Alice Kennedy

• BSc (Hons) Speech and Language Sciences
• Investigating assessment of paragraph level understanding; paragraph and question properties

People with aphasia (acquired language difficulties post-stroke) often have problems reading and understanding text. This project investigated the properties of a test of paragraph comprehension that has been designed for people with aphasia. The test consists of 15 paragraphs followed by a set of questions which target specific types of information. The project considered text dependency (do people need to read the paragraphs to answer the questions) and the relationship between the paragraphs and their questions. The study found with the exception of 2 paragraphs and 15 questions, text dependency was at an acceptable level. There was more variability in the extent to which there was consensus about what were main ideas or details. These findings indicate the original assessment may need revision; questions with a low text dependency indicate they are not testing reading comprehension whilst others may not be testing what they intend to (main ideas and details).

Funding source: Newcastle University

Supervisors: Dr Janet Webster and Dr Julie Morris