Perceptual attenuation of an irrelevant auditory verbal input as measured by an involuntary verbal response in a selective-attention task

Delayed auditory feedback (DAF) normally causes involuntary stuttering. If attenuation of irrelevant input occurs with selective attention, then a situation requiring Ss to attend to 1 auditory input, and ignore a 2nd consisting of DAF, will produce less stuttering than a situation including the same 2 inputs but in which selective attention is not required. 12 female undergraduates and 12 2nd grade boys repeated aloud digits delivered to their left ear and ignored the DAF of their own voice delivered to their right ear. Ss in both age groups stuttered less in a selective-attention than in a nonselective-attention condition. Results support the hypothesis that irrelevant input is attenuated where the stimuli presented to Ss exceed their processing ability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).