title: Evaluating Treatment and Generalization Patterns of Two Theoretically Motivated Sentence Comprehension Therapies.
abstract: The current study examined treatment outcomes and generalization patterns following 2 sentence comprehension therapies: object manipulation (OM) and sentence-to-picture matching (SPM). Findings were interpreted within the framework of specific deficit and resource reduction accounts, which were extended in order to examine the nature of generalization following treatment of sentence comprehension deficits in aphasia.
  
  
  
  Forty-eight individuals with aphasia were enrolled in 1 of 8 potential treatment assignments that varied by task (OM, SPM), complexity of trained sentences (complex, simple), and syntactic movement (noun phrase, wh-movement). Comprehension of trained and untrained sentences was probed before and after treatment using stimuli that differed from the treatment stimuli.
  
  
  
  Linear mixed-model analyses demonstrated that, although both OM and SPM treatments were effective, OM resulted in greater improvement than SPM. Analyses of covariance revealed main effects of complexity in generalization; generalization from complex to simple linguistically related sentences was observed both across task and across movement.
  
  
  
  Results are consistent with the complexity account of treatment efficacy, as generalization effects were consistently observed from complex to simpler structures. Furthermore, results provide support for resource reduction accounts that suggest that generalization can extend across linguistic boundaries, such as across movement type.
authors.affiliation: Speech and Hearing Sciences, Boston University Sargent College, MA.
authors.forename: Carrie A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Des Roches
authors.affiliation: Speech and Hearing Sciences, Boston University Sargent College, MADepartment of Communication Sciences and Disorders, MGH-Institute of Health Professions, Boston, MA.
authors.forename: Sofia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vallila-Rohter
authors.affiliation: Speech and Hearing Sciences, Boston University Sargent College, MA.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Villard
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, Boston University, MA.
authors.forename: Yorghos
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tripodis
authors.affiliation: Speech and Hearing Sciences, Boston University Sargent College, MANeuropsychology Laboratory, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Caplan
authors.affiliation: Speech and Hearing Sciences, Boston University Sargent College, MA.
authors.forename: Swathi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kiran
mesh_terms: D001037:Aphasia / Q000628:therapy*; D001039:Aphasia, Broca; D032882:Comprehension; D006801:Humans; D008037:Linguistics; D016896:Treatment Outcome