Abstract
Several recent studies have suggested that persons with multiple sclerosis (MS) have diminished syntactic complexity. A greater variability in responses to a variety of tasks has also been noted for persons with MS. However, naturalistic data on syntactic complexity and the complexity's variability in persons with MS have not been examined. In the present study, 8 volunteers with MS (age 18-70 years) and 10 adults without MS participated in both a 15-minute conversational language sample and a sentence completion task in two different sessions. No significant differences were found between groups on any measure, and variability within the groups was similar. This may have been because volunteers were people with mild cases of MS or those in a state of remission and may not be representative of persons who were at a more advanced stage of the disease or in a state of exacerbation.
Degree
MS
College and Department
David O. McKay School of Education; Communication Disorders
Rights
http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/
BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
Bjorkman, Kristin Diane, "Variability of Syntactic Complexity in Persons With and Without Multiple Sclerosis" (2010). Theses and Dissertations. 2137.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/2137
Date Submitted
2010-07-07
Document Type
Thesis
Handle
http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd3723
Keywords
Multiple Sclerosis, language, syntax
Language
English