Narrative Structure in Aphasia: Impact of Task and Aphasia Severity

Assessment of discourse production in aphasia has historically depended upon elicited samples of discourse, for their presumed predictability and test-retest reliability, even though spontaneous narratives may hold more ecological validity. Using a within-subjects design across 14 different discourse elicitation contexts, overall narrative superstructure was found to be robust, although evidence for difficulties with management of narrative evaluation (Labov & Waletzky, 1967) were revealed in the spontaneous narratives, as a function of aphasia severity level. Findings hold implications for the selection and design of clinical discourse tasks, and for our understanding of preservations and potential deficits of narrative structure in aphasia