Evaluating Verbal Communication in Structured Interactions: Theoretical and Clinical Implications
Penn State University
Summary
The goal of this clinical trial is to learn about the effect of communicative interaction on verbal communication in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and age-matched speakers. The question is, What are the effects of communicative interaction on verbal communication in people with ALS? Participants will read words and sentences while they are in a solo setting and interactive setting.
Description
PALS and age-matched adults will participate in one solo speech production task (clear speech) and three interactive tasks (structured communicative interaction, unstructured communicative interaction, and clear speech structured communicative interaction) in which they work with an unfamiliar, naive interlocutor. This study is designed to examine the differences in speech produced in the four tasks. Comparisons of speech produced by PALS and age-matched adults will clarify whether differences in speech observed across the four tasks are a function of the speech difficulties experiences by PAL…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 18–90 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria: Speakers with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) (PALS-people with ALS) * diagnosis of ALS following the revised EL Escorial criteria * no history of other neurological conditions (e.g., stroke) * no cognitive impairment assessed by Telephone Montreal Cognitive Assessment (mini MoCA) * detectable speech disturbance according to the ALS Functional Rating Scale-Revised (ALSFRS-R) * the ability to produce single words * being a native speaker of American English (AE). Age-matched Speakers * passing the remote hearing screening * having no known speech, language, or neurol…
Interventions
- BehavioralStructured Communicative Interaction
Two interlocutors, one with ALS and a typical, unfamiliar interlocutor or an age-matched speaker and a typical interlocutor, will work together. On each trial, one of the interlocutors will be randomly chosen to be the "speaker" and the other will be the "listener". Each participant in the pair will view the same set of words on their screens. After one second, one of the words will be highlighted on the speaker's screen, they will say the word in the phrase "Click on the \_\_\_\_ this time", and the listener will click on it. After the listener has made their selection, both participants will receive feedback on trial success.
- BehavioralClear Speech
PALS and age-matched speakers will read critical words consisting of target segments (e.g., "hid", "ship", "net") in random order four times. These words will be embedded in the carrier phrase "Click on the \_\_\_ this time." Participations will be instructed to overenunciate the critical words.
- BehavioralUnstructured communicative interaction
Two interlocutors, one with ALS and a typical, unfamiliar interlocutor or an age-matched speaker and a typical interlocutor, will work together. The pairs will be presented with two different versions of the same picture with eight differences chosen to elicit the same target segments (e.g., "hid", "ship", "net"). These pictures will be modified from the LUCID corpus. In total, pairs will complete four picture sets per session. Pairs will be given 5 minutes for each picture set.
- Behavioral
Location
- Speech Core, Pennsylvania State UniversityUniversity Park, Pennsylvania