Showing papers in "Aphasiology in 2007"
TL;DR: The study suggests that the social exclusion of people who struggle to communicate could be addressed through training, for professional and lay carers, that promotes support for communication; opportunity and access; respect and acknowledgment; and attention to the environment.
Abstract: Background: Little is known about what happens to people with severe aphasia in the years after stroke when rehabilitation comes to an end, or about day‐to‐day life for this group. Aims: This study aimed to track the day‐to‐day life and experiences of people with severe aphasia, and to document levels of social inclusion and exclusion as they occurred in mundane settings. Methods and Procedures: Ethnography was chosen as the qualitative methodology most suitable for studying the experience of people with profoundly compromised language. 20 people who were judged to have severe aphasia following stroke agreed to be visited and observed three times in different domestic and care settings. The observer documented environments, protagonists, events, and interactions. Field notes were elaborated with personal, methodological, and interpretative notes. Written material (for example information leaflets) was also documented and described. Data were subject to thematic analysis. Outcomes and Results: The study re...
276 citations
TL;DR: The communicative access to information and decision making in health care appears limited for people with aphasia in spite of research demonstrating that communicative participation can be enhanced with skilled communication partners and appropriate resources.
Abstract: Background: Communicative access to information and decision making in health care appears limited for people with aphasia in spite of research demonstrating that communicative participation can be enhanced with skilled communication partners and appropriate resources. In order to address this concern, a project was designed to target the “systems” level of health care via a multi‐faceted, team‐based intervention called the Communicate Access Improvement Project (CAIP). Aims: This project aimed to improve communicative access to information and decision making for people with aphasia within three healthcare systems (i.e., acute care, rehabilitation, long‐term care) by increasing teams members' knowledge of and skill in providing communicative supports and by facilitating the implementation of facility‐specific communicative access goals. Methods & Procedures: Three teams representing diverse disciplines participated in the project that included a 2‐day training session for each team, development of instit...
165 citations
TL;DR: Valuable data can be obtained from participants with aphasia when the interview method is altered appropriately to meet their communicative needs, and the study highlights implications for enhancing rigour in qualitative interviews with people withAphasia.
Abstract: Background: An increasing number of researchers are using qualitative methods to study the impact of aphasia. However, there is a paucity of published research outlining if and how qualitative interview methods are altered with participants with aphasia, and how potential modifications impact on the rigour of such research. Aims: In a qualitative, pilot study we investigated (1) What services do males in Victoria with mild chronic aphasia perceive could be provided by the Australian Aphasia Association? (2) How is qualitative in‐depth interviewing method altered to accommodate the communicative difficulties experienced by people with aphasia? This paper reports on the second aim. Methods and Procedures: A qualitative phenomenological approach was adopted. Purposeful sampling was used to obtain four participants with mild chronic aphasia across the variables of geographical location and employment status at time of stroke. An interview guide was devised and refined with a fifth pilot participant. Interview...
118 citations
TL;DR: This article used a multi-level discourse processing model to examine the interaction between levels of discourse produced by individuals without brain damage, and assessed the applicability and utility of using a multilevel discourse-processing model.
Abstract: Background: The analysis of discourse has now become commonplace but the focus continues to be on discrete aspects or levels of discourse processing. Although this has provided the necessary groundwork, investigating the relationships and interconnections between these levels continues to be stressed. Recently, some studies have formulated multi‐level discourse‐processing theories and models that explain these inter‐relationships and that identify the sub‐processes involved in producing discourse. This study has used one such model to analyse different levels of discourse and investigate the interconnections between them. A preliminary version of this article was presented at the 26th World Congress of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics Conference, Brisbane, Australia, August 2004. Aims: To assess the applicability and utility of using a multi‐level discourse‐processing model to examine the interaction between levels of discourse produced by individuals without brain damage. Metho...
95 citations
TL;DR: This article explored the relevance of both neuropsychological and conversational approaches to the assessment of aphasia and presented the executive battery that was designed and administered to a single participant (MS) to assess various aspects of EF.
Abstract: Background: Lack of communicative success for people with aphasia is no longer seen as purely a linguistic deficit. Instead, the integrity of the executive functions (EF) is thought to be at least partly responsible for successful communication, particularly during conversation. In order to inform clinicians regarding both conversation and EF, a merging of two paradigms—conversational and neuropsychological approaches—is proposed. This paper was presented at the Clinical Aphasiology Conference, Ghent, Belgium, May 2006. Aims: First, we explore the relevance of both neuropsychological and conversational approaches to the assessment of aphasia. Second, we present the executive battery that was designed and administered to a single participant (MS) to assess various aspects of EF. The results of a Conversation Analysis (CA) undertaken on an excerpt of MS's conversation are given. Results of the EF analysis are presented with the CA in order to highlight proposed relationships that may impact on conversationa...
91 citations
TL;DR: The Personal and Environmental Factors of the ICF can be used to help elucidate the different aspects and complexity of access issues with persons with acquired aphasia.
Abstract: Background: Access for persons with acquired communication disorders is an important area that has been evaluated and discussed using many different theoretical frameworks. Clinicians and researchers need practical frameworks and more direction to guide specific assessments of the issues influencing access. Aim: This article discusses the issue of access through the framework of the Personal and Environmental Factors of the World Health Organisation's International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF). Main Contribution: The ICF's Personal and Environmental Factors are discussed in relationship to access and their interactions with each other. A fuller understanding of the complexities of access issues can be achieved though the ICF framework and this article uses clinical examples to demonstrate this complexity. The clinician's role in promoting or hindering access for their clients is discussed. Lastly, the challenge of evidence‐based practice and research with access issues is ad...
90 citations
TL;DR: In the present study it was not possible to clearly identify the relationship between a given profile and factors such as lesion site, age, or education, but a first step towards the identification of communication impairment profiles among the population of individuals with RHD was provided.
Abstract: Background: It is estimated that approximately 50% of individuals who incur right‐hemisphere damage (RHD) have subsequent communication disorders. Lexical‐semantic, discourse, prosodic, and pragmatic deficits have been reported following RHD, but the co‐occurrence of these deficits within the same individual has not yet been systematically investigated. Therefore clinical profiles of communication impairments in individuals with RHD still have to be identified and described in order to appreciate their communication impairment and provide strategies for rehabilitation. Aims: The goal of the present study was to explore the clinical profiles of communication impairments subsequent to a right hemisphere lesion. Methods and Procedures: A total of 28 French‐speaking individuals with a right‐hemisphere lesion were evaluated using the Protocole MEC (Joanette, Ska, & Cote, 2004), a normalised battery allowing the assessment of communication deficits after RHD. A hierarchical cluster analysis was used to group pa...
88 citations
TL;DR: Four principles of human social interaction are described that will improve the ability to enable social participation and inclusion of people with aphasia and highlight clinical implications involving various therapeutic strategies and communicative values related to communicative inclusion and social participation.
Abstract: Background: People with aphasia are often excluded from full participation in communicative events and social interactions. Many consider the aphasic language deficit as the cause of social exclusion. However, social exclusion is a complex process that is situated within the wider realm of human social action. While the aphasia literature has provided data on resources and strategies that impact on inclusion and participation, other realms of social science have targeted social action in all its authenticity and complexity, and have focused on how social action is effectively established, negotiated, and sustained. A study of this literature can expand our understanding of issues involved in inclusion, participation, and communicative access of people with aphasia. Aims: This article will review a selected corpus of social science research that is outside the clinician's typical experience, but that is relevant to the issues of accessibility and social inclusion in aphasia. Main Contribution: Four interac...
85 citations
TL;DR: Results indicate that working memory ability for different types of linguistic information can be measured in adults with aphasia, and add to the growing literature that favours separate working memory abilities for differenttype linguistic information view.
Abstract: This investigation measured performance of individuals with aphasia on working memory tasks targeting their processing of different information types (phonological, semantic, and structural/syntactic). Participants included 3 adults with aphasia. Tasks included a listening span and three novel n-back tasks. The n-back tasks were presented auditorily, and measured both active working memory maintenance ("identity" level) and processing ("depth" level) for each information type. Results indicate that the tasks may be able to differentiate individual performance along the lines of aphasia classification categories, suggesting that the modified n-back tasks may lead to a more precise description of aphasic performance.
80 citations
TL;DR: These findings have important implications for understanding the interdependent relationship of memory and language, point to the value of examining interactional aspects of communication in the empirical study of brain–behaviour relationships, and reconceptualise interaction as a target in the remediation of functional communication following brain injury.
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Patients with amnesia may have more than pure memory deficits, as evidenced by reports of subtle linguistic impairments on formal laboratory tasks in the amnesic patient HM. However, little attention has been given to the impact of memory impairments on language use in regular, colloquial interactions. We analysed reported speech use by individuals with amnesia. Reported speech (RS), in which speakers represent thoughts/words from another time and/or place, requires management of two temporal frames, making it an interesting discourse practice in which to explore the impact of memory deficits on interactional aspects of communication. AIMS: This study: (1) documents frequency, type, and temporal contexts of reported speech used in discourse samples; (2) compares reported speech use by amnesic and comparison participants; (3) examines the interactional character of reported speech use in these discourse samples. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Derived from a broader study of the discourse practices of individuals with amnesia, this study uses quantitative group comparisons and close discourse analysis to analyse reported speech episodes (RSEs) in interactional discourse samples between a clinician and each of 18 participants, 9 individuals with amnesia and 9 comparison participants (NC). OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Reported speech was used by all participants. However, significantly fewer RSEs were produced in amnesia sessions (273) than in NC sessions (554). No significant group differences were observed for type or temporal domain. In addition, for the participants with amnesia, post-amnesia past RSEs differed qualitatively from the other RSEs in the data. CONCLUSIONS: These findings have important implications for understanding the interdependent relationship of memory and language, point to the value of examining interactional aspects of communication in the empirical study of brain-behaviour relationships, and reconceptualise interaction as a target in the remediation of functional communication following brain injury.
67 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a variable practice approach was used to train skilled movements in AOS with the aim of improving the articulation ability of the voice in the context of impaired voicing control.
Abstract: Background: Apraxia of speech (AOS) is generally considered a phonetic‐motoric disorder. As such, it is reasonable to draw on the motor learning literature to develop interventions for improving articulation. The often cited problem of impaired voicing control is used to test the application of a variable practice approach to training skilled movements in AOS. It is predicted that variable practice—practising a behaviour over a range of possible values or contexts—increases accuracy and stability of a trained behaviour. This work was supported in part by a NIH‐NIDCD RO3 grant DC005698 to Kirrie Ballard, an American Speech Language Hearing Foundation Grant for New Investigators to Kirrie Ballard, and a San Diego State University Research Foundation Grant to Donald Robin. We thank Vanessa Doerscher for assistance with running participants, and Rebekah Abel, Valerie Flemmer, Skott Freedman, Denise Gordon, Ling‐Yu Guo, Elizabeth Lang, Michael Molley, Ydine Sandberg, and Vanessa Shaw for assistance with data a...
TL;DR: The factor structure of the La Trobe Communication Questionnaire depicts the multidimensional nature of conversation and the complex interplay between cognitive and communication processes that social discourse demands.
Abstract: Background: Self and close other reports of communication ability can provide a time‐efficient means of evaluating conversational discourse after traumatic brain injury (TBI). The La Trobe Communication Questionnaire (LCQ) measures perceived communication ability from various sources including self‐perceptions and perceptions of others. Content and test–retest reliability and discriminant validity of the LCQ have been demonstrated previously with adults following TBI. Aims: This study was undertaken to explore the factor structure of the LCQ as revealed within the data collected from 88 adults with severe TBI and their close others. Methods & Procedures: Construct validity was examined using a Principal Component Factor Analytic procedure with Varimax rotation. Outcomes & Results: A seven‐factor structure that accounted for 60.88% of the variance was revealed. Of the LCQ items, 27 clearly loaded on to one of the seven communication factors that were identified. Conclusions: The factor structure that emerg...
TL;DR: The SP model offered a more plausible explanation of lesion‐specific therapy outcomes, and it properly predicted the error pattern development, which can be informative about the effectiveness of potential therapies and error pattern developments.
Abstract: Background: The two versions of the connectionist model of Dell and colleagues offer alternative explanations of aphasic naming disorders (Dell, Schwartz, Martin, Saffran, & Gagnon, 1997; Foygel & Dell, 2000). The semantic‐phonological (SP) model hypothesises impairments in lexical‐semantic or lexical‐phonological connections, and the weight‐decay (WD) model assumes global impairments in either connection weights or activation decay. In each version, a patient's error pattern in picture naming is simulated to assess the underlying disorder (connectionist “diagnosis”). A systematic comparison of both model versions in model‐oriented naming therapy has not yet been performed. Moreover, if the normalisation of the error pattern during recovery is lesion‐specific, as suggested in the SP model (Schwartz, Dell, Martin, Gahl, & Sobel, 2006), this should be observable in the patient data. Aims: Predictions were made and tested regarding the relation between (1) connectionist diagnosis and therapy outcome, and (2)...
TL;DR: In this article, a videotaped conversation between an agrammatic speaker and his adult daughter is analysed using Conversation Analysis (CA) to explore the notion that conversation and task-based data do not necessarily reveal the same grammatical phenomena.
Abstract: Background: Although research into agrammatism has done much to characterise the nature of the underlying disorder, most studies have analysed elicited, task-based data. As a result, little is known about the grammar that people with agrammatism use in everyday talk with habitual conversational partners. There is evidence in the Conversation Analysis (CA) literature to suggest that conversational grammar may not mirror the grammar of elicited language samples.Aims: To explore the notion that conversation and task-based data do not necessarily reveal the same grammatical phenomena, addressing the following questions: (1) What resources does a speaker with agrammatism make use of in order to construct a turn at talk? (2) Is the conversational grammar of a speaker with agrammatism organised in a systematic way? (3) What is the relationship between patterns of turn construction in conversation and the grammatical characteristics of output elicited by decontextualised language tests?Methods & Procedures: A videotaped conversation between an agrammatic speaker and his adult daughter is analysed using CA. Four recurring turn construction formats are described and illustrated with extracts. Background information on the client presents the results of picture-naming and sentence production tests.Outcomes & Results: There is great variation between the grammar of conversation and test data. Test results reveal a severe problem with verb access and sentence construction, with ability declining sharply as the number of verb arguments increases. However, the speaker deploys interactional alternatives to standard grammatical structures, and it is possible for him to recount events without explicit articulation of verbs and argument structures, using a combination of talk and mime. Only a minority of his conversational utterances are concerned with recounting events-commenting, assessing, and reasoning are highly prevalent.Conclusions: Conversation and sentence-level tests provide complementary but essentially different information about grammatical ability. This implies that assessment of conversational grammar should become a routine part of any investigation of agrammatism in order to gain a more complete picture of an individual's ability to impose structural order on their talk, and to explore implications for successful interaction with others. Currently, approaches to assessment and intervention overemphasise events. In conversation, other actions such as giving an opinion are just as prevalent. Findings suggest a mismatch between what appears problematic on testing and what is treated as problematic by the interactants in conversation, and thatintervention might profitably seek to address grammatical difficulties that have a basis in interaction.
TL;DR: Selective cross-language generalisation of treatment benefit was found for morphosyntactic abilities from the participant's second language to his third language in a trilingual speaker with mild chronic aphasia.
Abstract: Background: Recent investigations of language gains following treatment in bilingual individuals with chronic aphasia appear to confirm early reports that not only the treated language but also the non‐treated language(s) benefit from treatment. The evidence, however, is still suggestive, and the variables that may mitigate generalisation across languages warrant further investigation. Aims: We set out to examine cross‐language generalisation of language treatment in a trilingual speaker with mild chronic aphasia. Methods & Procedures: Language treatment was administered in English, the participant's second language (L2). The first treatment block focused on morphosyntactic skills and the second on language production rate. Measurements were collected in the treated language (English, L2) as well as the two non‐treated languages: Hebrew (the participant's first language, L1) and French (the participant's third language, L3). Outcomes & Results: The participant showed improvement in his production of selec...
TL;DR: In this article, a communication access pathway to inclusion and user involvement in organisations is presented, targeting situations in which the "business" of the organisation takes place and then designing ways of achieving communication access to those situations.
Abstract: Background: When speech and language therapists/pathologists talk about inclusion, they are usually referring to a client being included in events outside the clinic or the organisation that provides the speech and language therapy services. This article describes ways in which those providing services for and with people with aphasia can work to involve service users in their own organisations. A communication access pathway to inclusion and user involvement in organisations is presented. This draws on established methods in the field, as well as on methods and underpinning frameworks that require a shift in views about the nature of service provision. The pathway involves (1) targeting situations in which the “business” of the organisation takes place and then (2) designing ways of achieving communication access to those situations. Aims: The overall aim is to present ways in which an organisation can become more communicatively accessible to service users with aphasia and communication disabilities. We...
TL;DR: In this article, the Boston Naming Test (BNT) is used as a clinical assessment of language and cognitive deficits in Greek speakers of different ages and educational backgrounds, and strong effects of age and education were found on naming.
Abstract: Background: The Boston Naming Test (BNT) is widely used as a clinical assessment of language and cognitive deficits. It has been adapted and translated for use in other languages and cultures. Aims: This study translated and adapted the test for use in Greece. Normative data were collected on the test for healthy Greek speakers of different ages and educational backgrounds. Methods and Procedures: Participants in four different age ranges and with three levels of educational achievement were tested. They were screened for cognitive decline using a Greek version of the mini mental state examination. Outcomes and Results: Strong effects of age and education were found on naming. The former replicates previous results. Results on the latter have been less consistent and their occurrence here reflects the greater inequality in educational opportunity that has existed in Greece until comparatively recent times. Significant interactions between age, education, and gender are interpreted as reflecting changing s...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used the Story Retell procedure (SRP) to elicit connected language samples in persons with aphasia (PWA) and found that the stimuli and task demands of the SRP are fundamentally different from commonly employed picture description, narrative, and procedural description tasks reported in the literature.
Abstract: Background: The Story Retell Procedure (SRP) (Doyle et al., 1998) is a well‐described method for eliciting connected language samples in persons with aphasia (PWA). However, the stimuli and task demands of the SRP are fundamentally different from commonly employed picture description, narrative, and procedural description tasks reported in the aphasia literature. As such, the extent to which measures of linguistic performance derived from the SRP may be associated with those obtained from picture description, narrative, and procedural description tasks is unknown. This research was supported by VA Rehabilitation Research and Development Merit Review Project C3159R “Cognitive and linguistic mechanisms of language performance in aphasia” and the Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center of the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System. The authors gratefully acknowledge the generous participation of the volunteers for this study and the laboratory assistance of Jennifer Golovin and MaryBeth Ventura. Aims: To...
TL;DR: There is considerable diversity among people with aphasia about their perceptions of the barriers and facilitators to communication in the community, and there are three common themes emerging from this series of research studies: first, accessibility is an important and often emotive issue for people withaphasia, Second, people withAphasia are marginalised by a communicatively inaccessible society.
Abstract: Background: Discrimination on the basis of disability is prohibited in many countries and therefore research on communication accessibility for people with aphasia has become a priority. Aims: The aim of this paper is to summarise and discuss the results of a series of research studies, carried out in one Centre, into accessibility issues for people with aphasia, focusing on the accessibility of community environments and the accessibility of information. Main Contribution: When asked about the accessibility of the community generally, people with aphasia reported both physical and societal barriers and facilitators, as well as barriers and facilitators related to other people. Many people with aphasia still do not receive written health information about aphasia and, when they do, the information is often written at a level too high for them to read. In terms of the accessibility of written information on websites about aphasia, high‐quality websites may not be easily accessible to people with aphasia. F...
TL;DR: Education level is confirmed as a highly important variable affecting the performance of non‐brain‐damaged adults and recognition of the impact of education is essential in the assessment and diagnosis of communication difficulty.
Abstract: Background: Evaluation of discourse is recognised as an important component in the diagnosis and management of adult acquired communication disorders. Picture description is a common and practical data elicitation procedure that has provided insights into the discourse of many adult groups. Such data may be analysed from several linguistic and pragmatic perspectives and, as is commonly the case with discourse measures, the usefulness of such data is limited by a paucity of relevant normative information. Aim: To determine the influences of age, education, and gender on the concepts and topic coherence of the picture description of non‐brain‐damaged adults. Methods & Procedures: A total of 225 adults described the “cookie theft” picture (Goodglass, Kaplan, & Barresi, 2001). Responses were analysed for presence and completeness of concepts (Nicholas & Brookshire, 1995) and topic coherence (Mentis & Prutting, 1991), modified (Brady, Mackenzie, & Armstrong 2003). Outcomes & Results: Both analyses, concept and...
TL;DR: The authors discusses different types of evaluative language and ways in which they are relatively impaired or preserved in aphasia, focusing on stroke narrative, using examples from the stroke stories of three aphasic speakers.
Abstract: Background: Language used for expressing feelings and opinions—so‐called evaluative language—is essential to the expression of the individual's identity. Illness narratives involving evaluative language are known to be important vehicles for coping with identity change during chronic illness, as well as reflecting on and sharing the experience. However, relatively little is known about the aphasic person's ability to engage in such narratives—in particular, the effects of their language difficulties on this endeavour. Aims: This study discusses different types of evaluative language and ways in which they are relatively impaired or preserved in aphasia, focusing on stroke narrative. Methods & Procedures: Examples from the stroke stories of three aphasic speakers are used as illustrations of their evaluative abilities. The stories were analysed according to evaluative language categories defined by Labov (1972) and Martin (2003). The function of each of these categories is described in terms of its contrib...
TL;DR: In this article, a transcriptionless discourse analysis was used to describe a person's communication impairment (for example, aphasia), to help plan therapy and to measure outcomes in speech and language therapy.
Abstract: Background: Discourse analysis as a clinical tool in speech and language therapy remains underused, at least partly because of the time‐consuming nature of the process of transcription that currently precedes it. If transcription‐less discourse analysis were valid and reliable, then there would be the clinical opportunity to use this method in order to describe a person's communication impairment (for example aphasia), to help plan therapy and to measure outcomes. Thanks are extended to the following organisations and people for their various valuable contributions to this study: Department of Health, New and Emerging Technology Programme for funding; the participants with aphasia; the transcription‐less raters (Claire Higgins, Dorothy Russell, Kirsty McLaughlan, Lesley Garret, and Sharon Nelson); Caitriona Hutton for additional transcription; and the Speakability group in Forth Valley for their help in producing an aphasia‐friendly information sheet and consent form. Aims: This study aimed to address the...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined whether functional and linguistic analyses of discourse are suitable to describe aspects of language improvement in subjects recovering from non-fluent aphasia in the first months post-onset.
Abstract: Background: Methods for functional and linguistic analysis of discourse have been used for describing recovery from aphasia and examining relationships between patterns of recovery and specific therapeutic programmes. This approach, however, has mainly concerned therapeutic programmes for chronic aphasic symptoms (e.g., therapy for chronic agrammatism in non‐fluent aphasic subjects). Aims: The first aim of this study was to examine whether functional and linguistic analyses of discourse are suitable to describe aspects of language improvement in subjects recovering from non‐fluent aphasia in the first months post‐onset. A second objective was to assess the effectiveness of two therapy programmes for chronic aphasia in increasing informativeness and/or morpho‐syntactic organisation of connected speech. This was made by examining in‐depth the correspondence between each of the two therapy programmes and the results from functional and linguistic analysis of discourse at pre‐ and post‐therapy evaluation. Met...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated whether the temporary storage of verbal information could be improved by therapy in a patient with repetition conduction aphasia, which is defined as a phonological short-term memory deficit.
Abstract: Background: Repetition conduction aphasia is defined as a phonological short‐term memory (STM) deficit. The interactive activation model of verbal STM proposed by N. Martin and Saffran (1992) accounts for this deficit by an increased activation decay rate. Recently Majerus and van der Linden (2001) suggested that these short‐term memory impairments could be improved by therapy. Aims: The purpose of our single case study was to investigate whether the temporary storage of verbal information could be improved by therapy in a patient with repetition conduction aphasia. Methods & Procedures: A patient suffering from a fluent aphasia was trained over 31 therapy sessions. In the therapy task he had to repeat sentences of four to seven words with an increasing delay between stimulus and response. The control task consisted of repeating sentences of four to six words without delay. Outcomes & Results: The treatment improved sentence repetition significantly. In addition, sentence length in oral production and spa...
TL;DR: The authors explored the hypothesis that perseveration errors are generated by the same mechanisms as non-perseverative errors: weak activation of the intended word in the context of a competition from other activated words.
Abstract: Background: Perseverations of sounds and words are common errors in aphasia. Understanding their mechanisms is of considerable interest to theories of word retrieval and also to treatment of anomia. Here, we explore the hypothesis that perseveration errors are generated by the same mechanisms as non‐perseverative errors: weak activation of the intended word in the context of a competition from other activated words. This research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (National Institute of Deafness and Communication Disorders) R01 DC01924 to Temple University (PI: N. Martin) and R01 DC00191 to Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute (PI: M.F. Schwartz). We thank Paula Sobel and Adelyn Brecher who were responsible for patient testing, scoring, and data management. We are also grateful to Dana Bitetti, Lianne DiMarco, Stephanie Tempest, and Francine Kohen for their assistance in data organisation and analyses. Finally, we thank Myrna Schwartz for helpful discussions that contributed ...
TL;DR: In this article, DM, a 52-year-old male with an agrammatic Broca's aphasia profile, was provided with a modified version of TUF, which targeted his writing skills and included a Discourse Training Module that allowed direct rehearsal of targeted syntactic frames within a discourse context.
Abstract: Background: Previous research indicates that Thompson and colleagues' (Thompson, 2001; Thompson & Shapiro, 2005) Treatment of Underlying Forms (TUF) can efficiently remediate agrammatic sentence‐processing deficits. The theoretical basis of TUF is that training production of complex, noncanonical sentence structures can concomitantly improve production of untrained, syntactically related but simpler sentence structures. Whereas this generalisation to untrained syntactic forms has been well established within constrained, sentence‐level tasks, which exploit the same response modality used during training, TUF's generalisation potential in terms of cross‐modal effects and discourse‐level improvements requires further exploration. Aims: DM, a 52‐year‐old male with an agrammatic Broca's aphasia profile, was provided with a modified version of TUF, which targeted his writing skills and included a Discourse Training Module that allowed direct rehearsal of targeted syntactic frames within a discourse context. Th...
TL;DR: A rating instrument was developed to assess visual stimulus properties and semantic content conveyance in multiple‐choice images and was assessed through empirical testing of viewers' eye movement patterns as they looked at images from published aphasia tests.
Abstract: Background: Using images in multiple‐choice formats for comprehension testing in aphasia is common. It is generally assumed that persons being assessed perceive the content of the images represented in such tasks. However, specific visual characteristics of individual images may influence visual attention, which may influence accuracy in the selection of a correct target image corresponding to a verbal stimulus. The validity of test responses may be confounded by (1) physical stimulus features, such as size, and (2) semantic content conveyed by images, such as image familiarity. This study is supported by a grant (# DC 0015301 A1) from the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders of the National Institutes of Health. We thank Natalie Douglas for her important contributions, Yoon‐Soo Lee for creation and editing of visual stimuli, and Sonny Kim for statistical consultation. Aims: The first aim was to develop a rating instrument to assess visual stimulus properties and semantic conte...
TL;DR: This paper examined the mechanisms through which professional control is achieved and sustained, with a particular focus on ways in which speech and language therapists and people with aphasia work at generating and maintaining the topics that are observed to develop in the opening phase of a...
Abstract: Background: Aphasia language therapy sessions have a general “order of phases” and usually open with a period of casual conversation. It has been noted that the overall structure of participation in therapy, characterised by therapist control, is anticipated in this opening phase. The detailed mechanisms through which control is achieved and sustained have not been fully examined. The processes through which these mechanisms operate and their relationship with participant roles and identities appear to be especially relevant for study if the overall goal of aphasia therapy is to address life participation and the social context of communication (e.g., Shadden & Agan, 2004). Aims: The concern of this paper is to examine in detail some of the mechanisms through which professional control is achieved and sustained, with a particular focus on ways in which speech and language therapists and people with aphasia work at generating and maintaining the topics that are observed to develop in the opening phase of a...
TL;DR: This article investigated the effect of typicality on online category verification of animate categories in patients with fluent or non-fluent aphasia and their normal controls and found that typical examples were faster and more accurate than atypical examples of animate classes.
Abstract: Background: A previous study (Kiran & Thompson, 2003a) investigated the effect of typicality on online category verification of animate categories in patients with fluent or nonfluent aphasia and their normal controls. Results revealed a robust effect of typicality: typical examples were faster and more accurate than atypical examples of animate categories. Patients with fluent aphasia did not demonstrate the expected effects of typicality. Aims: The aim of the present study was to extend this work to examine the effect of typicality on inanimate categories such as furniture, clothing, and weapons. Methods & Procedures: Normal young, older, and aphasic individuals participated in an online category verification task where primes were superordinate category labels whereas targets were either typical or atypical examples of inanimate categories (e.g., clothing, furniture, weapons) or nonmembers belonging to animate categories. Aphasic participants were divided into two groups, semantic impairment group (SI)...
TL;DR: This article examined the ability of patients with semantic dementia to perceive subtle acoustic-phonetic distinctions in English, and to bootstrap their accuracy of lexical-semantic and syntactic judgements from regularities in the phonological forms of English nouns and verbs.
Abstract: Background: Listeners make active use of phonological regularities such as word length to facilitate higher‐level syntactic and semantic processing. For example, nouns are longer than verbs, and abstract words are longer than concrete words. Patients with semantic dementia (SD) experience conceptual loss with preserved syntax and phonology. The extent to which patients with SD exploit phonological regularities to support language processing remains unclear. Aims: We examined the ability of patients with SD (1) to perceive subtle acoustic–phonetic distinctions in English, and (2) to bootstrap their accuracy of lexical‐semantic and syntactic judgements from regularities in the phonological forms of English nouns and verbs. Methods and Procedures: Four patients with SD made minimal pair judgements (same/different) for auditorily presented stimuli selectively varied by voice, place, or manner of the initial consonant (e.g., pa –ba). In Experiment 2 patients made forced‐choice semantic judgements (abstract or ...