Sarah E. Williams

Action-Naming Performance in Four Syndromes of Aphasia

This study examined the influence of two situational contexts on the action-naming performances of 44 aphasic patients: single-word confrontation naming and naming within the context of connected speech. Subjects were evenly distributed among the syndromes of Brocas. Wernickes, anomic, and conduction aphasia. The two naming tasks employed each comprised the same 18 target verbs. Naming performance was not systematically influenced by the particular naming task in any of the aphasia groups studied. However, for some individuals, particularly in the group of anomic aphasia, there were substantial performance discrepancies between scores obtained on the two different tasks. Correlations between scores on the confrontation-naming and picture-description tasks were highest for the Wernickes aphasics, followed by the conduction, Brocas, and anomic aphasics. The extent to which action-naming error types could discriminate between the four groups of aphasics was examined. Results obtained in the present study were compared to results obtained in an earlier study on object-naming (S. Williams & G. Canter, 1982), Brain and Language, 17, 92-106). Discussion focuses on implications for the psycholinguistic processes involved in action versus object-naming.

The influence of situational context on naming performance in aphasic syndromes

Abstract This study examined the influence of two situational contexts on the naming performances of 40 aphasic patients: single-word confrontation naming and picture description. The subjects were evenly distributed among the syndromes of Brocas, Wernickes, conduction, and amnesic aphasia. The two naming tasks used were each comprised of the same 40 target words. Patients with Brocas aphasia performed significantly better on confrontation naming than when naming on the picture-description task. In contrast, patients with Wernickes aphasia displayed significantly better performance on the picture-description task. Although individual patients in the groups of amnesic and conduction aphasia were also influenced by the nature of the naming task being performed, neither of these groups showed a consistent pattern of performance differences on the two tasks. Patterns of naming errors produced within each group of aphasics were also examined. Differential error patterns were determined for these four diagnostic groups. The results are discussed in relation to neuropsychological concepts of aphasia and the naming process. Diagnostic and therapeutic implications are also addressed.

The effects of grammatic class and cue type on cueing responsiveness in aphasia

This study investigated the effects of two types of cues (semantic and phonemic) and two grammatic classes (noun and verb) on cueing responsiveness. Subjects consisted of 10 Brocas, 10 Wernickes, 8 conduction, and 8 anomic aphasics. Cues were administered following failure to name on confrontation. Responsiveness to the two types of cues was dependent on aphasic type and grammatic class. Brocas and conduction aphasics responded better to phonemic cueing, while anomic aphasics were more responsive to semantic cueing. With regard to grammatic class, aphasics responded better to phonemic cueing on nouns; however, no significant difference between types of cues was demonstrated on verbs. Neuropsychological implications for the cueing and naming processes are discussed.

The influence of topic and listener familiarity on aphasic discourse

This study investigated the effects of listener and topic familiarity on verbal output. A total of 32 subjects were included: 5 Brocas, 7 conduction, and 10 anomic aphasics; and 10 normal controls. Subjects performed story retell and procedural discourse tasks containing familiar and unfamiliar topics. Tasks were completed with a familiar listener (spouse) and an unfamiliar listener (examiner). Results indicated that topic familiarity significantly influenced verbal output, however specific findings were dependent on task. In procedural discourse, the amount of verbal output (number of T-units) was significantly greater on familiar topics. In contrast, the complexity (number of words and clauses per T-unit) was significantly greater on unfamiliar topics. On story retell, verbal output (number of T-units) was also greater on familiar topics. However, grammatic complexity did not increase with unfamiliar topics. Words per T-unit remained higher on familiar topics. The variable of listener familiarity was not found to be significant.

An investigation of naming errors following semantic and phonemic cueing

This study investigated the types of verbal errors produced by aphasic patients following phonemic and semantic cueing. Twenty-eight aphasic patients--10 Brocas, 10 Wernickes and 8 conduction aphasics--served as subjects. Semantic and phonemic cues were administered on object and action confrontation-naming tasks. When subjects did not respond correctly to phonemic cueing, a significantly greater number of phonemic errors were produced, with a concurrent decline in related words and extended circumlocutions. When subjects failed to respond to semantic cueing on the action task, there was an increase in a number of error categories.

A comparison of speech sound durations in three syndromes of aphasia

This study compared the durations of selected vowels and consonants produced by three groups of aphasics and a normal control group in confrontation naming and single-word repetition tasks. There were seven aphasic subjects in each of the syndromes of Brocas, Wernickes, amnesic, and conduction aphasia, in addition to a group of seven normal subjects. Wide-band spectrograms were used to measure speech sound durations. Analysis of group data revealed no significant differences in the durations of vowels or consonants across the four subject groups. In addition, there were no differences in speech sound durations for the confrontation naming versus repetition tasks. When two speech-language pathologists listened to tape recordings of all subjects performing the two tasks, they judged the speech of two Brocas aphasics as being labored, while the speech of the remaining subjects was not judged as labored. Clinical judgments of labored speech appeared to correspond to acoustical measurements of speech sound duration, as the two Brocas aphasics judged to be labored displayed longer durations than those subjects who were not judged as labored. The increase in duration was particularly marked for vowels and for sounds in polysyllabic words. The results are discussed in relation to current descriptions of the articulatory characteristics of Brocas aphasics. Clinical implications are also addressed.

Influence of written form on reading comprehension in aphasia

Reading comprehension of 20 aphasic patients was systematically assessed using equivalent stimuli written in both print and cursive form. A Single-Word-to-Picture Matching task and a Sentence-to-Picture Matching task were employed. Performances of the aphasics were not uniformly facilitated by one written form over the other. Furthermore, the reading comprehension of the majority of individual patients was not influenced by written form. Four of the subjects, however, did appear to display real performance discrepancies when reading cursive versus print, particularly on the Sentence-to-Picture Matching task. Two of these patients performed better when reading cursive, while two performed better when reading print. Reevaluation of two of these patients 6 mo after initial testing revealed that they continued to display the same performance patterns originally demonstrated. Clinical implications of these results for the evaluation and treatment of reading comprehension in aphasia are discussed.

Repetition deficits in three aphasic syndromes

This study examined the repetition errors of three aphasic subgroups during a repetition task. A total of 95 subjects, including 32 conduction, 38 Brocas, and 25 Wernickes aphasics, repeated phrases and sentences from the Repeating Phrases Subtest of the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination. Conduction aphasics exhibited a greater number of phonemic attempts, word revisions, and word and phrase repetitions. Brocas aphasics demonstrated more phonemic errors and omissions. Finally, Wernickes aphasics showed more unrelated words and jargon.