- Aphasia -- Case studies,
- Coherence (Linguistics)
Discourse coherence is the conceptual organization of discourse and it can be subdivided into two types: global and local. Of interest for the current study is global coherence; that is, how the discourse relates to the overall topic (Glosser & Deser, 1990). Coherence has been measured in persons with aphasia (PWA) using different elicitation tasks (e.g., recounts, story retelling, event-casts) and different scoring methods (ie., rating scales, coherence, violations, total counts) and results have varied across studies (Christianson, 1995; Coelho & Flewellyn, 2003; Glosser & Deser, 1990; Ulatowska, et al., 2004). These differences may reflect differences in how coherence is conceptualized, as well as the different methods for measuring it and differences in aphasia presentation of study participants.
The purpose of the present investigation is to determine global coherence ability in adults with aphasia for story-telling. The research questions are: (1) How does a four-point scoring system relate to Gloser and Deser's five-point scale?; and (2) Do participants with and without aphasia differ in discourse coherence ability on a story-telling task?
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*At the time of publication, Gerasimos Fergadiotis was affiliated with Arizona State University.