Fergadiotis Gerasimos, Wright Heather Harris, Capilouto Gilson J
Department of Speech and Hearing Science, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.
Aphasiology. 2011 Jan 10;25(10):1261-1278. doi: 10.1080/02687038.2011.606974. Epub 2011 Sep 26.
The goals of the study were (a) to examine the effect of discourse type on lexical diversity by testing whether there are significant differences among language samples elicited using four discourse tasks (procedures, eventcasts, story telling, and recounts); and (b) to assess the extent to which age influences lexical diversity when different types of discourse are elicited. METHODS #ENTITYSTARTX00026; PROCEDURES: A total of 86 cognitively healthy adults participated in the study and comprised two groups - young adults (20-29 years old) and older adults (70-89 years old). Participants completed the discourse tasks and their language samples were analysed using dedicated software (voc-D) to obtain estimates of their lexical diversity. OUTCOMES #ENTITYSTARTX00026; RESULTS: A mixed 2 × 4 ANOVA was conducted and followed by an investigation of simple main effects. A lexical diversity hierarchy was established that was similar for both age groups. The study also uncovered age-related differences that were evident when the stimuli were verbally presented but were eliminated when the language samples were elicited using pictorial stimuli. CONCLUSIONS: Results indicated that lexical diversity is one of the microlinguistic indices that are influenced by discourse type and age, a finding that carries important methodological implications. Future investigations are warranted to explore the patterns of lexical diversity in individuals with neurogenic language disorders and assess the clinical utility of measures of lexical diversity.
本研究的目标是：（a）通过测试使用四种话语任务（程序、事件播报、讲故事和叙述）引出的语言样本之间是否存在显著差异，来检验话语类型对词汇多样性的影响；（b）评估在引出不同类型的话语时，年龄在多大程度上影响词汇多样性。方法#实体开始X00026；程序：共有86名认知健康的成年人参与了本研究，他们分为两组——年轻人（20至29岁）和老年人（70至89岁）。参与者完成话语任务，其语言样本使用专用软件（voc-D）进行分析，以获得其词汇多样性的估计值。结果#实体开始X00026；结果：进行了一个混合的2×4方差分析，随后对简单主效应进行了调查。建立了一个词汇多样性层次结构，两个年龄组相似。该研究还发现了与年龄相关的差异，这些差异在口头呈现刺激时很明显，但在使用图片刺激引出语言样本时则消失了。结论：结果表明，词汇多样性是受话语类型和年龄影响的微观语言指标之一，这一发现具有重要的方法学意义。有必要进行进一步的研究，以探索神经源性语言障碍患者的词汇多样性模式，并评估词汇多样性测量方法的临床效用。
