Cognitive writing process characteristics of aphasia patients:

• INTRODUCTION: The current instruments for language assessment in aphasia largely focus on product measures. However, the processes underlying spoken and written language production also appear to be important indicators of impairment. Both in spoken and written language production, the number, length and location of pauses are important resources for identifying cognitive complexity. An exploratory study of two cases of aphasia was undertaken to test the relevance of process data for the assessment of language related problems. METHOD: Two female individuals with aphasia took part in the study. Participant A, aged 45 and six years post-onset, was diagnosed with Broca's aphasia. Participant B, aged 57 and nine years post-onset, was diagnosed with progressive aphasia. The experiment consisted of two procedural steps following clinical diagnosis: (1) a copy task, (2) two writing tasks based on similar figurative elicitations. The copy task was developed by Van Waes, Leijten, Van Horenbeeck, Mariën, & Engelborghs (2014); the writing tasks were based on the 'cat-in-bowl' picture and the 'cookie-theft' picture, derived from standardized aphasia test batteries (Goodglass, Kaplan, & Barresi, 1983; Visch-Brink, Vandenborre, De Smet, & Mariën, 2014). In the writing tasks, the participants were asked to produce a text about the scene presented in the pictures. The copy and writing tasks were logged via keystroke logging (Inputlog; Leijten & Van Waes, 2013), allowing the collection of very fine-grained writing process data. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Data were analyzed from a temporal perspective, including motor, cognitive, and linguistic aspects. Preliminary data analysis shows that writing process measures (e.g., intra-bigram pauses and pauses within and between words in relation to word categories) yield an interesting perspective on aphasics' impaired language production, when compared to healthy elderly. As such, we argue that keystroke logging of writing data provides a promising method for the assessment of writing performance in aphasia.

Subject headings

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Klinisk medicin -- Oto-rhino-laryngologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Clinical Medicine -- Otorhinolaryngology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Keystroke logging

writing process

aphasia

progressive aphasia

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kon (subject category)