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From: Ken Logan
Date: 03 Oct 2012
Time: 16:04:42 -0500
Remote Name: 128.227.139.35
Like you, Nan and the others, I do think the process of "covert stuttering" is interesting and worth exploring. Perhaps rather than exploring it as a categorical phenomenon (Covert group v. Overt group) right away, it would be more fruitful to begin by looking across all people who stutter and identifying factors that are linked with things such as (a) the neurological events that precede impending disruption in fluency, (actually, some of this work has already been done in studies of speech motor control) (b) the ability to attend to/self-monitor various speech-related processes (some of this work has been done as well), (c) the tendency to respond to anticipated difficulties (including disfluency) with adaptive strategies such as avoidance/word substitution, and (d) as Nan suggested, profiles of communication-related feelings, attitudes, and beliefs, as well as perhaps temperament, personality, etc… I would anticipate that "covertness" exists along a continuum: some people show little tendency to conceal anticipated difficulties in fluency; many show a modest tendency to do so; and some show a strong tendency to do so (and among the latter, I would expect that the tendency to do so would vary over time and across situations). Perhaps even before all of this, it would be worthwhile to explore the process of word substitution/paraphrasing among people who do not stutter so that general principles and pathways can be identified - actually, I'd be surprised if some of the latter work has not already been conducted within the context of lexical retrieval research, for example "tip of the tongue" states). Some of the neuroimaging work with people who stutter has looked at neural activation patterns under the condition of imaged overt stuttering. Whether that's related to "covert stuttering" or not is debatable, but it's in the ballpark, I think. One final thought...I think folks have a hard enough time modeling the processes that lead to overt disfluency in stuttering – I think once that area is better understood, then folks will tackle other topics, such as “covert repairs.”