 | The Journal of Abnormal Psychology |  |
1. PSYCHOLOGICAL ORIENTATION TESTS ON STUTTERERS:
By orientation test I mean simply a vague try-out to see just where the problem lies; an initial step to see what further steps are necessary; or in other words enough of an investigation to know where to look next.
The orientation tests consisted in requesting a series of twenty stuttering cases to answer two questions. Following their answers an immediate inspection was made of the content of their consciousness before, during, and after speech. These two questions were as follows:
- 1. Where do you live?
- 2. Say after me "The dog ran across the street."
After these questions I asked the patients to state whether there was any picture in the content of consciousness and how long it lasted; also whether that was detailed, intense or weak. I noted the presence of stuttering in relation
Of the twenty stutterers examined, ten made no visualization of their homes, some even after a residence of years; one of these twenty visualized home very faintly; two others visualized home clearly but the picture vanished on speaking; seven others visualized home clearly but these had been under treatment.
On repeating the dog statement, ten stutterers made no visualization whatever; one visualized faintly; four visualized well but the picture vanished on speaking; five others reported visualization, and four of these had been under treatment.
At first I did not know but what this was the norm of average visualization methods; so I tried this same series upon a number of normal individuals for comparison; by normal individuals, I mean, at this time, merely anyone who is free from stuttering, and chosen in a haphazard way from the hospital community; for example, one was our executive secretary, another a typewriter, another a telephone operator and so on.
| The Journal of Abnormal Psychology | |