Positive assurance versus Negative assurance. Now with a control group!
The 10 stuttering children were divided into two groups. Five were assigned to Group IA, the experimental set. They would be told: ''You do not stutter. Your speech is fine.'' The five in Group IB would serve as controls and be told, ''Yes, your speech is as bad as people say.''
The remaining 12 children were chosen at random from the population of normally fluent orphans. Six of these were assigned to IIA, the group that eventually would lead to the lawsuit and contention. These children, ranging in age from 5 to 15, were to be told that their speech was not normal at all... [continue reading]
