Table 2.
Language tests
| Category | Test name | Ref | Task |
|---|---|---|---|
| Language comprehension | |||
| Phonology | PALPA segmentation | Kay et al., 1992 | Hear a word or nonword. Listen for first or last sound and choose from a list of 5 sounds. Measures sensitivity to phonological structure. Measure = % correct. |
| CSLB Phonological Relatedness | Adapted from Tyler et al., 2002b | Hear a word and indicate whether it is the same or different. Words are phonologically similar (e.g., “bad”/“bat”; “phone”/“foam”). Measures sensitivity to phonological properties of words. Measure = % correct. | |
| Morphology | Past tense judgments | Adapted from Tyler et al., 2002b, 2005 | Hear two words. Indicate whether they are the same or different. Words are stems and regular or irregular past tenses (e.g., “rinse”/“rinse”; “rinse”/“rinsed”; “sleep”/“slept”). Measures knowledge of morphological structure. Measure = % correct. |
| Syntax | Birkbeck Reversible Sentences | Tyler et al., 2002a, 2010, 2011 | Hear a sentence and match to one of three pictures. Pictures are either correct or depict a syntactic reverse role or a lexical distractor. Frequently selecting the picture with the reverse role indicates insensitivity to syntax. Measure = % error. |
| Semantics | Property Knowledge | Moss and Tyler, 2000; Bright et al., 2008 | Respond to a set of questions about the properties of an object. Correct answers are either yes (“Does a cat have whiskers?”) or no (“Does a fork have skin?”). Measures semantic knowledge. Measure = % correct. |
| Language production | |||
| Phonology | Segmentation task | Tyler et al., 2002b | Repeat a heard word without the final or initial phoneme (hear “Maid,” then produce “may” or “aid”). Measures sensitivity to phonological structure. Measure = % correct. |
| Morphology | Past tense Elicitation: CSLB | Tyler et al., 2002a | Hear a sentence that ends with a verb, together with the beginning of a second sentence (e.g., “My nose sometimes bleeds. Last night, it …” Produce a past tense form using verb in first sentence. Regular or irregular verbs are included. Measures ability to produce morphologically complex words. Measure = % correct. |
| Past Tense Elicitation: Ullman | Ullman et al., 1997 | Similar to above but with a nonsense verb (e.g., “plob”) as an additional condition. Measure = % correct. | |
| Semantics | Picture naming | Bunn et al., 1998; Tyler et al., 2004 | Name colored pictures of common objects. Measures ability to access semantic representations. Measure = % correct. |
| Syntax | Sentence repetition | Adapted from Tyler et al., 2002a | Repeat a set of short sentences taken from the Birkbeck Reversible sentences. Measures ability to produce syntactically well formed sentences. Measure = % correct. |
PALPA, Psycholinguistic assessments of language processing in aphasia.