Procedural memory and language: a study with Brazilian Portuguese stuttering speakers

Abstract

This paper shows the results of an experimental study about both stutters and fluent speakers´s procedural memory in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), from the relation among Alm´s Double Pre-Motor Model (ALM, 2005) and Ullmann´s Declarative/Procedural Model (ULMANN, 2001). It is proposed a hypothesis about the connection between the presence of mnemonic disfunctions and the stutters´s linguistics processing. The results obtained through ASRT Test (Alternating Serial Reaction Time) suggested an increase of reaction times as the number of cycles (stimuli) was augmented. This can be a possible difficulty to implicit learning of motor sequences. On the other hand, the fluent speakers showed a reduction of reaction times as the number of cycles augmented, confirming that, to this group, procedural learning happened in a faster way.

Keywords

• Psicolinguística experimental
• Gagueira
• Memória procedimental
• Teste ASRT