Exploring the relationship between auditory, written and multi-modality comprehension at discourse level.

Discourse comprehension refers to understanding beyond sentence level; it involves interaction between linguistic and wider cognitive processes e.g. memory, attention. People with aphasia (communication difficulties following stroke) often have difficulties understanding both spoken and written discourse. The overall aim of the 1+3 research is to improve understanding of discourse comprehension across modalities. The difficulties of people with aphasia will be explored alongside performance of young adults and older adults to look at the contribution of linguistic processing and wider cognitive skills.
The initial Masters project will consider comprehension of short passages in 20 young adults (18-25), 20 older adults (60-80) and 10 people with aphasia. Comprehension accuracy and efficiency will be compared across groups and across condition (auditory only, written only and combined auditory and written). As in previous studies of aphasia, comprehension will be assessed off-line, with participants answering questions after listening to or reading the passage. The relationship between discourse comprehension, attention and working memory skills and client preference will be considered.
The following PhD will draw on the results of the Masters project and a wider review of the literature in both people with aphasia and older adults. For the PhD research, other on-line experimental methods e.g. eye-tracking will be explored. The outcome of the research will be an improved understanding of processes involved in discourse comprehension and the relative cognitive demands of spoken and written comprehension. It will also inform the assessment and treatment of people with aphasia.