Olness Corpus

Gloria Olness Speech and Hearing Sciences University of North Texas Gloria.Olness@unt.edu

Browsable transcripts

Downloadable transcripts

Media folder

Citation information

In accordance with TalkBank rules, any use of data from this corpus must be accompanied by at least one corpus reference:

Olness, G. S., & Ulatowska, H. K. (2011). Personal narratives in aphasia: Coherence in the context of use. Aphasiology (Special Issue – Discourse in Aphasia: An Introduction to Current Research and Future Directions), 25, 1393-1413. PMID: 39877234; PMCID: PMC11774502; DOI: 10.1080/02687038.2011.599365

General Overview

These are non-protocol, audio, elicited discourse data for close to 80 people, 2/3 of whom have aphasia. Approximately half of those with aphasia are African American and half Caucasian.

The information in the ID line of the CHAT file for Participants (see example below) includes fields for age, sex, group (A=African America, C=Caucasian, APH=Aphasia, NBI=Non-brain-injured), education, and SES (rated on a 1–7 scale (adapted from Featherman & Stevens, 1980).

     @ID: eng|Olness|PAR|62;|male|AAPH||Participant|high_school_graduate|3|

Most of the media files include a wide variety of discourse tasks, an ethnographic semi-structured interview, and the WAB. Discourse tasks are divided into two main types, picture descriptions and personal and non-personal narratives told in different formats.

• Picture Description: The participant is asked to describe the picture.
  • Picnic = WAB picnic scene
  • Cookie = cookie theft picture
• Picture Description and Narrative: The participant is asked to describe the picture and then tell a story about it.
  • Dog = Road Block by Norman Rockwell
  • Easter = Easter Morning by Norman Rockwell
  • Flood = Flood Water Rescue by Annie Wells
• Picture Narrative: The participant is asked to tell a story about the picture.
  • Apples = apple theft picture
  • Cat = cat in tree picture
• Narrative Retell: The investigator tells a story to the participant, and the participant is asked to give a synopsis for the story, retell the story, and then recount the story’s lesson or main point.
  • Farmer = A farmer on his deathbed tries to teach a lesson to his sons about the meaning of treasure.
  • Starfish = A man walking on the beach tries to teach a boy that all life has value, even a single starfish.
• Partial Narrative Completion: The investigator tells the first part of a story to the participant, and the participant is asked to complete the story and then recount the story’s lesson or main point.
  • Lightning = A woman does not want to leave her home to move closer to her son, and then a strong storm comes…
• Personal Narrative: The investigator asks the participant to provide a synopsis, story, and lesson or main point for each personal narrative topic.
  • Frightening_Experience = The participant is asked to recount a frightening experience.
  • Frequently_Told = The participant is asked to tell a frequently told story.
  • Significant_Other = The participant is asked to recount meeting a spouse or significant other.
  • Recently_Told = The participant is asked to tell a recently told story.
  • Unusual_Experience = The participant is asked to recount an out of the ordinary event.

Demographic and test result data are available here.

Usage Restrictions

Use of data from this corpus must be accompanied by required acknowledgement of the federal grant that funded the collection of the Olness Corpus data NIH R03-DC005151, G. S. Olness, PI

Participants all gave consent for the demographic and test data to be uploaded onto AphasiaBank, as long as access is password protected and users of the data get approval from Dr. Olness for access.

Please write to Gloria.Olness@unt.edu if you are interested in accessing these files.

Acknowledgements