The test lasted over a year, and at each session the clients who were told they had a stutter gradually got worse with each session. The testers told them they had a stutter each time. Each time the clients went into the therapy session, they were told how bad they spoke, and that they needed to suppress there stuttering. Being told that they stutter, and that they needed to suppress it, lead many patients to not speaking, being very self-conscious, and having a sharp decrease in speaking abilities. Rven though the hypothesis was proven correct, the long-term effects against the orphans were traumatic (Keen).
Many of the orphans had worse trouble speaking than they had previously had. Such orphans such as Hazel Potter, 15 years old, became very self-conscious of herself (The Monster Study"). In addition, she had trouble speaking and communicating with others about why she felt that she could not talk right. Tudor noted that, "Potter also began to interject and to snap her fingers in frustration" (The Monster Study"). The snapping of her fingers began an automatic instinct of hers to remind herself not to stutter. She had become classically conditioned to associate her stuttering with finger snapping. The more she snapped her fingers, the less likely of a chance she was to stutter. In addition she was conditioned to think that she had a stutter just because someone had told her numerous times that she did. However such patients like Mary Korlaske, 12 at the time of the experiment, became over self-conscious about her speaking. She had almost stopped talking completely, and secluded herself from her friends. 2 years after the experiment had ended, she ended up running away from the orphanage, and was institutionalized in a very harsh Industrial School for Girls. She admitted that after the experiment, that, "'It just ruined my life; I can't talk no more'" (Reynold). Even later in her life, she still is ashamed.
