Conversation with traumatically brain injured individuals: a controlled study of behavioural changes and their impact

Abstract

The conversations of 62 traumatically brain injured TBI patients, assessed between 6 months and 3 years post injury, were compared with those of an orthopaedic control OC group (n = 25). Conversations involving TBI subjects were rated as significantly less interesting, less appropriate, less rewarding and more effortful than interactions involving OC subjects, and were characterized by differences in the frequency of prompt usage and turn duration. Furthermore, measures of turn duration and prompt frequency were significantly associated with the perceived quality of conversa tion. These findings provide a microbehavioural description of the social process through which TBI individuals fail to adequately reinforce others.