The Relationship Between Discourse Efficiency, Informativeness, and Behaviors Associated with Lexical Retrieval Difficulty in People with Mild Anomic Aphasia

EasyChair Preprint no. 6360

Abstract

Introduction

Informativeness and efficiency are common targets of discourse analysis; however, the multi-dimensional nature of discourse can make it difficult to capture specific variables such as these without considering their interrelationship with other linguistic and cognitive functions in discourse production. This project evaluated if behavioral measures indicating lexical retrieval difficulty predict informativeness and efficiency in the discourse of individuals with mild anomic aphasia.

Methods

Picture description transcripts from 26 individuals with anomic aphasia were compiled from Aphasia Bank (MacWhinney et al., 2011). Transcripts were analyzed for percent correct information units (%CIUs, Nicholas & Brookshire, 1993) and percent complete utterances which are relevant (%REL, Edmonds et al., 2009), which served as measures of informativeness. CIUs/min served as a measure of efficiency.

Results

Linear regressions were completed for each dependent variable. Predictors for all models included filled pauses, false starts, and percent pause time. The model for %CIUs was significant with false starts as a significant predictor. The model for CIUs/min was also significant with false starts and percent pause time significantly contributing to the model.

Conclusions

False starts were predictive of word level informativeness and efficiency (%CIUs, CIUs/min) in the discourse of people with anomic aphasia. Percent pause time was also predictive of efficiency. We did not find a significant relationship between behavioral measures of lexical retrieval difficulty and the utterance level measure of relevance (%REL). These findings support a relationship between false starts and the ability to produce relevant discourse at the word level and provide insight into how breakdowns in lexical retrieval can manifest in discourse.

Keyphrases: Anomic Aphasia, discourse, discourse informativeness, lexical retrieval difficulty, mild aphasia

@Booklet{EasyChair:6360,
  author = {Jessica Obermeyer and Audrey Hazamy},
  title = {The Relationship Between Discourse Efficiency, Informativeness, and Behaviors Associated with Lexical Retrieval Difficulty in People with Mild Anomic Aphasia},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint no. 6360},

  year = {EasyChair, 2021}}