How Different Measures Affect Cognitive Ability in People with Aphasia

Location

CSU Ballroom

Start Date

18-4-2016 2:00 PM

End Date

18-4-2016 3:30 PM

Student's Major

Speech, Hearing, and Rehabilitation Services

Student's College

Allied Health and Nursing

Mentor's Name

H. Sheen Chiou

Mentor's Department

Speech, Hearing, and Rehabilitation Services

Mentor's College

Allied Health and Nursing

Description

It is challenging to assess cognitive ability in people with language impairment due to a brain injury (aphasia) because most cognitive tasks are linguistically-based. The first research question was: does a person with aphasia perform differently between two aphasia friendly cognitive tasks? Second, does timed- versus time-free measures influence their performance? Fourteen participants with different types and severities of aphasia completed symbol trails and design generation from the Cognitive Linguistic Quick Test within three-minute time limit (timed condition) and then modified to unlimited time (time-free condition). Both tasks measure the persons' ecutive functions, visuospatial skills, and attention. Accuracy measure was calculated by the total number of correct designs (or lines) divided by total number of attempts. Efficiency measure was the total amount of time spent on the task divided by the total number of correct responses, which indicates the participants' effort to complete the task. The results indicated that, without time constraint, people with aphasia demonstrated similar accuracy performances between the two cognitive tasks; however, they completed the symbol trail task more efficiently than the design generation task. Moreover, people with aphasia performed better at the design generation task but not the symbol trail task without time constraint compared to the three-minute limit. The findings supported that people with aphasia demonstrated difficulties in their ecutive functions, attention and visuospatial skills. The design generation task appeared to be a more challenging task for people with aphasia because they appeared to put more effort into completing the task.

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Apr 18th, 2:00 PM Apr 18th, 3:30 PM

How Different Measures Affect Cognitive Ability in People with Aphasia

CSU Ballroom

It is challenging to assess cognitive ability in people with language impairment due to a brain injury (aphasia) because most cognitive tasks are linguistically-based. The first research question was: does a person with aphasia perform differently between two aphasia friendly cognitive tasks? Second, does timed- versus time-free measures influence their performance? Fourteen participants with different types and severities of aphasia completed symbol trails and design generation from the Cognitive Linguistic Quick Test within three-minute time limit (timed condition) and then modified to unlimited time (time-free condition). Both tasks measure the persons' ecutive functions, visuospatial skills, and attention. Accuracy measure was calculated by the total number of correct designs (or lines) divided by total number of attempts. Efficiency measure was the total amount of time spent on the task divided by the total number of correct responses, which indicates the participants' effort to complete the task. The results indicated that, without time constraint, people with aphasia demonstrated similar accuracy performances between the two cognitive tasks; however, they completed the symbol trail task more efficiently than the design generation task. Moreover, people with aphasia performed better at the design generation task but not the symbol trail task without time constraint compared to the three-minute limit. The findings supported that people with aphasia demonstrated difficulties in their ecutive functions, attention and visuospatial skills. The design generation task appeared to be a more challenging task for people with aphasia because they appeared to put more effort into completing the task.

Recommended Citation

Hanson, Kristina and Jade Mussehl. "How Different Measures Affect Cognitive Ability in People with Aphasia." Undergraduate Research Symposium, Mankato, MN, April 18, 2016.
https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/urs/2016/poster-session-B/2