AphasiaPAUSENCT06990997
Effects of Aphasia Identification Cards on Service Workers' Comprehension of People With Aphasia
A study testing Aphasia identification (ID) card in people with Aphasia, run by University of Massachusetts, Amherst at 1 site in United States.
Trial summary
The goal of this clinical trial is to learn whether healthy volunteers are more successful at understanding people with aphasia if they have first viewed an aphasia identification (ID) card. Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 18 to 59 yearsHealthy volunteers can take part
- Conditions the study is for
- Aphasia
- What is being tested?
- Aphasia identification (ID) card
- Type of treatment
- Lifestyle or therapy programme
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 160 participants
- Where
- 1 siteUnited States
- Study dates
- 22 Sep 2025to 28 Feb 2027
- Phase
- Interventional
- Are there results?
- Not yet: the study is under way
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 18 to 59 years
- All sexes
- Healthy volunteers accepted
- Adult
Who may be able to join
- Adult age 18-59
- Currently employed as a service worker
- Understand spoken and written English well
- High school diploma or equivalency
- Normal vision or corrected vision with glasses or contact lenses
Who cannot join
- Language disorder
- Hearing impairment
- Intellectual disability
- History of acquired neurological disorder (e.g., stroke or moderate/severe brain injury)
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country. Contact the study team or a site near you to ask about taking part.
Holly Laws, PhD contact
United States1 site, 1 recruiting
- Recruiting
UMass Amherst Henry M. Thomas III Center at Springfield
Springfield, Massachusetts, 01115
Jennifer E Mack, PhD, 413-545-8468, jemack@umass.edu
Jennifer E Mack, PhD
About this study
Official title: Effects of Aphasia Identification Cards on Comprehension of Aphasic Language by Unfamiliar Communication Partners
The goal of this clinical trial is to learn whether healthy volunteers are more successful at understanding people with aphasia if they have first viewed an aphasia identification (ID) card. The main questions this study aims to answer are:
- Does viewing an aphasia ID card improve healthy volunteers' understanding of the language errors made by people with aphasia?
- Does viewing an aphasia ID card improve healthy volunteers' understanding of people with aphasia who make long pauses in their speech?
Read more
Researchers will compare aphasia ID cards to a control condition (no ID card) to see whether aphasia ID cards improve healthy volunteers' understanding.
Healthy volunteers will visit the study site for a single session (about 2 hours long). During the session they will:
- Complete brief tests of their vision, hearing and thinking
- Listen to sentences produced by a speaker with aphasia while their eye movements are recorded
- Complete a survey about the experience of listening to the speaker with aphasia
Read the detailed description
People with aphasia often experience challenges conveying their thoughts to unfamiliar communication partners, which is critical for living independently and building new social connections. This line of research has two long-term objectives: to improve unfamiliar communication partners' comprehension of people with aphasia, and to support people with aphasia in advocating for their communication needs. This project addresses these goals with a focus on service workers, who interact directly with customers to provide goods, services, or information. Being understood by service workers is often necessary to complete essential tasks such as purchasing food and picking up medication. This project investigates whether service workers comprehend speakers with aphasia more accurately when they have first read an aphasia identification (ID) card. Aphasia ID cards contain written self-advocacy statements that disclose the speaker's aphasia, define aphasia, and provide guidance on how to communicate successfully. These statements have been shown to improve unfamiliar communication partners' attitudes (knowledge about aphasia, emotions, and behavior), which improves communication experiences for people with aphasia. This project tests the central hypothesis that, by improving unfamiliar communication partners' attitudes, aphasia ID cards facilitate key language processes that improve their comprehension of people with aphasia. This randomized controlled trial will enroll 160 service workers. Half of the service workers will view an aphasia ID card for a speaker with aphasia, and half will not. Then, all service workers will complete tasks measuring their attitudes, language processing, and comprehension of service requests (i.e., requests for goods, services, or information) produced by speakers with aphasia. Eye-tracking will be used to measure key language processes that take place while service workers listen to the service requests. The Specific Aims are to investigate how viewing an aphasia ID card affects service workers' attitudes, language processing, and comprehension when people with aphasia produce long pauses (Aim 1) and paraphasias (word-retrieval errors) (Aim 2). By rigorously investigating the effects of aphasia ID cards on service workers' attitudes, language processing, and comprehension, this project will contribute to the long-term goals of improving unfamiliar communication partners' comprehension and helping people with aphasia self-advocate effectively.
- Conditions
- Aphasia
- Being tested
- Aphasia identification (ID) card
- Keywords
- Aphasia, Communication partner, Service worker, Language processing, Language comprehension, aphasia identification card, eye-tracking
- Medical subject headings
- Aphasia
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
Aphasia identification (ID) cardBehavioural
Participants will view an aphasia ID card for a speaker with aphasia. The card will disclose the speaker's aphasia, define aphasia, and request time to communicate.
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Aphasia Identification Card | Experimental | Participants will view an aphasia ID card for a speaker with aphasia. The card will disclose the speaker's aphasia, define aphasia, and request time to communicate. Receives: Behavioral: Aphasia identification (ID) card |
| No Card | No intervention | Participants in this arm will not receive an intervention. |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Comprehension accuracy for sentences with long pauses in the Service Request Comprehension Task
Percent correct mouse-click responses on the Service Request Comprehension Task for sentences with long pauses. The Service Request Comprehension Task measures participants' comprehension and processing of language produced by a speaker with aphasia.
Measured: 5 minutes post-intervention
Comprehension accuracy for sentences with paraphasias in the Service Request Comprehension Task
Percent correct mouse-click responses on the Service Request Comprehension Task for sentences with paraphasias (word-retrieval errors). The Service Request Comprehension Task measures participants' comprehension and processing of language produced by a speaker with aphasia.
Measured: 5 minutes post-intervention
Secondary outcomes (6)
Visual attention during long pauses in the Service Request Comprehension Task
Mean proportion of time in which the participant gazes at task-relevant pictures during long pauses, indicating attention to task. The Service Request Comprehension Task measures participants' comprehension and processing of language produced by a speaker with aphasia.
Measured: 5 minutes post-intervention
Linguistic integration of words immediately following long pauses in the Service Request Comprehension Task
Mean proportion of time in which the participant gazes at the target picture during words immediately following long pauses, indicating linguistic integration of those words. The Service Request Comprehension Task measures participants' comprehension and processing of language produced by a speaker with aphasia.
Measured: 5 minutes post-intervention
Implicit repair of paraphasias in the Service Request Comprehension Task
Mean proportion of time in which the participant gazes at the target picture in the 1000 ms following paraphasias (word-retrieval errors), indicating implicit repair of the speaker's errors. The Service Request Comprehension Task measures participants' comprehension and processing of language produced by a speaker with aphasia.
Measured: 5 minutes post-intervention
Rating of own patience on the Attitude Survey
Rating scale, 0-100 scale with question "When listening to the speaker, I felt _____", with endpoints of "impatient" on the zero side and "patient" on the 100 side. Higher scores mean a better outcome. The Attitude Survey measures participants' knowledge, beliefs, and emotions relating to listening to a speaker with aphasia.
Measured: 0 minutes (immediately) post-intervention, 45 minutes post-intervention
Rating of speaker with aphasia's intelligence on the Attitude Survey
Rating scale, 0-100 scale with question "I think that the speaker is _____", with endpoints of "unintelligent" on the zero side and "intelligent" on the 100 side. Higher scores mean a better outcome. The Attitude Survey measures participants' knowledge, beliefs, and emotions relating to listening to a speaker with aphasia.
Measured: 0 minutes (immediately) post-intervention, 45 minutes post-intervention
Rating of speaker with aphasia's language skills on the Attitude Survey
Rating scale, 0-100 scale with question "I think that it was _____ for the speaker to find the words for what they wanted to say", with endpoints of "hard" on the zero side and "easy" on the 100 side. Lower scores mean a better outcome. The Attitude Survey measures participants' knowledge, beliefs, and emotions relating to listening to a speaker with aphasia.
Measured: 0 minutes (immediately) post-intervention, 45 minutes post-intervention
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted25 May 2025
- Study start22 Sep 2025
- Primary completion28 Feb 2027 (estimated)
- Study completion28 Feb 2027 (estimated)
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Other trials for AphasiaStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Treatment
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Enrolment
- 160 participants (estimated)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- University of Massachusetts, Amherst
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
- Responsible party
- Principal investigator, Jennifer Mack, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
- Investigators
- Jennifer Mack, PhD, Principal investigator, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT06990997
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- IRB #5783
- Other IDs
- 1R21DC021233-01A1
- Acronym
- PAUSE
- Status last verified
- Aug 2026
- First submitted
- 1 May 2025
- Last updated
- 14 Aug 2026
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- Yes: Data to be generated from this project include language processing data collected through eye-tracking, comprehension accuracy data (mouse-click responses), and participants' responses to a survey measuring their attitudes. De-identified raw survey data and comprehension accuracy data will be preserved and shared. Deidentified, preprocessed eye-tracking data will be preserved and shared.
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 14 Aug 2026. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Effects of Aphasia Identification Cards on Comprehension of Aphasic Language by Unfamiliar Communication Partners
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT06990997
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- PAUSE / IRB #5783
- Conditions
- Aphasia
- Keywords
- Aphasia, Communication partner, Service worker, Language processing, Language comprehension, aphasia identification card, eye-tracking
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Recruiting
- Enrolment
- 160 participants (estimated)
- Lead sponsor
- University of Massachusetts, AmherstUniversity, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
- Study start
- 22 Sep 2025 (actual)
- Primary completion
- 28 Feb 2027 (estimated)
- Study completion
- 28 Feb 2027 (estimated)
- First posted
- 25 May 2025 (actual)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
The goal of this clinical trial is to learn whether healthy volunteers are more successful at understanding people with aphasia if they have first viewed an aphasia identification (ID) card. The main questions this study aims to answer are:
- Does viewing an aphasia ID card improve healthy volunteers' understanding of the language errors made by people with aphasia?
- Does viewing an aphasia ID card improve healthy volunteers' understanding of people with aphasia who make long pauses in their speech?
Researchers will compare aphasia ID cards to a control condition (no ID card) to see whether aphasia ID cards improve healthy volunteers' understanding.
Healthy volunteers will visit the study site for a single session (about 2 hours long). During the session they will:
- Complete brief tests of their vision, hearing and thinking
- Listen to sentences produced by a speaker with aphasia while their eye movements are recorded
- Complete a survey about the experience of listening to the speaker with aphasia
Detailed description
People with aphasia often experience challenges conveying their thoughts to unfamiliar communication partners, which is critical for living independently and building new social connections. This line of research has two long-term objectives: to improve unfamiliar communication partners' comprehension of people with aphasia, and to support people with aphasia in advocating for their communication needs. This project addresses these goals with a focus on service workers, who interact directly with customers to provide goods, services, or information. Being understood by service workers is often necessary to complete essential tasks such as purchasing food and picking up medication. This project investigates whether service workers comprehend speakers with aphasia more accurately when they have first read an aphasia identification (ID) card. Aphasia ID cards contain written self-advocacy statements that disclose the speaker's aphasia, define aphasia, and provide guidance on how to communicate successfully. These statements have been shown to improve unfamiliar communication partners' attitudes (knowledge about aphasia, emotions, and behavior), which improves communication experiences for people with aphasia. This project tests the central hypothesis that, by improving unfamiliar communication partners' attitudes, aphasia ID cards facilitate key language processes that improve their comprehension of people with aphasia. This randomized controlled trial will enroll 160 service workers. Half of the service workers will view an aphasia ID card for a speaker with aphasia, and half will not. Then, all service workers will complete tasks measuring their attitudes, language processing, and comprehension of service requests (i.e., requests for goods, services, or information) produced by speakers with aphasia. Eye-tracking will be used to measure key language processes that take place while service workers listen to the service requests. The Specific Aims are to investigate how viewing an aphasia ID card affects service workers' attitudes, language processing, and comprehension when people with aphasia produce long pauses (Aim 1) and paraphasias (word-retrieval errors) (Aim 2). By rigorously investigating the effects of aphasia ID cards on service workers' attitudes, language processing, and comprehension, this project will contribute to the long-term goals of improving unfamiliar communication partners' comprehension and helping people with aphasia self-advocate effectively.
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Treatment
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Number of arms
- 2
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| Aphasia Identification Card | Experimental | Behavioral: Aphasia identification (ID) cardParticipants will view an aphasia ID card for a speaker with aphasia. The card will disclose the speaker's aphasia, define aphasia, and request time to communicate. |
| No Card | No intervention | –Participants in this arm will not receive an intervention. |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 18 to 59 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepted
- Age groups
- Adult
Key inclusion criteria (5 listed)
- Adult age 18-59
- Currently employed as a service worker
- Understand spoken and written English well
- High school diploma or equivalency
- Normal vision or corrected vision with glasses or contact lenses
Key exclusion criteria (4 listed)
- Language disorder
- Hearing impairment
- Intellectual disability
- History of acquired neurological disorder (e.g., stroke or moderate/severe brain injury)
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| Aphasia identification (ID) cardParticipants will view an aphasia ID card for a speaker with aphasia. The card will disclose the speaker's aphasia, define aphasia, and request time to communicate. | Behavioural | Aphasia Identification Card |
Primary outcome
Comprehension accuracy for sentences with long pauses in the Service Request Comprehension Task
Time frame: 5 minutes post-intervention
Percent correct mouse-click responses on the Service Request Comprehension Task for sentences with long pauses. The Service Request Comprehension Task measures participants' comprehension and processing of language produced by a speaker with aphasia.
Comprehension accuracy for sentences with paraphasias in the Service Request Comprehension Task
Time frame: 5 minutes post-intervention
Percent correct mouse-click responses on the Service Request Comprehension Task for sentences with paraphasias (word-retrieval errors). The Service Request Comprehension Task measures participants' comprehension and processing of language produced by a speaker with aphasia.
6 secondary outcomes
Visual attention during long pauses in the Service Request Comprehension Task
Time frame: 5 minutes post-intervention
Linguistic integration of words immediately following long pauses in the Service Request Comprehension Task
Time frame: 5 minutes post-intervention
Implicit repair of paraphasias in the Service Request Comprehension Task
Time frame: 5 minutes post-intervention
Rating of own patience on the Attitude Survey
Time frame: 0 minutes (immediately) post-intervention, 45 minutes post-intervention
Rating of speaker with aphasia's intelligence on the Attitude Survey
Time frame: 0 minutes (immediately) post-intervention, 45 minutes post-intervention
Rating of speaker with aphasia's language skills on the Attitude Survey
Time frame: 0 minutes (immediately) post-intervention, 45 minutes post-intervention
Results and safety
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 14 Aug 2026.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: Yes. Data to be generated from this project include language processing data collected through eye-tracking, comprehension accuracy data (mouse-click responses), and participants' responses to a survey measuring their attitudes. De-identified raw survey data and comprehension accuracy data will be preserved and shared. Deidentified, preprocessed eye-tracking data will be preserved and shared.
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Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part.
Holly Laws, PhD contact
Jennifer Mack, PhD principal investigator
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing Aphasia identification (ID) card in people with Aphasia, run by University of Massachusetts, Amherst at 1 site in United States.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 5 inclusion and 4 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: looking for participants now, as of the sponsor's last update on 14 Aug 2026. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
Contact Jennifer E Mack, PhD (4135458468, jemack@umass.edu), or a site near the patient. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Comprehension accuracy for sentences with long pauses in the Service Request Comprehension Task (time frame: 5 minutes post-intervention). The study lists 2 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 14 Aug 2026; AzTrials last refreshed its copy on 7 Nov 2026.