Effect of silence on stuttering.

Since fear of silence is a striking feature of stuttering, this study investigated the effect of experimentally imposed silence. 24 adult stutterers read 4 passages aloud, S times each, under 3 conditions of imposed silence (introduced following the 2nd reading), and under 1 control condition. They then ranked these situations as to their evoked discomfort. Unexplained Silence, Explained Silence, and Private Silence were compared with a control condition of No Silence. Findings were that all silences together produced significantly greater frequency of stuttering than control readings, with no differences among the 3 silence conditions on this dimension. However, Unexplained Silence was ranked highest in discomfort. Results were discussed in terms of a conflict approach to stuttering, with particular emphasis on role theory.