The effect of phonetic complexity on the speed of single-word productions in adults who do and do not stutter

•Picture-naming abilities in adults who do and do not stutter were examined.•Adults who stutter named pictures more slowly than fluent peers.•No difference was found naming of pictures of high versus low phonetic complexity.•Limitations of phonetic complexity as an independent variable were discussed.•Potential factors that mediate phonetic complexity effects were offered.

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of phonetic complexity as measured by the Word Complexity Measure (WCM) on the speed of single-word production in adults who do (AWS, n = 15) and do not stutter (AWNS, n = 15).MethodParticipants were required to name pictures of high versus low phonetic complexity and balanced for lexical properties. Speech reaction time was recorded from initial presentation of the picture to verbal response of participant for each word type. Accuracy and fluency were manually coded for each production.ResultsAWS named pictures significantly slower than AWNS, but there were no significant differences observed in response latency when producing word of high versus low phonetic complexity as measured by the WCM.ConclusionFindings corroborate past research of overall slowed picture naming latencies in AWS, compared to AWNS. Findings conflict with data that suggest that the phonetic complexity of words uniquely compromises the speed of production in AWS. The potential interaction between lexical and phonetic factors on single-word production within each group are discussed.