ABSTRACT

Aims

This study aimed to standardize and assess the psychometric properties of a selected protocol of subtests from the Psycholinguistic Assessments of Language Processing in Aphasia (PALPA), a battery of tests that measures a wide range of language abilities underpinned by a cognitive neuropsychological model of language processing.

Methods

One hundred healthy participants were recruited (mean age 64 ± 10.4 years) as part of a large population-based study assessing cognitive change in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and were assessed using the PALPA protocol. Reliability was measured by means of internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Validity was assessed through an inter-correlational analysis between PALPA subtests and a correlational analysis between PALPA subtests and external variables. A supplementary validation study (n = 35) of the Auditory Sentence – Picture Matching subtest of the PALPA against the TROG-2, another test of grammatical and syntactic processing, was carried out.

Results

The PALPA protocol had good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha coefficient = 0.78). Intra-class correlations indicated moderate to excellent test-retest reliability (ICCs ranging from 0.62 to 0.93), with significant agreements (p <.05) between time points in most cases. Validity of PALPA subtests was demonstrated by significant positive correlations among PALPA subtests (especially between those measuring the same language construct, ranging from 0.41 to 0.74). Moreover, the PALPA subtests correlated equivalently with external variables such as age, years of education and IQ, which further supported construct validity.

Conclusion

This study has proven adequate reliability and validity of a standardized protocol of the PALPA. Based on results from the assessment of psychometric properties of the PALPA protocol studied, adjusted IQ-based PALPA scores were generated.

中文翻译：

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失语症语言处理心理语言学评估 (PALPA) 的验证和标准化

摘要

宗旨

本研究旨在标准化和评估来自失语症语言处理心理语言学评估 (PALPA) 的选定子测试协议的心理测量特性，这是一组测试，以语言处理的认知神经心理学模型为基础，测量各种语言能力.

方法

招募了 100 名健康参与者（平均年龄 64 ± 10.4 岁），作为评估肌萎缩侧索硬化 (ALS) 认知变化的大型人群研究的一部分，并使用 PALPA 协议进行评估。信度是通过内部一致性和重测信度来衡量的。通过 PALPA 子测试之间的相互关联分析以及 PALPA 子测试与外部变量之间的相关分析来评估有效性。对听觉句子 - PALPA 的图片匹配子测试与 TROG-2 进行了补充验证研究（n = 35），这是另一个语法和句法处理测试。

结果

PALPA 协议具有良好的内部一致性（Cronbach α 系数 = 0.78）。类内相关性表明中度至优异的重测信度（ICC 范围从 0.62 到 0.93），在大多数情况下，时间点之间具有显着的一致性（p <.05）。PALPA 子测试之间的显着正相关证明了 PALPA 子测试的有效性（尤其是那些测量相同语言结构的测试之间，范围从 0.41 到 0.74）。此外，PALPA 子测试与外部变量（如年龄、受教育年限和智商）等价相关，这进一步支持了结构效度。

结论

本研究已证明 PALPA 标准化协议具有足够的可靠性和有效性。根据对所研究的 PALPA 协议的心理测量特性的评估结果，生成了基于 IQ 的调整后的 PALPA 分数。