Silent phoneme monitoring of nonwords in adults who do and do not stutter

Stuttering has been attributed, at least in part, to subclinical differences in phonological encoding. The present study is comprised of two experiments designed to explore the role of stress, a metrical aspect of phonological encoding, during silent phoneme monitoring. For Experiment 1, participants who do and do not stutter were required to nonverbally monitor target phonemes in nonwords with initial stress. For Experiment 2, an additional group of typically fluent and stuttering participants were required to monitor phonemes in nonwords with non-initial stress thereby forcing them to first monitor the syllable boundary. Results indicated that similar to segmental information, processing metrical information requires additional time in adults who stutter. Theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.