Punishment, Stuttering, and Disfluency
Punishment is accorded a prominent place in most contemporary theories in attempts to explain both the origin and the persistence of stuttering behavior. A frequent observation about stuttering is that it increases and becomes more severe as the “penalty” or “punishment” for stuttering is increased. Theories of punishment, on the other hand, suggest that behaviors that are punished should decrease in frequency. The purpose of this article is to examine the role of punishment in relation to stuttering and to consider the apparent paradox between traditional views of stuttering and modern treatments of punishment. The initial portion of the paper reexamines the research usually cited in discussions of punishment and stuttering. Then, more recent research, emanating primarily from the laboratories of the University of Minnesota, is reviewed and juxtaposed against these earlier treatments. Finally, an attempt is made to reconcile some of the apparent discrepancies between the two bodies of literature, and some theoretical models are proposed for examining further the relationship between punishment and the development of stuttering.