Thursday, December 17, 2009

Dual-tasks misconception

Chris writes:
I've stuttered for 26 years and I don't believe that the ability to do dual tasks at once is my problem. I can do two tasks at once. Matter of fact, I can usually speak better when my mind is preoccupied prior to speaking.

You may be onto something. I'm not sure the cause of stuttering, but I know it is a combination of physical and mental dimensions.

You misinterpreted the evidence. It seems as if people who stutter as a group perform worse than fluent speakers. It is an inferior average performance. We can of course perform dual tasks, but on average we might be worse. And you could well be better than many fluent speakers. Also it is mainly on motor tasks. And an inferior performance might not be the cause for stuttering at all. Might well be that the brain wiring is suboptimal leading to suboptimal speech and dual-task performances.

I agree with the combination of physical and mental dimensions. But I would add that there are two types of "mental dimensions": cognitive like beliefs and individually learned like associations.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Author thestutteringbrain.blogspot.com !
I think, you will find the correct decision.

Anonymous said...

It's my experience that when I dunk on some sad dude and say "this is for your mama" that I don't stutter.

I do this dual task better than non stutterers...