The purpose of this study was to describe the narrative and conversational discourse of a group of adults with right hemisphere damage (RHD). Seven RHD subjects with a median age of 61 years (Range = 65-68 years) and seven normal control subjects with a median age of 65 years (Range = 55-69 years) participated in the study. RHD subjects suffered a stroke in the distribution of the middle cerebral artery at least four weeks but not more than five months prior to data collection. Narrative discourse samples included retellings of two single-episode narratives and production of a personal experience narrative. Conversational samples included two 15-minute samples (i.e., one with a familiar interactor and one with an unfamiliar interactor). Fourteen persons who were familiar to the respective RHD and normal control subjects served as familiar interactors during conversational samples. / Findings revealed that the RHD subjects recalled less information from spoken narratives than did the normal control subjects. The RHD subjects' recall differed significantly with the two passages used, even though the passages were of similar length and syntactic complexity. The narrative composition (i.e., scripted versus nonscripted) may have influenced recall. RHD subjects recalled significantly fewer a priori propositions in the narrative superstructure categories of complicating action and evaluation for the nonscripted narrative. The personal experience narratives of both groups of subjects were similar. Results indicated that the narratives of the RHD subjects were schema-driven (i.e., demonstrated narrative superstructure organization), but some impairment was evident relative to the normal subjects. / There were no significant differences between the RHD and normal subjects on measures of turn-taking, topic manipulation, or communicative informativeness during conversation samples. Unfamiliar interactions resulted in both groups of subjects engaging in longer speaking turns, providing more new information, and requesting less information. Results of a questionnaire administered to significant others of the RHD subjects provided information for determining whether conversational profiles displayed by the RHD subjects were typical of pre-stroke abilities. Clinical implications are discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-12, Section: B, page: 5833. / Major Professor: Amy M. Wetherby. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_78404 |
| Contributors | Solberg, Larry C., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 158 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
Page generated in 0.0624 seconds