Concreteness/abstractness of stimulus-words and semantic clustering in right brain-damaged patients.
Fifteen right brain-damaged patients and 15 normal controls were tested for learning, delayed recall and semantic clustering abilities using two lists of two/three-syllable words. The first list consisted of 12 familiar, concrete, high-imageability nouns belonging to three semantic categories and the second of 12 abstract, low-imageability, familiar nouns also belonging to three semantic categories. The right brain-damaged patients proved to have a learning and semantic clustering deficit for concrete but not for abstract words. This was interpreted as evidence for a selective right hemisphere capability for processing concrete, high-imageability words.
Villardita
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C
Laboratorio di Neuropsicologia Clinica, Università di Catania.
Grioli
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S
Quattropani
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MC
D000368:Aged; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D013997:Time Factors; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000502:physiology