A group with right hemisphere dysfunction was compared to neurological
ly intact controls regarding the referential cohesion and logical cohe
rence of narrative production. A somewhat varied sample of six stories
was obtained with tasks of cartoon-elicited story-telling and auditor
y-oral retelling. We found deficits in the patient group with respect
to referential cohesion, logical coherence, and accuracy of narration,
but the occurrence of deficits depended on the condition in which nar
ration was produced and, to some extent, on the particular story used
in each condition. The primary implications of this study pertain to t
he attention given by researchers to the feature of discourse producti
on being studied. (C) 1997 Academic Press