The effects of passive and active desensitization on psychophysiological and emotional reactions to stuttered speech

It is commonly known that listeners react negatively to stuttered speech and hold negative views of those affected. Recent studies have shown that listeners present physiological and subjective indicators of high arousal and emotional negativity to stuttering relative to fluent speech. As negative listener reactions may have a strong impact on lives of the person who stutters, the present study was dedicated to searching for conditions under which these reactions might be weakened. Specifically, the effects of prior passive exposure to informational audiovisual material on stuttering and active imitation of stuttering behaviors (i.e., passive and active forms of desensitization) were examined in light of the psychophysiological and emotional reactions to stuttered speech. To this end, 33 adult participants were divided into a control group and two treatment groups with prior passive and active exposure to stuttering. Skin conductance and heart rate measures were collected while all participants watched and listened to 6 videoclips of speakers, 3 of whom stuttered, and 3 of whom spoke fluently. Immediately after the presentation of each clip, 3 rating scales were also completed to report on the experienced arousal, general emotional valence, and specific emotions. Results indicate that treatment groups displayed a lower physiological arousal on the first stuttered clip relative to the control group. In contrast, heart rate was lower during stuttered relative to fluent clips, regardless of group membership. Further, no group differences were obtained regarding ratings of arousal and emotional valence. The present findings suggest that, while prior active and passive desensitization attempts may have reduced the physiological arousal (as measured by the skin conductance level relative to baseline) during the first stuttered clip, it had no effect on heart rate (i.e., a physiological indicator of emotional valence) and the way stuttered speech was subjectively experienced. Simply put, subjective and physiological valence and arousal may represent more stable listener reactions to stuttering, which may be harder to modify in adults relative to children. In light of these findings, additional intervention may be considered as a means of desensitizing adult negative listener reactions to stuttering.