A computerized linguistic measure, the Weighted Referential Activity Dictionary (WRAD), was applied to locate nodal turns of speech in psychotherapy, defined here as significant moments of patient emotional communication that are likely to reveal important themes. Two published demonstration sessions conducted by a senior clinician, who made extensive comments on this material, were utilized to illustrate the method. The WRAD, defined in the context of referential process theory, was developed and has been validated as assessing the vividness and immediacy of language. Segments of patient speech (turns of speech) were classified based on WRAD level and sufficient length. The themes of the therapist’s clinical comments concerning high WRAD segments were coded using a category system developed for this study, and were compared to themes of comments for the remaining segments. Results showed a significant difference in the therapist’s comments between the two groups of segments using Fisher’s exact test. In particular, the therapist’s comments on the nodal turns showed more focus on the emotional effects of the patient’s utterances on him, as well as identification of unexpected disclosures in these utterances. The implications and limitations of this method are discussed.

一种计算机化的语言测量，即加权参考活动词典 (WRAD)，被应用于定位心理治疗中的语言节点转变，这里将其定义为可能揭示重要主题的患者情感交流的重要时刻。由一位资深临床医生主持的两个已发表的演示会议被用来说明该方法，他们对本材料发表了广泛的评论。在指称过程理论的背景下定义的 WRAD 被开发并被验证为评估语言的生动性和直接性。根据 WRAD 级别和足够的长度对患者语音段（语音轮次）进行分类。治疗师关于高 WRAD 段的临床评论的主题使用为本研究开发的分类系统进行编码，并与其余部分的评论主题进行了比较。结果显示，使用 Fisher 精确检验，治疗师对两组患者的评论存在显着差异。尤其是，治疗师对节点转向的评论更侧重于患者话语对他的情感影响，以及对这些话语中意外披露的识别。讨论了这种方法的含义和局限性。