EFFECT OF MONAURAL AND BINAURAL ALTERED AUDITORY-FEEDBACK ON STUTTERING FREQUENCY

The effect of monaural and binaural alterations in auditory feedback o n stuttering frequency was investigated. Eleven participants who stutt er read aloud under nonaltered auditory feedback (NAF) and monaural an d binaural conditions of frequency altered feedback [(FAF), one-quarte r octave shift upward] and delayed auditory feedback [(DAF), 50-ms del ay] at a normal speech rate. Relative to the NAF condition, reductions in stuttering frequency of approximately 60%-75% were found with the altered auditory feedback conditions. Post hoc single-df comparisons r evealed a reduction in stuttering frequency with altered auditory feed back versus NAF (p < 0.0001), a greater reduction in stuttering freque ncy for binaural compared to monaural altered auditory feedback (p = 0 .028), and nonsignificant differences in stuttering frequencies for ri ght versus left monaural conditions (p = 0.54) and DAF versus FAF (p = 0.70). (C) 1997 Acoustical Society of America.