Contrasting effects of phonological priming in aphasic word production.
Two fluent aphasics, IG and GL, performed a phonological priming task in which they repeated an auditory prime then named a target picture. The two patients both had selective deficits in word production: they were at or near ceiling on lexical comprehension tasks, but were significantly impaired in picture naming. IG's naming errors included both semantic and phonemic paraphasias, as well as failures to respond, whereas GL's errors were mainly phonemic and formal paraphasias. The two patients responded very differently to phonological priming: IG's naming was facilitated (both accuracy and speed) only by begin-related primes (e.g. ferry-feather), whereas GL benefited significantly only from end-related primes (e.g. brother-feather), showing no more than a facilitatory trend with begin-related primes. We interpret these results within a two-stage model of word production, in which begin-related and end-related primes are said to operate at different stages. We then discuss implications for models of normal and aphasic word production in general and particularly with respect to sequential aspects of the phonological encoding process.
Wilshire
Carolyn E
CE
School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, P.O. Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand. carolyn.wilshire@vuw.ac.nz
Saffran
Eleanor M
EM
D000849:Anomia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D001041:Aphasia, Wernicke / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention; D002543:Cerebral Hemorrhage / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D002544:Cerebral Infarction / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010153:Paired-Associate Learning; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010700:Phonetics; D012691:Serial Learning; D014705:Verbal Behavior