .165 seconds delay at an eighty-five decibel level of sidetone. Measures of fluency and reading duration revealed speech breakdown and increased reading duration for both sexes, with adaptation to the distorting effects of the sidetone after the first reading. There were no significant differences between the sexes in fluency or reading duration under delayed sidetone. However, non-significant trends revealed slightly less retarded reading duration for males and superior male reading duration adaptation.

Comments

Includes bibliographical references.||Includes illustrations.

Extent

vii, 33 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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