Navigation of a Dynamic Screen AAC Interface by Survivors of Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

The researchers examined the effect of cognitive flexibility, image contextualization, and prompt type on accuracy and speed when adults with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) navigated dynamic screen augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) interfaces. Eighteen participants formed two groups based on cognitive flexibility status. Given matching informative versus uninformative prompts and three image contextualization conditions, participants located words on 3-level AAC systems. ANOVA computations revealed differences between groups and between prompt types for navigation accuracy; differences occurred among image conditions and between prompt types for navigation speed. Analyses using responses from participants with cognitive flexibility challenges revealed inter-subject variability regarding error types. Overall, findings suggest cognitive flexibility may predict who may and may not need explicit training to master AAC device navigation.