What Aspects of Narrative Content Best Predict Listeners' Comprehension of People with Aphasia?

Presenter

Pankhudi Gupta

Group Members

Mahima Bhattacharjee

Campus

UMass Amherst

Sponsor

Jennifer Mack, Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, UMass Amherst

Schedule

Session 5, 3:30 PM - 4:15 PM [Schedule by Time][Poster Grid for Time/Location]

Location

Poster Board A50, Campus Center Auditorium, Row 3 (A41-A60) [Poster Location Map]

Abstract

Aphasia occurs following a stroke and impacts one’s ability to communicate. People with aphasia (PWA) struggle with language and speech production. PWA often produce stories with inaccurate and/or incomplete content which is difficult to comprehend. Accurate scoring of narrative content allows professionals to better assess and treat PWA. Main Concept (MC) scoring is used as a standard measure of narrative content in aphasia. Limitations of the MC scoring system are that it doesn’t account for content order (sequencing) or narrative structure (story grammar). The Main Concept, Sequencing, and Story Grammar (MSSG) system addresses these limitations.  

To validate the MSSG system, we need to test how well components of MSSG predict listener's comprehension. The study investigates listeners’ comprehension of a narrative produced by one speaker with mild fluent (anomic) aphasia. The speaker’s recording is used from AphasiaBank. In an online experiment, 300 participants will retell a story told by the aphasic speaker. They will each listen to one of four different versions in which the narrative content is manipulated. We will score these retellings using the MSSG system to measure how well listeners comprehended the story.  I hypothesize that narrative structure is one of the most important things for partner comprehension. Therefore, I predict that listeners will exhibit decreased understanding when critical parts of narrative structure are removed. 

The conclusions drawn from this study will establish the strongest predictor of the MSSG grading system and distinguish the contribution from each part of MSSG of the other parts. 

Keywords

Aphasia, Narratives, Language Comprehension, Main Concept, Sequencing, and Story Grammar (MSSG)

Research Area

Neuroscience and Cognitive Science

SIMILAR ABSTRACTS (BY KEYWORD)