Part 4: **Examples**: **Extinction failure** * Repeatedly reminding ourselves that stuttering might recur (Cognitive distortion: **staying open to the possibility of stuttering returning**) * Believing there's always the uncertainty and probability that stuttering might return (Cognitive distortion: **catastrophizing**) * Labeling: Labeling the stutter disorder as: Stuttering is always looming around the corner, even during perceptually fluent speech (Cognitive distortions: **labeling; fortune-telling; downplaying successes in fine-tuning the release threshold; setting negative expectations**) * Feeling the need to increase one's confidence specifically to execute the speech plan. (**Perfectionism; unnecessarily high expectations**) * Engaging with stutter remnants so we don’t forget them (We keep connecting stimuli to the execution threshold rather than forgetting and letting go of the need to avoid errors specifically to release words for execution) * Believing stuttering is something that just happens, rather than considering its underlying error avoidance mechanism. (**Underestimation**: lack of confidence in one's ability to execute the speech plan; learned helplessness where we give up on fine-tuning the release threshold) * **Social pressure**: Others may project their ideas onto us, believing that execution-difficulty stuttering is an immutable or unrecoverable disorder, rather than considering its underlying error avoidance mechanism (Cognitive distortion: Introjection) * Justification of error avoidance: Viewing the reinforcement of conditioned stimuli, along with attempts to avoid perceived errors, as acceptable. * We see stuttering as a Superpower: "If a normal person lived our life for a year, they’d beg for theirs back within a week. That says a lot about how strong and resilient we are. Speaking is always a challenge for us, yet we still manage to achieve in a world built around verbal communication. That deserves respect." (**Justification of the error avoidance mechanism; reinforcing conditioned stimuli**) * Perceived susceptibility: The belief about getting a disease or condition. We essentially confuse speech planning difficulty dysfluencies with execution-difficulty type stuttering. Simply being predisposed or experiencing anticipatory fear in itself doesn’t result in execution-difficulty type stuttering (Cognitive distortions: **externalizing responsibility, feeling detached from active control over fine-tuning the execution threshold**) (This reinforces **anticipatory struggle** i.e., the believe that speech execution is difficult: conditioned stimuli become more vivid, personal, and meaningful, making the sensation of loss of control more credible and leading to totally unnecessary speech blocks) * **Vicarious learning**: Children may subconsciously adopt the error avoidance mechanisms of stuttering parents. For example, seeing their parents experience negative judgments towards their speech performance that triggers their error avoidance mechanism, - which the child then mimics, leading to poor fine-tuning of their release threshold themselves - even when they have never experienced it before. * **Prioritizing controlled speech over subconscious speech**: We keep finding new ways to cope with, control, and manage stuttering because the self-image of a stutterer is associated with a lack of complete faith in the feedforward system.