Harvey Halpern

EFFECT OF STIMULUS VARIABLES ON VERBAL PERSEVERATION OF DYSPHASIC SUBJECTS.

Oral responses were received from 33 dysphasics to word stimuli counterbalanced according to abstraction level, part of speech, length, and frequency of occurrence, and presented through the visual, auditory, and visual-auditory modalities. The results indicated that: through the visual modality, words of high and medium abstraction level produced significantly more perseveration than low, while through the auditory and visual-auditory modalities no significant differences were found; regardless of modality no significant differences existed among nouns, verbs and adjectives; regardless of modality long words produced significantly more perseveration than short; regardless of modality no significant differences existed between words of frequent and infrequent occurrence in the language; regardless of abstraction level, part of speech, word length and frequency of occurrence, the visual modality produced significantly more perseveration than the auditory and visual-auditory modalities, except in the case of words of high abstraction level where the auditory mode produced significantly more perseverations than the visual-auditory modality.

Effect of stimulus variables on dysphasic verbal errors.

Reanalysis of oral responses from 32 dysphasics to word stimuli counterbalanced according to abstraction level, part of speech, length, and frequency of occurrence, and presented through the visual, auditory and visual-auditory modalities, indicated that: through the visual modality, high and medium abstract words produced significantly more verbal errors than low; through the visual-auditory modality, medium abstract words produced significantly more verbal errors than low, while through the auditory modality no significant differences were found. Regardless of modality, verbs and adjectives produced significantly more verbal errors than nouns, while no significant difference was found between verbs and adjectives; regardless of modality, long words produced significantly more verbal errors than short; regardless of modality, infrequent words produced significantly more verbal errors than frequent words. Regardless of abstraction level, part of speech, word length, and frequency of occurrence, the visual produced significantly more verbal errors than the auditory and visual-auditory modalities, except in the case of words of medium abstraction level where the visual-auditory modality produced significantly more verbal errors than the auditory modality.

Word association responses in normal adult subjects

A word association test was administered to a group of 316 undergraduate students. Word stimuli were balanced according to frequency of occurrence in written English language usage (frequent, infrequent), word length (short, long), abstraction level (low, medium, high), and grammatical class (noun, verb, adjective). Responses were analyzed according to a syntactic classification system. The factorial nature of the word list used enhances its value as a research tool.

Word-finding abilities of three types of aphasic subjects

Word-finding difficulties are often observed among different types of aphasic patients. This investigation analyzed the word-finding abilities of 30 aphasic subjects (10 Brocas, 10 Wernickes, and 10 anomic). Forty nouns counterbalanced according to word length and frequency of occurrence in English language usage were used as stimuli and presented through four modalities (oral expression, writing, auditory comprehension, and reading comprehension). It was expected that patterns of word finding abilities would help in the classification of the different types of aphasia. In addition, long words and less frequently occurring words in English language usage should prove more difficult in word-finding ability, regardless of modality. The results of this study found long words and less frequent words were more difficult for aphasic subjects. Among the modalities, long words were significantly harder than short words for the writing modality only. It was also found that semantic errors were the most common errors for all types of aphasic subjects. Brocas subjects produced significantly moreno response errors in oral expression; Wernickes subjects produced significantly more semantic and phonemic errors in reading comprehension; and, Wernickes subjects produced significantly more unrelated errors in both oral expression and reading comprehension. Clinical implications were also discussed.

Differential language characteristics in adult aphasic and schizophrenic subjects

Sixty-one adult aphasic and 61 noncerebrally involved chronic undifferentiated schizophrenic subjects were tested for impairment in 10 language categories. Results indicated that the language categories of strongest differentiating value were writing of words to dictation, naming, syntax, where aphasic subjects were more impaired in all three, and relevance, where schizophrenic subjects were more impaired. To a lesser extent, other differentiating language features were auditory retention span, and overall language ability, where aphasic subjects were more impaired in both, and fluency, where aphasic subjects were less fluent. Both groups also were tested for apraxia of speech, oral apraxia, limb apraxia, time and place orientation, and ability to respond to questions containing general information.

Word-Association Responses to Time-Altered Stimuli by Schizophrenic Adults

This research addressed the relationship between the speed of presentation of stimuli through the auditory and visual modalities and the number of syntagmatic and paradigmatic word-association responses of 49 chronic undifferentiated schizophrenic adults. In word-association tests administered to subjects stimuli were balanced for frequency of occurrence in written English language (frequent, infrequent), word length (long, short), abstraction level (low, medium, high), and part of speech (noun, verb, adjective). The words were presented auditorily at normal speed (equivalent to 10 phonemes per second) and at half speed (equivalent to 5 phonemes per second) speech. Words were also presented visually, using a tachistoscope, at extended fixation speed (equivalent to 1,000 msec.) and at sweep speed (equivalent to 10 msec.). Mote paradigmatic responses occurred on word stimuli if nouns, long, and frequently occurring presented auditorily; and if concrete, nouns, and presented slowly and visually. Results were compared to previously reported data for aphasic and normal adults, and differentiating features and clinical implications were discussed.

An analysis of the babbling stage of institutionalized infants

Abstract Five infants, institutionalized at birth and no later than two weeks after birth were studied. They ranged in age from fourteen to sixteen weeks. Their developmental histories were diagnosed as normal at the time they were studied. Each subject was individually observed for a continuous seven hour period. The purpose of the study was to describe the developmental patterns of behavior, i.e. the vocal behavior in relation to motor activity under spontaneous and externally stimulated factors. The findings revealed that no relationship existed between: (1) the frequency of babbling periods and concurring bodily activities, (2) the frequency of babbling periods and the social responses of the subjects, (3) spontaneous and reactive babbling. The findings also indicated a significant difference in the amount of time spent babbling even though the number of babbling periods were not significantly different.

The nonfluencies of eight psychiatric adults

Nonfluencies of eight psychiatric adults were evaluated through seven tasks: verbal formulation; conversational spontaneous speech; picture description; sentence reading; paragraph reading; automatic speech; and repetition of phrases and sentences. Results indicated that 12% of total subject output were nonfluences. Most nonfluencies occurred on tasks involving verbal formulation, picture description, spontaneous speech, and reading aloud of sentences and paragraphs, and least in automatic speech, and repetition of phrases and sentences. The nonfluencies were mostly repetitions, followed by hesitations and then prolongations. The nonfluencies appeared mostly on sounds, with words and phrases the next frequent, and sentences and syllables the least frequent. Finally the most nonfluencies occurred on words in the middle or beginning of sentences, with the least occurring on words at the end of sentences.

The differential diagnosis of language in the brain-injured adult

Abstract This article discusses the differential language characteristics in patients with aphasia, generalized intellectual impairment, apraxia of speech, and confused language. Preliminary findings indicated the following: The aphasic group had the highest overall language impairment with particular difficulty in auditory retention span, naming, and fluency (reduced). The generalized intellectual impairment group had a mild impairment of all language functions. The apraxia of speech group showed minimal or no impairment in overall language functions with reduced fluency standing out as a differential feature. The confused language group showed a language impairment almost as high as the aphasics along with the striking characteristic of irrelevant responses. A brief review on aphasia testing is presented to indicate the evolvement of the kinds of tools available for making a differential diagnosis of the language impaired adult.

AUDIOLOGIC AND OTOLOGIC SCREENING-Reply

To the Editor .—The authors are appreciative of Dr. Stools comments and support, and are in agreement with him concerning the importance of an adequate history, and an adequate period of observation prior to surgery. While our major concern in this study was case-finding for communicative disorders, rather than surgery, there was certainly no intention to suggest that adequate observation and as complete a history as is possible should not be included in any follow-up of these children. Unfortunately, it was not feasible to maintain, as a part of our unfunded study, any systematic followup of the recommendations made by the physicians as part of the otologic screenings. However, the childrens center does assume responsibility for proper placement of all children under its jurisdiction. The otologic screening results of each of the 225 children were included as permanent parts of their records. The findings were called to the attention of all