The effects of message speed on auditory comprehension in patients with cerebral cranial injury

A brief preliminary report is presented on the effects of varying the speed of a spoken message on the performance of motor tasks by patients with cerebral cranial injury. The token test for aphasia was recorded at three different speech time compression/expansion ratios, then presented under sound field (loudspeaker) conditions to three groups of subjects, one of normal young adults as a control, the second of patients with cerebral cranial injury without evidence of aphasia, and the third containing CCI patients with aphasia. Results are reported for speech speed increases (compression) of 25% and 50% and for a speed decrease (expansion) of 35%.