A Novel Pupillometric Method for Indexing Word Difficulty in Individuals With and Without XXXX .

@entity1 @entity2026 @entity15496
PURPOSE: Cognitive effort is a clinically important facet of linguistic processing that is often overlooked in the assessment and treatment of @entity1 with @entity2026 (PWA). Furthermore, there is a paucity of valid ways to index cognitive effort in PWA. The construct of cognitive effort has been indexed for decades via pupillometry (measurement of pupil dilation and @entity15496 during a cognitive task), yet pupillometry has not been implemented in studies including PWA. In the present study, we tested a novel method for indexing cognitive effort during linguistic processing in @entity1 with and without @entity2026 . METHOD: Forty control @entity1 and 39 PWA listened to semantically easy and difficult single nouns and looked at images while their pupillary responses were monitored. Mean pupil dilation in response to easy versus difficult nouns was calculated to index cognitive effort. RESULTS: Larger mean pupil dilation values were obtained for difficult compared with easy nouns for both groups. CONCLUSION: Results provide preliminary evidence that pupillometry can be used to index cognitive effort during linguistic processing of single nouns in @entity1 with and without @entity2026 . Methods for indexing cognitive effort will be a valuable addition to existing assessment methods. Suggestions for further research are offered.
