Comprehension of word meaning in sentences by fluent and nonfluent aphasics.
Item
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Title
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Comprehension of word meaning in sentences by fluent and nonfluent aphasics.
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Identifier
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AAI9119639
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identifier
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9119639
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Creator
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Jensen, Lise R.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Michael Studdert-Kennedy
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Date
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1991
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Health Sciences, Speech Pathology | Education, Reading
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Abstract
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The focus of the research presented is on the preservation of integration, i.e. contextual encoding of work meaning in aphasics. Based on recent research in the language processing deficits in aphasia, posterior aphasics were expected to have difficulties at the integrational level of comprehension. A set of Danish norms for semantic properties of word meaning was collected for sixty common Danish words. Based on these norms a memory probe task was constructed where the encoding of high and low dominant semantic properties of word meaning was examined in different sentence contexts. Sentences and probes were presented visually, and key-press response latencies and errors were recorded for subjects' decision as to whether or not a word occurred in a preceding sentence. An experiment with normal Danish subjects was carried out and compared to an experiment with fluent and nonfluent aphasics. The results confirmed the general finding of contextual encoding of word meaning in normal subjects, but unlike other studies the integration effect was observed for both high and low dominant properties of word meaning. Fluent aphasics showed an abnormal effect of property dominance which may indicate a disorganization within the lexical-semantic system. Both fluent and nonfluent aphasics showed integration only of low dominant properties. When regrouped according to level of single word comprehension on the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination, high comprehenders conformed to normal subjects in their response latencies, whereas low comprehenders failed to show integration of high dominant properties and made more errors on the task than high comprehenders. The results are taken to suggest that low comprehenders have difficulty with some aspects of integration of word meaning involving selective deactivation of dominant properties, and that they may require more time for contextual encoding of these properties than normal subjects and high comprehenders.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
