Sentence context influences the interpretation of word meaning by Alzheimer patients.
This study examined whether, in Alzheimer patients, verbal context selectively activates elements of a word's meaning that are relevant to the context. Subjects were shown a sentence ending in a target noun, followed by a question about an attribute of that target. The sentence primed either the attribute in the question, a different attribute, or no attribute. Both normals and AD patients answered the question faster when the target had appeared in a context priming that particular attribute. These results suggest that Alzheimer patients retain knowledge of semantic attributes and that these attributes are susceptible to contextual activation.
Nebes
R D
RD
Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh Medical School, Pennsylvania, USA.
Halligan
E M
EM
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D012660:Semantics; D012720:Severity of Illness Index