Reliability of the picture description task of the Western Aphasia Battery – revised in Laurentian French persons without brain injury

Abstract

Objective: Limited normative data (including psychometric properties) are currently available on discourse tasks in non-dominant languages such as Laurentian (Quebec) French. The lack of linguistic and cultural adaptation has been identified as a barrier to discourse assessment. The main aim of this study is to document inter-rater and test-retest reliability properties of the picnic scene of the Western Aphasia Battery – Revised (WAB-R), including the cultural adaptation of an information content unit (ICU) list, and provide a normative reference for persons without brain injury (PWBI). Method: To do so, we also aimed to adapt an ICU checklist culturally and linguistically for Laurentian French speakers. Discourse samples were collected from 66 PWBI using the picture description task of the WAB-R. The ICU list was first adapted into Laurentian French. Then, ICUs and thematic units (TUs) were extracted manually, and microstructural variables were extracted using CLAN. Inter-rater reliability and test-retest reliability were determined. Results: Excellent inter-rater reliability was obtained for ICUs and TUs, as well as for all microstructural variables, except for mean length of utterance, which was found to be good. Conversely, test-retest reliability ranged from poor to moderate for all variables. Conclusion: The present study provides a validated ICU checklist for clinicians and researchers working with Laurentian French speakers when assessing discourse with the picnic scene of the WAB-R. It also addresses the gap in available psychometric data regarding inter-rater and test-retest reliability in PWBI.

Keywords:

• Discourse analysis
• reliability
• picture description
• persons without brain injury

Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to all the participants who contributed to this study. Also, we wish to thank Marianne Désilets-Barnabé and Noémie Desjardins for their help in data collection. This project was funded by the Heart and Stroke Foundation (grant-in-aid numbers G-16-00014039 and G-19-0026212) to K.M. and S.M.B. S.M.B. K.M. holds a Career Award from the "Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Santé." A.B. holds a scholarship from the "Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Santé."

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The raw data presented in this article are not readily available because of the sensitivity of the video materials. The datasets analysed for the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by the Heart and Stroke Foundation (grant-in-aid numbers G-16-00014039 and G-19-0026212) to K.M. and S.M.B. K.M. holds a Career Award from the "Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Santé." A.B. holds a scholarship from the "Fonds de Recherche du Québec – S.