Performance of non-brain injured adults on the PICA Descriptive data and a comparison to patients with aphasia

The performance of 131 normal, non-brain-injured adults on the Porch Index of Communicative Ability (PICA) was assessed and compared to norms for patients with aphasia. Twenty-six subjects performed the PICA Graphic subtests with their right and left hand in order to determine whether performance with the nonpreferred hand results in a significant reduction of test scores, results indicate that the PICA discriminates quite well between normal and aphasic adults, although some subtests and modalities are more sensitive than others. The data from this study establish numerically the limits of the 'grey area' which exists between normal and aphasic performance on the test, and the overall results and to the validity and general usefulness of the PICA as an index of communicative ability in brain-injured adults.