Varieties of linguistic complexity in a standardized assessment of language performance

This study examined the comprehension of linguistically complex sentences among unimpaired adults and adults with aphasia. Participants completed a self-paced reading version of the Computerized Revised Token Test (CRTT-R) containing passive sentences, sentences with adverbial clauses, and sentences with discontinuous adjective-noun dependencies. Off-line measures revealed clear effects of linguistic complexity for passive and discontinuous-dependency sentences, with more complex sentences eliciting lower scores for impaired and aphasic groups, but not for sentences with adverbial clauses. In contrast, on-line measures revealed the opposite pattern: less complex sentences elicited slower reading times. Off-line measures appear more sensitive to linguistic complexity in this task