REPRESENTATIVENESS REASONING AND THE SEARCH FOR THE ORIGINS OF STUTTERING - A RETURN TO BASIC OBSERVATIONS

In this paper, we present our views on theories of the distal and prox imal causes of stuttering. We suggest that the search for the etiology of stuttering has been hampered by the inappropriate use of the repre sentativeness heuristic, a method of reasoning which proposes that the effects of a disorder reflect its causes. We encourage a return to th e ideas of Froeschels and Bluemel so that the representativeness heuri stic might properly be employed in investigations into the proximal, m echanical causes of stuttering and into the etiological implications o f the repetitions of early stuttering. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.