Verbal Description of Concrete Objects: A Method for Assessing Semantic Circumlocution in Persons With Aphasia

Evaluating circumlocution in naming as a predictor of communicative informativeness and efficiency in discourse

Background

Discourse analyses yield quantitative measures of functional communication in aphasia. However, they are historically underutilized in clinical settings. Confrontation naming assessments are used widely clinically and have been used to estimate discourse-level production. Such work shows that naming accuracy explains moderately high proportions of variance in measures of discourse, but proportions of variance remain unexplained. We propose that the inclusion of circumlocution productions into predictive models will account for a significant amount more of the variance. Circumlocution productions at the naming-level, while they may not contain the target word, are similar to the content that contributes to discourse informativeness and efficiency. Thus, additionally measuring circumlocution may improve our ability to estimate discourse performance and functional communication.

Aim

This study aimed to test whether, after controlling for naming accuracy, the addition of a measure of circumlocution into predictive models of discourse-level informativeness and efficiency would account for a significant amount more of the variance in these discourse-level outcomes.

Methods & Procedures

Naming and discourse data from 43 people with poststroke aphasia were analyzed. Naming data were collected using 120 pictured items and discourse data were collected using two picture description prompts. Data scoring and coding yielded measures of naming accuracy, incorrect response type, communicative informativeness, and efficiency. We used robust hierarchical regression to evaluate study predictions.

Outcomes & Results

After controlling for naming accuracy, the inclusion of circumlocution into predictive models accounted for a significant amount more of the variance in both informativeness and efficiency. The subsequent inclusion of other response types, such as real word and nonword errors, did not account for a significant amount more of the variance in either outcome.

Conclusions

In addition to naming accuracy, the production of circumlocution during naming assessments may correspond with measures of informativeness and efficiency at the discourse-level. Reducing the burden of estimating patients' functional communication will increase our ability to estimate functional communication using tools that are easy to administer and interpret.