Evaluating Verbal Communication in Structured Interactions: Theoretical and Clinical Implications

Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn about the effect of communicative interaction on verbal communication in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and age-matched speakers.

The question is, What are the effects of communicative interaction on verbal communication in people with ALS?

Participants will read words and sentences while they are in a solo setting and interactive setting.

Conditions

• Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Structured Communicative Interaction

Two interlocutors, one with ALS and a typical, unfamiliar interlocutor or an age-matched speaker and a typical interlocutor, will work together. On each trial, one of the interlocutors will be randomly chosen to be the "speaker" and the other will be the "listener". Each participant in the pair will view the same set of words on their screens. After one second, one of the words will be highlighted on the speaker's screen, they will say the word in the phrase "Click on the \_\_\_\_ this time", and the listener will click on it. After the listener has made their selection, both participants will receive feedback on trial success.

BEHAVIORAL

Clear Speech

PALS and age-matched speakers will read critical words consisting of target segments (e.g., "hid", "ship", "net") in random order four times. These words will be embedded in the carrier phrase "Click on the \_\_\_ this time." Participations will be instructed to overenunciate the critical words.

BEHAVIORAL

Unstructured communicative interaction

Two interlocutors, one with ALS and a typical, unfamiliar interlocutor or an age-matched speaker and a typical interlocutor, will work together. The pairs will be presented with two different versions of the same picture with eight differences chosen to elicit the same target segments (e.g., "hid", "ship", "net"). These pictures will be modified from the LUCID corpus. In total, pairs will complete four picture sets per session. Pairs will be given 5 minutes for each picture set.

BEHAVIORAL

Clear Speech Structured Communicative Interaction

Two interlocutors, one with ALS and a typical, unfamiliar interlocutor or an age-matched speaker and a typical interlocutor, will work together. On each trial, one of the interlocutors will be randomly chosen to be the "speaker" and the other will be the "listener". Each participant in the pair will view the same set of words on their screens. After one second, one of the words will be highlighted on the speaker's screen, they will say the word in the phrase "Click on the \_\_\_\_ this time", and the listener will click on it. The speaker will be instructed to overenunciate the critical words. After the listener has made their selection, both participants will receive feedback on trial success.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Penn State University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Jimin Lee, PhD · The Pennsylvania State University

• Navin Viswanathan, PhD · The Pennsylvania State University

• Anne Olmstead, PhD · The Pennsylvania State University

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

90 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2024-11-05

Primary Completion

2029-02-28

Completion

2029-02-28

Countries

• United States

Study Locations