First Advisor

Robert C. Marshall

Term of Graduation

Fall 1973

Date of Publication

11-27-1973

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (M.S.) in Speech: Speech and Hearing Sciences

Department

Speech

Language

English

Subjects

Aphasia, Word deafness, Auditory perception

DOI

10.15760/etd.1682

Physical Description

1 online resource (vii, 50 pages)

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of semantic associational strength (SAS) upon adult aphasics' auditory comprehension abilities. Twenty-eight adult aphasics (25 males and 3 females) and 12 normal control subjects were presented three experimental tasks, each containing 45 items. Experimental task 1 contained single word picture sets of high SAS, moderate SAS, and low SAS words. Experimental task 2 contained two word picture sets of high, moderate, and low SAS words, and experimental task 3 contained three word picture sets of high, moderate, and low SAS words. Subjects heard one, two, and three word verbal sequences for experimental tasks 1, 2, and 3, respectively, and pointed to the appropriate picture sequence. Level of SAS was determined on the basis of the two most frequently occurring word associations of 50 normal individuals to 195 words selected from the most frequently occurring 3,000 English words. The findings in this study revealed that aphasics had substantially more difficulty auditorily selecting picture sequences of high SAS words than sequences of moderate and low SAS words, and more difficulty auditorily selecting picture sequences of moderate SAS words than sequences of low SAS words. Results further indicated that, irrespective of degree of SAS between words, aphasics' retentional ability was adversely influenced by an increase in verbal sequence length. The presence of a significant interaction between the SAS and length factors negated the support for an interaction hypothesis that degree of SAS would differentially affect aphasics' comprehension as message length increased. Aphasics' performance on the experimental task was highly related to their overall communicative ability as assessed by the Porch Index of Communicative Ability.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Comments

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Speech: Emphasis Speech Pathology and Audiology.

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this dissertation or thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to pdxscholar@pdx.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/11145

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