Eighteen years on: What next for the PALPA?

Abstract

The Psycholinguistic Assessments of Language Processing Abilities (PALPA) is a battery of tests designed to assess language processing abilities in individuals with acquired aphasia. Published in 1992, the battery was well-received by both clinicians and researchers, yet no revised version has been published to date. In this paper, we examine contemporary usage of the PALPA in both clinical and research settings, to inform decisions regarding future developments of the resource. First, we carried out a literature search to identify all published papers that have cited the PALPA since 2003, and compared our findings to those from an earlier search covering the period from 1991 to 2002. Second, we created an online survey that examined current usage of the PALPA in both clinicians and researchers. Our findings suggest the PALPA continues to be a well-used tool in both clinical and research settings, but could benefit from some improvements in its content and presentation. Further, there are time constraints in administering the PALPA, indicating an additional component for general-screening purposes would be a welcome extension to the battery.