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I have been deeply involved in sharing my understanding with fellow stutterers, speech and language pathologists and researchers, especially in the 90's. The older part of this blog reports some the discussions I was having on a professional list at that time. Most of the discussions are still relevant today.

I remained involved in the stuttering community, mostly as participant in activities of the National Stuttering Association (NSA), and occasional workshop leader. Since my retirement I have returned to writing, and I just developed an audio course on fluency improvement. A link for the course can be found in this blog, as well as posts based on more recent discussions I am having in a Stuttering Facebook group.

Monday, January 23, 1995

The law of parsimony

> Dr. Schwartz:
>
> This is getting a bit tangled, but let me try anyhow.
>
> You started by presenting three "separate" theories of stuttering and
> went on to state that your model nicely accounts for all of them (the
> ONLY model that does so, you further added in your reply).
>
> I stated that the three "theories" seem quite compatible to me and that
> they already formed what could be viewed as a reasonable "model"(let's
> call it Model-1 for future reference) . I asked therefore what your
> model added to this "simpler" (i.e. more parsimonious) model.
>
> You stated in your response that your model is "extremely parsimonious",
> further more, if there is any complexity I don't understand you'd be
> happy to explain it to me.
>
> OK. now I can clarify my point:
>
> "Parsimony" means to explain all the facts with the least amount
> of assumptions. You make some clear assumptions about the role
> of vocal cords (thank you for your misspelling correction - caught me
> red faced on that one). What additional explanation do these
> assumptions provide, which Model-1 could not explain as well?
>
> There are two good reasons for adding complexity to models: explaining
> more facts and providing for the possibility of testing (which still
> is a form of "more facts"). I still don't see which facts your model
> explains which are nor explained by model-1. With regard to testing,
> I praised your model, in that it opens up the possibility of discussing,
> indeed testing, the role of vocal cords in stuttering. But here again,
> you seem very quick in dismissing evidence that might challenge your
> assumptions. You claim that repetitions in sign language do not obey
> "rules" of stuttering and considering them is "misleading and confusing".
> What rules are you referring to? It would in fact be very interesting
> to see how different this type of stuttering is and whether any
> differences are a rather obvious result of the differences in communication
> channels or hide something deeper. Also, could you provide a couple
> of examples of how, in your thinking, the laryngectomy papers you have
> had the time to survey tend to support your model?
>
> By the way, I do not equate "complex" with "unclear". As a Ph.D. in
> Biophysics and NASA researcher for 15 years in areas from
> closed ecologial life support to artificial neural networks, complex
> models and scientific methodology are my daily bread.
>
> Let's keep trying.

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