An experimental analysis oe the effect of rhythm on the speech of stutterers

Fransella, Fay; Beech, H. R.

doi:10.1016/0005-7967(65)90005-7

Cited by 49 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Little carry-over was seen; stuttering returned to its former level within 5 min after the rhythm was discontinued. The arhythmic stimulus did not reduce stuttering to any degree for any subject, thereby confirming the finding of Fransella and Beech (1965) that arhythmic stimuli did not reduce stuttering. Stuttering was reduced during the spontaneous speech task as well as during the reading task.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

“…Second, the study examined this metronome effect as an instance of the more general synchronization effect with the objective of providing the needed theoretical basis for its existence other than as an artifact of distraction. If the reduction of stuttering is attributable to the rhythm itself, then a tactual rhythm should also be effective, as suggested by the results of Barber (1940), but pulses that are not rhythmic should have no effect on stuttering, as suggested by the results of Fransella and Beech (1965). The present study, therefore, used a tactual rhythm and an arhythmic comparison procedure.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…The reduction of stuttering endured for as long as the rhythm was presented: from session-to-session and throughout a 100-min session of continuous reading or a 50-min session of continuous speaking. Previous studies had evaluated this metronome effect for less than 5 min under a given rhythm condition (Barber, 1940;Beech, 1967;Fransella and Beech, 1965). The rhythmic stimulus had an immediate effect on the stuttering; stuttering was reduced during the first minute that the rhythm was presented.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is possible that the high natural frequency of these behaviors and their use as therapeutic aids in recreational therapy are based in part upon this tendency for behavior to be "carried along" by a rhythm. A recent example of this rationale is a therapeutic program in which rhythmic activities were described as a necessary and effective starting point for motivating chronic regressed schizophrenics (Goertzel, May, Salkin, and Schoop, 1965 Bloodstein, 1949;Beech, 1967;Fransella and Beech, 1965) in which a stutterer is instructed to speak in time with an auditory metronomic beat; the result has been a reduction of stuttering. Yet, almost no quantitative study has been conducted of this metronomic effect since an early study by Barber (1940) dismissed the effect as an instance of "distraction" of attention.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yet, almost no quantitative study has been conducted of this metronomic effect since an early study by Barber (1940) dismissed the effect as an instance of "distraction" of attention. An exception is the recent work by Fransella and Beech (1965). The procedure has gone unmentioned in several recent treatments of stuttering and of speech disorders generally (Hejna, 1960;Travis, 1957;Rieber and Brubaker, 1966;Murphy and Fitzsimons, 1960;Freund, 1966).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A SYNCHRONIZATION EFFECT AND ITS APPLICATION TO STUTTERING BY A PORTABLE APPARATUS¹

Azrin

Jones

Flye

1968

J of App Behav Analysis

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The present study attempted to determine how a rhythmic beat affects ongoing behavior. A regular stimulus beat was presented to normal subjects who had been instructed to push a bar from side to side. Other subjects had been instructed to emit a vocal response. The individual vocal and motor responses became synchronized with the individual beats of the rhythm. The time between stimulus beats determined the modal interresponse time. These results indicate a synchronization effect: ongoing behavior tends to become synchronized with an ongoing stimulus rhythm. An attempt was made to apply these findings to the problem of stuttering, which can be considered as a disturbance of the natural rhythm of speech. Stutterers were instructed to synchronize their speech with a simple regular beat presented to them tactually by a portable apparatus. The result was a reduction of 90% or more of the stuttering for each subject during the period of synchronization. This effect endured for extended periods of spontaneous speech as well as for reading aloud and was found to be attributable to the rhythmic nature of the stimulus and not to other factors. EXPERIMENT I: CONTROL OF SIMPLEMOTOR AND VOCAL RESPONSES BY RHYTHM Rhythmic stimuli are believed to exert substantial behavioral influence, as evidenced by the extensive natural use of music. Yet, the basis of this control by music remains unexplained. One known property of music is that when music is contingent upon a response it can be a reinforcer, as shown by Barrett's (1962) punishment of tics by timeout from music and by Ayllon and Azrin's (1965Azrin's ( , 1968aAzrin's ( , 1968b Weidenfeller, 1962Weidenfeller, , 1963Ellis and Brighouse, 1952). Also, the use of music therapy for mental patients seems to be based on the assumption that music affects the general emotional state. Non-contingent music has often been reported as increasing the level of ongoing behaviors, but these reports are often conflicting (see review by Uhrbrock, 1961). Even when a complex musical sound pattern affects ongoing behavior, the question remains as to which aspect of the complex was responsible. The present study attempted a more analytic study of the effect of rhythm by investigating whether a simple regular beat influenced ongoing behavior. The procedure differed from previous studies of rhythm in that the response was a simple and discrete movement of a bar or a simple vocal response, rather than a complex behavioral sequence; similarly, the rhythmic stimulus was a fixed beat rather than a complex musical pattern. The simple nature of the response and the stimulus permitted the evaluation of any point-to-point correspondence in time between them and the eval-283 1968, 1.,283-295 NUMBER 4 (WINTER 1968)

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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