A comparative investigation of the BigCAT and Erickson S-24 measures of speech-associated attitude

The BigCAT and the Erickson S-24, self-report measures of communication attitude, were administered in a randomly determined order to 72 adults who stuttered (PWS) and 72 who did not (PWNS). The two groups of participants differed from each other to a statistically significant extent on both of these measures of speech-associated attitude, regardless of gender. However, the BigCAT showed a larger between-group difference and a greater effect size than was made apparent by the S-24. These findings, and the presence of a significant group by test interaction, suggest that the BigCAT is the more powerful of these two test procedures for discriminating the speech-associated attitude of PWS from that of PWNS. It follows from this that the BigCAT is likely a more useful attitudinal measure than the S-24 with respect to clinical decision making that relates to differential diagnostic assessment and the management of stuttering.Learning outcomes: The reader will be (1) describe the BigCAT, a communication attitude test for adults who do and do not stutter, (2) discuss comparative data on the BigCAT and the Erickson S-24, based on information on the discriminative power of these measures of speech-associated attitude, (3) recognize that gender does not significantly effect the results of either the BigCAT or the Erickson S-24.

► Adults who stutter score statistically significantly higher than adults who do not stutter on the BigCAT and the Erickson S-24, self-report measures of communication attitude.
► The BigCAT showed a notably larger between-group difference and effect size than was made apparent by the S-24.
► The data suggest that the BigCAT is a more powerful test than the Erickson S-24 for discriminating speech-associated attitude.
► The BigCAT is likely to be a more useful attitudinal measure with respect to diagnostic and therapeutic decision making.