Background and Aim: Semantic test "Pyramid and Palm Trees"(PPT) Test was used for assessing cognition and semantic system in brain disorders, semantic dementia, Alzheimer disease and aphasia. This test was designed in 1992 by Howard and Patterson and includes both versions picture and word. It has validity and reliability. The aim of this study is to determine of validity and reliability of Persian picture version "Pyramids and Palm Trees" Test and compare with aphasia and normal adults.

Materials and Methods: In this cross - sectional study, 45 subjects included 15 Aphasia and 30 normal adults respectively the mean age and standard deviation of 53 (7.77), 53 (7.91) years participated. All of participants were matched in the age and sex, and education and bilingualism. In the first stage, the picture version PPT had given to 14 expert(11 Speech and language pathologists, 3 Linguists) in order to determine content and face validity. According to their comments, pictures that were very far from Persian culture were replaced with proportional pictures with Persian culture. Then the reliability was calculated by performance of PPT during an interval of 5-7 days in two stages for all of aphasia patients. In order to compare of results, PPT was performed on normal adults. Then, the results were analyzed by SPSS18 software. The statistic tests were included of lavashh correlation for validity, Intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) for reliability and independent T-Test for comparison of scores mean of picture version PPT between aphasia and normal adults.

Results: ICC ranges for reliability were 0.88 – 0.93. Also difference of scores mean of picture version PPT between aphasia and normal adults were significant (p<0.05).

Conclusion: The Persian version PPT have validity and reliability. This study showed semantic disorder in aphasia patients in compared with normal adults. 

Background and Aim: A Concrete and Abstract Word Synonym Test is a test which assessed semantic system in patients with acquired language disorder specifically semantic impairment. The aim of this study is to design a valid and reliable test for assessment of comprehension of concrete and abstract words in different types of aphasia.

Materials and Methods: The type of study is test construction and was computed as cross-sectional. First, a collection of words based on frequency were chosen in order to construct the test. These words were given to 15 experts (10 speech and language pathologists and 5 linguists) in 3 stages, in order to rate words with 0-100 scale. Then words, which had higher average than 90 score were chosen. After determining face and content validity, the test was performed on subjects. Subjects included 20 aphasic patients (12 men and 8 women) and 50 normal people (28 men and 22 women) ranging in age from 20 to 65 years. After 5 to 7 days, to determine reliability of test, test was performed on subjects again. Results of this study were analyzed by SPSS 16.

Results: Results showed that this test has a higher validity than %90. Coronbach alpha for internal consistency was 0.500. For investigation of test-retest reliability, mean difference of test scores in 2 stages of administration was significance (p<0.038). Pearson correlation coefficient between mean scores of patients in 2stages were 0.857 and ICC range was 0.857-0.923 that was significant (p<0.001). The cut of point of test was also 46. Comparison of mean scores of concrete and abstract word synonym test in patients and normal people and also in patient with temporal lesion showed significant difference (p<0.001).

Conclusion: A Concrete and Abstract Word Synonym Test is a proper tool for assessing semantic system in aphasic patients and it can indicate semantic impairment in these patients.

Keywords: Synonym comprehension test, Concrete and abstract words, Validity, Reliability, Aphasia, Semantic impairment.