A Novel Pupillometric Method for Indexing Word Difficulty in Individuals With and Without Aphasia.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

Cognitive effort is a clinically important facet of linguistic processing that is often overlooked in the assessment and treatment of people with aphasia (PWA). Furthermore, there is a paucity of valid ways to index cognitive effort in PWA. The construct of cognitive effort has been indexed for decades via pupillometry (measurement of pupil dilation and constriction during a cognitive task), yet pupillometry has not been implemented in studies including PWA. In the present study, we tested a novel method for indexing cognitive effort during linguistic processing in people with and without aphasia.

Method

Forty control participants and 39 PWA listened to semantically easy and difficult single nouns and looked at images while their pupillary responses were monitored. M

SUBMITTER: Chapman LR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4686311 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature