Abstract

Objective

Nonliteral language comprehension disorders in individuals with acquired brain injuries (ABI) are frequently reported in the literature but rarely assessed in clinical settings. A major reason is the lack of tools available to clinicians. Therefore, the present study aimed to further promote the pragmatic assessment routine by creating a new nonliteral language comprehension tool for ABI individuals: the IRRI test. This tool is intended to be standardized and capable of directing clinicians to cognitive deficits underlying a poor understanding of nonliteral language—context processing, executive functions, and theory of mind.

Method

Three studies were conducted. The first study aimed at constructing the two IRRI test tasks: the irony and indirect requests comprehension tasks. These tasks integrate the cognitive processes within them. The second study aimed at analyzing the tasks’ psychometric qualities in a sample of 33 ABI participants and 33 healthy participants (HC). Preliminary normative data obtained from 102 healthy French-speaking subjects were collected in the third study.

Results

Significant differences in the IRRI test’s performances were observed between the ABI and HC individuals. The indirect requests task demonstrated robust convergent validity and good sensibility to discriminate altered participants among ABI participants. Both IRRI test’s tasks also showed excellent test–retest and inter-rater reliability. The preliminary norms were stratified according to the conditions of interest in relation to the cognitive mechanisms underlying the understanding of nonliteral language.

Conclusions

The IRRI test is a promising new standardized test of nonliteral language comprehension, which contributes to identifying cognitive-pragmatic profiles to guide therapy.

中文翻译：

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讽刺和间接请求理解的新测试——IRRI 测试：法语成人的验证和规范数据

摘要

客观的

获得性脑损伤 (ABI) 患者的非文字语言理解障碍经常在文献中报道，但很少在临床环境中进行评估。一个主要原因是缺乏可供临床医生使用的工具。因此，本研究旨在通过为 ABI 个体创建一种新的非文字语言理解工具：IRRI 测试，进一步促进语用评估程序。该工具旨在标准化，并能够指导临床医生解决因对非文字语言（上下文处理、执行功能和心理理论）理解不佳而导致的认知缺陷。

方法

进行了三项研究。第一项研究旨在构建两个 IRRI 测试任务：反讽和间接请求理解任务。这些任务整合了其中的认知过程。第二项研究旨在分析 33 名 ABI 参与者和 33 名健康参与者 (HC) 样本中任务的心理测量质量。在第三项研究中收集了从 102 名健康的讲法语的受试者获得的初步规范数据。

结果

在 ABI 和 HC 个体之间观察到 IRRI 测试表现的显着差异。间接请求任务证明了强大的收敛效度和区分 ABI 参与者中改变的参与者的良好敏感性。两项 IRRI 测试的任务也显示出出色的重测和评分者间信度。初步规范根据与理解非文字语言的认知机制相关的兴趣条件进行分层。

结论

IRRI 测试是一项很有前途的新的非文字语言理解标准化测试，它有助于识别认知-语用概况以指导治疗。