Pragmatic skills in the early stages of XXXX : an analysis by means of a referential communication task.

@entity1 @entity51 @entity73 @entity195
BACKGROUND: Disordered discourse in cases of @entity195 of @entity195 (DAT) has mainly been described in conversation and picture description tasks. The referential communication task provides researchers and clinicians with new insights on the nature of these disorders. AIMS: To study to what extent @entity1 suffering from DAT can benefit from shared experience through trial repetition to achieve common reference. METHODS _ PROCEDURES: Thirteen @entity1 suffering from DAT at minimal or mild stage (MMSE score range = 18-27) were compared with 13 healthy elderly adults (64-86 years) in neuropsychological assessment of executive functions and in a referential communication paradigm. To study how the two partners achieve mutual understanding by progressively elaborating a common ground, the task was repeated three times. OUTCOMES _ RESULTS: @entity1 with DAT produced a larger number of words than control @entity1 and they benefited from the task repetition. However, they were less able to take into account previously shared information, used no definite referential expressions and were more idiosyncratic in their descriptions of the referent. This decline of communicative effectiveness was found not to relate closely to @entity51 . CONCLUSIONS: Collaborative exchanges allow healthy elderly @entity1 to ground reference in common experience. This process is severely disturbed in @entity1 with DAT, in relation to poor memory of preceding episodes or to other @entity73 .
