| Description |
This investigation examined the effect of repeated sampling (i.e., test- retest) produced within the context of discourse elicited by the Nicholas and Brookshire (1993) discourse elicitation and language analysis procedures. The Nicholas and Brookshire (1993) Correct Information Units (CIUs) are extensively used in aphasic literature to gauge treatment outcomes, but few researchers have examined the temporal stability of this language measure in individuals with aphasia. Eighteen individuals with aphasia produced language samples over three sampling times. A repeated measures, group design was used to examine the stability of language measures over repeated sampling occasions. The following measurements were calculated and compared: total number of CIUs, percent CIU productivity, number of CIU nouns, number of CIU verbs, open class CIU words, CIU closed class words, well-formed sentences, and lexical diversity. Values for correlation coefficients were used to assess group stability of performance and standard error of measurement was used to assess individual stability of performance. Measures stable enough to use in group research included number of words, number of CIUs, percent CIUs, number of CIU nouns, number of CIU verbs, number of CIU open class words, and number of CIU closed class words. At the individual level, no participants achieved stability in performance across all measures, but 1 participant achieved stability in performance for all but CIU open class words. The majority of the participants were not stable in performance for the majority of the measures. Researchers and clinicians using the Nicholas and Brookshire (1993) language elicitation system can expect stability in performance for the examined language measures in groups of participants. For individuals, performance for the examined language measures is expected to be not stable in performance for some and stable in performance for others. |
