Reaction time methodology and the aphasic patient: a reply to Hagoort (1988).
P. Hagoort (1988, Brain and Language, 36, 335-348) suggests that the results of an experiment conducted with aphasic patients reported by W. Milberg, S. E. Blumstein, and B. Dworetzky (1987, Brain and Language, 31, 138-150) are "difficult to interpret in terms of a selective access model for normal processing because of a confound caused by the use of repeated lexical decision targets." We argue that the use of repeated lexical decision targets and other methodological compromises are necessary for using the lexical decision reaction time paradigm with aphasic patients. Furthermore, the minor differences between our data and those presented by Hagoort do not undermine our claims concerning semantic processing in different subgroups of aphasics, nor our comparisons of these patients to normal subjects.
Milberg
W
W
Aphasia Research Center, Boston, Massachusetts.
Blumstein
S
S
D001037:Aphasia / Q000523:psychology*; D001039:Aphasia, Broca / Q000523:psychology*; D001041:Aphasia, Wernicke / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010153:Paired-Associate Learning; D011930:Reaction Time; D012660:Semantics; D013067:Speech Perception