Identifying behavior associated with verbal self-corrections of aphasic clients

The purposes of this study were to define certain behaviors associated with verbal self-correction efforts of aphasic clients and to determine the accuracy with which these behaviors might be identified by clinical observers. Seven explicit definitions were written for behaviors associated with aphasic clients' self-correction attempts on single-word and short-answer language production tasks. To determine the accuracy with which defined behaviors could be identified, observers (N = 7) were asked to view 400 randomly selected speech samples and to code the type of self-correction event for each sample. The accuracy of these judgments was ascertained by calculating the percentages of observers' agreements with judgments made previously by the experimenters. Results showed observers were able to identify explicitly defined behaviors at levels of accuracy ranging from 73%-99%. When observers' judgments did not agree with those of the experimenters, inaccuracies tended to be logical and to cluster in particular categories. Findings suggest a need for further study of behaviors associated with aphasic individuals' self-correction efforts, particularly with reference to the significance of these behaviors to recovery from aphasia, and to aphasic symptomatology in general.