Mississippi Aphasia Screening Test (MAST)

A brief screen that detects aphasia in about 5 minutes.

Clinician-administered; approximately 5 minutes.
8 items covering naming, repetition, automatic speech, following commands, yes/no, and reading.
Total score from 0 to 100; scores below 45 suggest aphasia is present.

What it measures

The MAST covers six language tasks: naming, repetition, automatic speech, following commands, yes/no responses, and reading a sentence aloud. It is designed to flag whether aphasia is present, not to characterize it fully.

What the result tells you

The total score (0 to 100, higher is better) gives a rapid estimate of aphasia severity. Scores below 45 suggest aphasia is present. The MAST is a triage tool; a positive screen typically leads to a fuller battery such as the WAB.

Used for

Aphasia

Evidence, psychometrics and provenance

Psychometrics

Sensitivity vs WAB≈ 90%

Specificity vs WAB≈ 84%

Measured against the Western Aphasia Battery. Higher is better.

Inter-rater reliability: High agreement across trained raters

References

1.Nakase-Thompson R, Manning E, Sherer M, et al. The Mississippi Aphasia Screening Test: Norming and Validation. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2005;86(12):2348-2353.

This assessment uses a validated instrument and is reference information, not a diagnosis.