To cite the Pilot Clinical TALSA:

Martin, N.1, McCaffery, K.1, Greenspan, W.1 & Tucker, C.A.2 (2022) The Clinical TALSA (Temple Assessment of Language and Short-term memory in Aphasia), Pilot Version. Unpublished Test Battery.

1Temple University, 2University of Texas Medical Branch

Website developer: David Tucker, "The Clinical TALSA (Temple Assessment of Language and Short-term memory in Aphasia), Pilot Version", TALSA, 2022, talsapilot.org.

About Dr. Nadine Martin and the research team in the Aphasia Rehabilitation Research Laboratory

Dr. Nadine Martin is a professor of communication sciences and disorders at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. She received degrees in speech-language pathology from Hofstra University (BA) and Northeastern University (MEd) and a PhD in cognitive psychology from Temple University (1987). In 2014, she received an honorary doctorate from Åbo Akademi University (Turku, Finland) in recognition of a 20-year research collaboration with Dr. Matti Laine (Psychology and Logopedics). In 2019, she was appointed as a Laura H. Carnell Professor in the College of Public Health, Temple University, acknowledging her contributions as a researcher, educator, and leader in the field of Communication Sciences and Disorders.

Dr. Martin is the founder and co-director (with Dr. Jamie Reilly) of the Eleanor M. Saffran Center for Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. Established in 2006, this center includes her aphasia laboratory and others that conduct research in cognitive and neural aspects of language and memory processing.

Dr. Martin heads the Aphasia Rehabilitation Research Laboratory where she studies the cognitive relationship between verbal short-term memory (STM) and word processing disorders, which co-occur in aphasia, and their relation to verbal learning. She applies cognitive and computational models of this relationship to the development of diagnostic and treatment approaches that address both word processing and verbal STM abilities in aphasia. Dr. Martin’s lab includes a team of dedicated research speech-language pathologists, research assistants, student workers, and volunteers who evaluate persons with aphasia to fulfill this mission.

The Aphasia Research Rehabilitation Laboratory is currently looking for people with aphasia to participate in our research. Please email us at emslab@temple.edu for more information about participating.

Dr. Martin’s research has been supported by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) and other funding agencies continuously since 1993.

About the Temple Assessment of Language and Short-term memory in Aphasia (TALSA).

There are two forms of the TALSA, the Research TALSA and the Clinical TALSA. Each was developed with support from the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders (NIDCD ).

Research TALSA:

Supported by:

  • NIDCD R01DC001924 (2005-2010). Lexical retrieval, verbal short-term memory, and learning.
  • NIDCD R21DC008782 (2008-2009). Remediation of word processing and short-term memory deficits in aphasia.

Read more about the Research TALSA! The following paper includes descriptions of all the subtests in the test battery and normative data for each test:

Martin, N., Minkina, I., Kalinyak-Fliszar, M., & Kohen, F. P. (2018). Assessment of linguistic and verbal short-term memory components of language abilities in aphasia. Journal of Neurolinguistic Research, 48, 199-225. Assessment of linguistic and verbal short-term memory components of language abilities in aphasia - PubMed (nih.gov)

Other papers that have used subtests of the Research TALSA in their studies:

Silkes, J., Zimmerman, R. M., Greenspan, W., Reinert, L., Kendall, D. & Martin N. (2021).

Identifying verbal short-term memory and working memory impairments in individuals with latent aphasia. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 30, 391-406. https://doi.org/10.1044/2020_AJSLP-19-00105.

Sayers, M., Laval, D., Reilly, J. & Martin, N. (2023). Integrity of input verbal short-term memory ability predicts naming accuracy and error types Aphasiology 37(6): 813–834. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02687038.2022.2043233 first published online Mar 15, 2022.

Sayers, M., Greenspan, W. & Martin, N. (2022). Integrating verbal short-term memory into the assessment and treatment of aphasia. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups. pp. 1-19, October 2022. https://doi.org/10.1044/2022_PERSP-21-00289

Greenspan, W., Vieira, S., & Martin, N. (2024). Revealing linguistic and verbal short-term and working memory abilities in people with severe aphasia. Aphasiology, 38(10), 1608–1643. https://doi.org/10.1080/02687038.2024.2322770

Clinical TALSA:

Supported by:

  • R01DC016094 (2014-2019). Translation and Clinical Implementation of a Test of Language and Short-term Memory in Aphasia.

We are currently developing a manuscript describing the development and implementation of the Clinical TALSA. Additionally, we will be developing an expanded and final version of the Clinical TALSA. Here is an abstract from a conference presentation about the Clinical TALSA: