http://cogprints.org/9724/
ABaCo: Assessment Battery for Communication
Human communication is
one of the most complex social
activity: it is a process of meaning
construction which cooperatively
involves all participants taking
part in the interaction. Various
clinical conditions may lead to
impairments of communicative
abilities: developmental disorders
(e.g., autism, specific language
impairment, Down syndrome),
brain pathologies (e.g., closed
head injury, right hemisphere
damage, aphasia), psychiatric disorders
(schizophrenia), disorders
of old age (e.g. dementia). The
assessment of a patient’s abilities
and disabilities is the crucial starting
point for planning an efficient
rehabilitation path, where
residual capacities are strengthen
and, whenever possible, impaired
components are restored. However,
while the phonological,
syntactic and semantic components
of language can be assessed
by numerous tests, instruments
for the evaluation of pragmatic
aspects of communication are
scarce (see Sacco et al., 2008 for a
more detailed analysis of the existing
instruments for the assessment
of communication).
The Assessment Battery for
Communication (ABaCo) has
been created to be a theoretically
grounded, wide-range clinical
instrument. Its theoretical bases
stem from Cognitive Pragmatics
theory (Airenti, Bara & Colombetti,
1993; Bara, 2010), a theory of
the cognitive processes underlying
human communicative exchanges,
framed within the inferential
model of communication (Grice,
1975) and the speech acts perspective
(Austin, 1962; Searle, 1969).
The theory has been shown to
be able to make predictions on
typically developing children (Bucciarelli,
Colle & Bara, 2003; Bosco,
Bucciarelli & Bara, 2004; 2006;
Bosco & Buciarelli, 2008; Bosco,
Vallana & Bucciarelli, 2012), atypically
developing children (Bara,
Bosco & Bucciarelli, 1999; Bara,
Bucciarelli & Colle, 2001; De
Marco, Colle & Bucciarelli, 2007),
patients with traumatic brain injury
(Bara, Tirassa & Zettin, 1997;
Bara, Cutica & Tirassa, 2001; Angeleri
et al., 2008), patients with right
and left focal brain lesions (Cutica,
Bucciarelli & Bara, 2006), patients
with Alzheimer’s disease (Bara,
Bucciarelli & Geminiani, 2000)
and patients with schizophrenia
(Bosco, Bono & Bara, 2012). In
this view, communication is the
ability to comprehend and produce
linguistic and extralinguistic
communication acts, accompanied
by suitable paralinguistic features,
appropriate with respect to discourse
and social norms, and fluently
integrated within the conversation.
The ABaCo assesses each of
these components, encompassing
the major aspects involved in communication.
In this paper, we will
briefly describe the features of the
battery, and summarize its psychometric
properties, providing some
suggestions for clinical application.
Sacco, Ph.D Katiuscia
Angeleri, Ph.D. Romina
Colle, Ph.D. Livia
Gabbatore, Ph.D. Ilaria
Bara, Prof. Bruno G.
Bosco, Prof. Francesca M.
Applied Cognitive Psychology
Psycholinguistics
Katiuscia
Sacco
Romina
Angeleri
Livia
Colle
Ilaria
Gabbatore
Bruno G.
Bara
Francesca M.
Bosco