Jennifer Mack

2021-22 Scholars Project Title: Impact of Self-disclosure of Aphasia on Neurotypical Listeners

To comprehend language successfully, we need to adjust our linguistic expectations to different speakers and contexts. Yet, we know little about how neurotypical adult listeners adjust to speakers with communication disorders. Aphasia is a language disorder caused by damage to the brain (most commonly a stroke) that affects over 2 million people in the US. In everyday contexts, many people with aphasia self-disclose their aphasia with new conversation partners in the hopes of improving the chances of communicative success. This project examines the impact of self-disclosure of aphasia on neurotypical listeners: their attitudes towards the speaker, their ability to comprehend the speaker, and the moment-to-moment changes in their language system that happen as they adjust to the speaker. The results of this work may guide interventions focused on neurotypical conversation partners of people with aphasia (e.g., communication partner training, aphasia education campaigns) and inform theories about how listeners’ language systems adapt to comprehend neurologically diverse speakers.