The processing of semantic relationships in normal and aphasic subjects.
Item
-
Title
-
The processing of semantic relationships in normal and aphasic subjects.
-
Identifier
-
AAI8820841
-
identifier
-
8820841
-
Creator
-
Ausubel, Rochelle.
-
Contributor
-
Adviser: J. R. Tweedy
-
Date
-
1988
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Psychology, Clinical
-
Abstract
-
Aphasic subjects were compared to controls on a semantic relatedness task. Subjects were presented with two slides depicting two concepts and asked to judge whether the two items were related. The dependent measures were response time and error rate.;Three types of relations were presented. (1) The two slides might depict the same concept (Identity) or (2) they might represent two members from the same category (Coordinate) or (3) they might depict an item and its category name (Superordinate). To assess whether different forms of an item are processed equivalently or not, the second (target) stimulus was presented as either a picture or a word. Results are discussed in the context of semantic models of normal processing as well as models of semantic changes in the aphasic population.;The Identity conditions yielded faster reaction times than the Superordinate conditions for both subject groups, suggesting that identification precedes classification for both picture and word forms of an item. Both the normal and aphasic subjects showed faster responses to Coordinate Word (CW) as compared to Coordinate Picture (CP) conditions but faster responses to Superordinate Picture (SP) as compared to Superordinate Word (SW) conditions. The results supported neither a strict unitary nor a strict independent coding model and are interpreted as evidence for hybrid semantic processing models (e.g. Seymour, 1979).;The aphasic response times patterns were different than normal patterns in the Superordinate as compared to the Identity conditions and in the Identity Picture (IP) as compared to the Identity Word (IW) conditions. These results suggested that aphasic subjects have particular difficulty with semantic processing. Additionally, aphasic subjects showed a preference for using perceptual rather than semantic features in the unrelated Coordinate trials, showing relatively faster reaction times in unrelated CP and compared to unrelated CW conditions. This finding lent support to the semantic deficit hypothesis of aphasia.;Clinical classification and independent task measures were not useful in differentiating the subtypes of aphasic subjects' performance on the experimental task.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
