Magnitude Estimation and Cross-Modal Matching of Auditory and Lingual Vibrotactile Sensation by Normal Speakers and Stutterers

The present experiment was a preliminary attempt to employ the psychophysical scaling methods of magnitude estimation and cross-modal matching to investigate suprathreshold auditory and lingual vibrotactile sensation magnitude responses for normal-speaking young adults (N = 20) and young adult stutterers (N = 7). A 1000-Hz binaural auditory stimulus and a 250-Hz lingual vibrotactile stimulus were employed for both procedures. Results indicated that the stutterers tended to use more restricted response ranges than the normal speakers for auditory magnitude scaling, and lower response ranges than the normal speakers for lingual vibrotactile magnitude scaling.