Effect of Grid Size andGrammatical Category of Referents on Identification of Symbols in Persons with Aphasia and Neurotypical Adults

EasyChair Preprint 6447

Abstract

Introduction

The current study aims to investigate the effects of grid size and grammatical category of referents on the ability of persons with aphasia and neurotypical adults to identify symbols in a grid display.

Method

The study included 20 persons with aphasia (PWA) and 20 age, gender and education matched neurotypical adults; both native to Kerala, a south-western state in India. The participants had to identify a total of 60 target PCS symbols belonging to different grammatical categories (i.e., nouns, verbs, adjectives and prepositions) from each of the four grid sizes (4, 8, 12 and 16). The accuracy, efficiency, and response time taken to identify symbols in each of the participant groups were subjected to analyses.

Results

 The mean accuracy and efficiency scores declined, and response time increased with an increase in the grid size in both participant groups; however, the rate of decline in persons with aphasia was much higher relative to neurotypical adults. Both participant groups accurately and efficiently identified more nouns with shorter response time followed by verbs, adjectives, and prepositions.

Conclusion

An increase in grid size and use of less concrete symbols requires PWA to rely on perceptual and conceptual cues to identify symbols in a grid display, which taxes the already impaired linguistic and cognitive systems and hence should be considered to minimize operating demands of AAC systems. 

Reference

Petroi, D., Koul, R. K., & Corwin, M. (2014). Effect of Number of Graphic Symbols, Levels, and Listening Conditions on Symbol Identification and Latency in Persons with Aphasia. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 30(1), 40–54. https://doi.org/10.3109/07434618.2014.882984

Keyphrases: India, Neurotypical Adults, aphasia, grammatical category, grid size, symbol identification

@booklet{EasyChair:6447,
  author    = {Vineetha Philip and Satyapalpuri Goswami},
  title     = {Effect of Grid Size andGrammatical Category of Referents on Identification of Symbols in Persons with Aphasia and Neurotypical Adults},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 6447},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2021}}