We utilize convers ation and pictur e des cr iption tasks in evaluating the natur e of spoken language ability of aphas ic patients . T o cons truct the tasks , however , we ar e in need of normative data of normal adults . We gather ed speech s amples of 46 normal Kor ean adults (men : women=10 :36, mean age=58.0 , mean years of education=9.17) us ing convers ation and pictur e des cr iption tasks of the K-WAB(Kor ean Vers ion - The Wes tern Aphas ia Battery). We s tr atified the normals into men and women , five education gr oups , and thr ee age gr oups . Speech s amples wer e analyzed us ing 2 1 var iables . Two tasks wer e found to be s ignificantly differ in the following eight var iables : (1) the number of content wor ds per utter ance(p <.0 1), (2) the number of s yllables per utter ance(p <.0 1), (3) the number of word s uffixes per utter ance(p <.05), (4) the number of wor ds per utter ance(p <.05), (5) utter ance dur ation per s econd(p <.05), (6) the number of s yllables per s econd(p <.05), (7) the number of phonemic par aphas ias (p <.05), and (8) the number of wor d- clus ter r epetitions (p <.05). Compar ing to thepictur e des cr iption task , the convers ation task was char acter ized by incr eas es in (1) the number of content wor ds per utter ance , (2) the number of s yllables per utter ance , (3) the number of s uffixes per utter ance , (4) the number of wor ds per utter ance , (5) the utter ance dur ation per s econd, (6) the number of s yllables per s econd, and (7) the number of phonemic par aphas ias . The pictur e des cr iption task was char acter ized by an incr eas e in the number of wor d- clus ter r epetitions compar ed to the convers ation task . We analyzed the utter ances in
terms of s ex , education , and age in both tasks . In the pictur e des cr iption task , the length of utterance of women was s ignificantly longer than that of men . Normal adults of non - education gr oup showed s ignificantly incr eas ed number of wor d s uffixes per utter ance and phonemic par aphas ias . Normal adults of 65 years and older had s ignificantly mor e phonemic par aphas ias and word- clus ter repetitions.