Accuracy, efficiency and preferences of survivors of traumatic brain injury when using three organization strategies to retrieve words

Abstract

The primary objective was to compare the accuracy and preferences of adult survivors of traumatic brain injury (TBI) when using three organization strategies--semantic topic, geographic place and a word's first letter (alphabet)--to retrieve words using augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) technology. A repeated measures research design was employed. Twelve adult survivors of TBI ranging in age from 18-50 years participated in the study. These participants retrieved words using an AAC system organized using the three experimental conditions. In addition, they rank-ordered their preferences for each of the three strategies. Results showed that adults with TBI retrieve words more accurately and more efficiently when using the alphabet organization strategy than when using the topic or place strategies. Despite this, participants expressed a preference for using the topic strategy. Explanations for the findings and implications for AAC use are provided.

Dementia after traumatic brain injury

“…Aphasia tends to resolve in the majority of cases during the first year following trauma, but anomia may remain a longterm linguistic deficit (Burke et al, 2004;Jurado et al, 2000;Levin et al, 2001). TBI patients may also have high-order language alterations and present with a defective narrative discourse, lack of semantic coherence, aprosody and impaired pragmatics of communication (Galski et al, 1998;Isaki and Turkstra, 2000;Martin and McDonald, 2003;Snow et al, 1998).…”

Technology and its role in rehabilitation for people with cognitive-communication disability following a traumatic brain injury (TBI)

“…Two literature reviews provided In the past decade, several papers have been published relating to the use of AAC by people with a TBI [29,[31][32][33][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71]75,112,122], comprising case series studies [29,[31][32][33]112], single case experiments [59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71], and qualitative studies [47,75]; with a majority focus on device screen display [29,[31][32][33]112], access [47,[59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71], and emerging research into …”

“…Studies on the use of AAC in rehabilitation for people with TBI (n = 27) while relatively high in number, were small-scale, and comprised: two narrative reviews [26,34] [47,75]; with a majority focus on device screen display [29, [31][32][33]112], access [47,[59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71], and emerging research into user perspectives [46,75]. Research highlighting factors influencing use of AAC by individuals after TBI provides insight into how technology may facilitate increased independence and participation.…”

Message retrieval for survivors of traumatic brain injury

“…This study builds upon the research of Burke, Beukelman, and Hux (2004), who found that alphabet was the fastest and most efficient method of word retrieval for adults with TBI. However, Burke et al (2004) also found that participants chose to use a topic strategy the majority of the time (46%) as compared to place (30%) and alphabet (23%), despite its reduced efficiency.…”

“…This study builds upon the research of Burke, Beukelman, and Hux (2004), who found that alphabet was the fastest and most efficient method of word retrieval for adults with TBI. However, Burke et al (2004) also found that participants chose to use a topic strategy the majority of the time (46%) as compared to place (30%) and alphabet (23%), despite its reduced efficiency. It is possible that subjects in the Burke et al study were insufficiently challenged by the direct, live-voice commands (e.g., Go to where you can find the word nurse), and that increased communicative load might have lead subjects to utilize a strategy that was more efficient (e.g., A nurse gives you a shot at the doctor's office.…”