The effects of pause time on auditory comprehension of aphasic subjects

Abstract

Aphasic subjects performed a modified version of the Token Test, in which 5 sec pauses were placed at various points in some of the spoken commands in the test. Insertion of pauses generally resulted in substantial improvements in the subjects' ability to carry out the commands. The location of the pauses in the commands did not appear to substantially affect subjects' performance. The results suggest that an insertion of a 5 sec pause may facilitate processing of color, size, and shape information, but not processing of locational or relational information.