title: Does Working Memory Enhance or Interfere With Speech Fluency in Adults Who Do and Do Not Stutter? Evidence From a Dual-Task Paradigm.
abstract: The present study examined whether engaging working memory in a secondary task benefits speech fluency. Effects of dual-task conditions on speech fluency, rate, and errors were examined with respect to predictions derived from three related theoretical accounts of disfluencies.
  
  
  
  Nineteen adults who stutter and twenty adults who do not stutter participated in the study. All participants completed 2 baseline tasks: a continuous-speaking task and a working-memory (WM) task involving manipulations of domain, load, and interstimulus interval. In the dual-task portion of the experiment, participants simultaneously performed the speaking task with each unique combination of WM conditions.
  
  
  
  All speakers showed similar fluency benefits and decrements in WM accuracy as a result of dual-task conditions. Fluency effects were specific to atypical forms of disfluency and were comparable across WM-task manipulations. Changes in fluency were accompanied by reductions in speaking rate but not by corresponding changes in overt errors.
  
  
  
  Findings suggest that WM contributes to disfluencies regardless of stuttering status and that engaging WM resources while speaking enhances fluency. Further research is needed to verify the cognitive mechanism involved in this effect and to determine how these findings can best inform clinical intervention.
authors.forename: Naomi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Eichorn
authors.forename: Klara
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Marton
authors.forename: Richard G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Schwartz
authors.forename: Robert D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Melara
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pirutinsky
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007361:Intelligence Tests; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013060:Speech; D013342:Stuttering / Q000523:psychology*; D014796:Visual Perception; D055815:Young Adult