Does producing semantically related words

aid word retrieval in people with aphasia?

By Rosi Rahmawati
 first Experiment
the to-be-repeated prime had one of three possible relation- ships to the target:

identity associated coordinates unrelated

(+Associate +Coordinate) (-Associate -Coordinate)

e.g., repetition of “bus”, which is

e.g., repetition of “car” in the both associated and shares the same e.g., repetition of “pen” in
presence of the picture “car” semantic category as the tar- get presence of picture of “car”
“car”)
 second experiment
we aimed to further tease apart the effects of the nature of any sematic relationship, by manipulating whether
items were linked by coordination and/or association using following prime conditions:

coordination
01 02
(-Associate +Coordinate)
Identity e.g., repetition of “bike” in presence of a
picture “car”

association
(+Associate-Coordinate) Unrelated
03 e.g., repetition of “road” in presence of a
picture of “car”
04 (-Associate – Coordinate)
 01
EXPERIMENT
This experiment examined whether previous retrieval of associated coordinates affected
subsequent spoken word retrieval in people with aphasia.
PARTICIPANT
S
Participants were 12 people with self-reported aphasia following CVA except LBL who
had aphasia due to a tumour. Seven participants were recruited via an aphasia support
centre (in the United Kingdom) and five participants via the Aphasia Participant Database
of the Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia).
 BACKGROUND ASSESSMENT
To identify the pattern of language impairment at the single word level, and particularly the pattern of
impairment in spoken word production, participants were examined using :
Participants CS IRM NGH DHE ART CBH SSJ DTF HBC HO LBL ICM CBH showed signs of breakdown at phonological level
H E and at the transition from semantic to phonological levels,
Age 67 55 62 70 52 72 52 73 62 63 52 65 and DHE at the semantic and semantic-phonological
Gender M M F M M F M M F M F M levels
Time Post Onset >6 months 1 8 4 15 2 15 2* 6 3 5 2
(years)
Fluency NF NF NF NF F F NF F F F F F Five participants (ART, DTF, HBC, HOE, LBL) showed a
Pattern of breakdown                         pattern of breakdown only at the transition from semantic
Semantic ? Y Y Y     Y           to phonological levels
Phonological   Y Y     Y Y          
Sem-phon Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
Proportion of naming responses by type ICM showed a phonological impairment
Correct 0.14 0.23 0.42 0.25 0.44 0.38 0.41 0.56 0.47 0.74 0.63 0.75
Semantic errors 0.23 0.08 0.07 0.08 0.13 0.05 0.38 0.05 0.19 0.06 0.04 0.24
Phonological errors 0.12 0.13 0.08 0.08 0.27 0.13 0.03 0.13 0.02 0.08 0.06 0.01 CSH most likely had both a semantic and a
Unrelated errors 0.00 0.02 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.00 0.05 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 semantic-phonological impairment
Omissions 0.51 0.55 0.43 0.59 0.15 0.44 0.13 0.26 0.32 0.12 0.27 0.00

The experimental naming test was used to identify three levels of breakdown: semantic, phonological, and semantic-
phonological.

METHOD
The word to repeat was either: (i) identical
(identity), (ii) both an associate and a
category coordinate (+associate +
coordinate), or unrelated (neither
associated nor a category coordinate) to
the picture presented
MATERIAL AND
DESIGN
The word to repeat was either: (i) identical
(identity), (ii) both an associate and a
category coordinate (+associate +
coordinate), or unrelated (neither
associated nor a category coordinate) to
Athe picture presented
 PROCEDURE
This experiment contained three phases:

Phase 1. Pre-priming naming.

pre-priming picture naming phase where all pictures were
presented;

 
Phase 2. Priming: repetition in the presence of the
picture.

Phase 3. Post-priming naming.

 Data coding
Non-target responses including phonological errors, no
responses, and correct responses retrieved after
5000 ms were considered incorrect.
Results
Both accuracy and response latency were analysed to examine 1) the
effect of priming – the change in performance from pre- to post-test
for each condition, and 2) the effect of semantic relations –
difference in post-test performance across conditions.
 Analysis of accuracy
  Pre Post   Pre Post   Pre Post Pre Post            
Effect of priming. Participant -
test
-
test
-
test
-
test
-
test
-
test
- -
test test
Repetitio Repetition Repetition
n

CSH .13 .40*   .17 .23   .13 .17 .13 .20   .67   .57   .53
The proportion of IRM .23 .20   .23 .20   .23 .17 .23 .17   .60   .63   .63
NGH .37 .63*   .40 .40   .37 .37 .40 .53   .77 .23 .03
correct responses DHE .27 .60*   .23 .13   .23 .23 .27 .30   .80
 
  .77
 
  .63
at individual subject ART
CBH
.47
.33
.53  
.70*  
.43
.43
.40  
.53  
.43
.33
.43
.57*
.43
.43
.50  
.67*  
.67
.80
 
 
.53
.43
 
 
.30
.07
and group levels SSJ
DTF
.40
.57
.67*  
.60  
.40
.53
.33  
.47  
.43
.57
.37
.67
.43
.57
.50  
.70  
.86
.80
 
 
.90
.87
 
 
.80
.70
before and after HBC .47 .77*   .47 .40   .47 .57 .47 .57   1.00   .87   1.00
HOE .73 .93*   .73 .73   .73 .80 .77 .87   .93   .50   .33
priming are LBL .60 .97*   .63 .60   .63 .73 .63 .73   .97   .83   .73
ICM .77 .97*   .77 .80   .73 .67 .77 .83   1.00   .97   .90
summarised in All .44 .66*   .45 .44   .44 .48 .46 .55   .82   .68   .56
SD 0.20 0.23   0.19 0.20   0.20 0.22 0.20 0.23   0.13 0.23 0.31
Table 2    
 Group
analyses
Compared to the unprimed condition there
was significantly greater accuracy in the
identity condition and significantly poorer
performance in the associated coordinate
condition. The unrelated condition was close
to being significantly worse than the
unprimed condition (see Table 3).

Condition est se z score Pr(>|z|)

Intercept 1.04 0.48 2.18 0.029 *
IDENTITY 0.57 0.19 3.05 0.002 **
+ASSOC +COORD −0.47 0.18 −2.64 0.008 **
UNRELATED −0.32 0.18 −1.76 0.079  
vs. Unrelated          
Intercept 1.04 0.48 2.18 0.029 *
IDENTITY 0.88 0.19 4.74 2.19E-06 ***
+ASSOC +COORD −0.16 0.18 −0.88 0.381  
vs. Identity          
+ASSOC +COORD −1.05 0.185 −5.663 1.49e-08 ***
2
 Analysis of response latency
We considered response latency for items that were correct on both occasions (see Table 4) using paired t-test for
individuals and combined z-test for the group.
  proportion Pre- Post-   proportion Pre- Post-   proportion Pre- Post-   proportion Pre- Post-
Participan included primin primin included primin primin included primin primin included primin primin
t g g g g g g g g
CSH .13 3.36 3.04*   .07 3.13 3.06   .10 3.45 3.29   .13 3.34 3.39*
IRM .10 3.28 3.19   .10 3.18 3.08   .10 3.23 3.37   .10 3.10 3.24
NGH .33 3.30 3.16*   .27 3.31 3.33   .27 3.21 3.27   .33 3.29 3.18
DHE .17 3.32 3.31   .07 3.44 3.18*   .10 3.30 3.20   .17 3.33 3.38
ART .37 3.25 3.05*   .20 3.29 3.25   .20 3.28 3.14*   .37 3.28 3.27
CBH .23 3.32 3.04*   .30 3.25 3.15   .30 3.24 3.15   .40 3.34 3.09*
SSJ .37 3.11 3.07   .30 3.04 3.14   .37 3.04 3.07   .37 3.08 3.06
DTF .40 3.31 3.16*   .33 3.26 3.18   .47 3.29 3.19   .53 3.31 3.15*
HBC .40 3.35 3.23   .23 3.25 3.42   .33 3.29 3.16   .30 3.41 3.34
HOE .73 3.37 3.12*   .57 3.33 3.29   .60 3.32 3.19*   .73 3.37 3.29
LBL .60 3.30 3.14*   .40 3.32 3.37   .53 3.27 3.30   .57 3.31 3.15*
ICM .77 3.27 3.12*   .70 3.30 3.27   .60 3.30 3.20*   .70 3.26 3.10*
All .38 3.29 3.14*   .29 3.26 3.23   .33 3.27 3.21*   .39 3.29 3.22*
SD .22 .07 .08   .19 .10 .11   .19 .09 .08   .21 .10 .11

Group level
At the group level, statistical analysis of reaction time between conditions at post-test was implemented with linear
mixed effect model (LMEM) in lme4 package, version 1.1–7 (Bates et al., 2014) with participants and items as random
intercepts and logged frequency, number of syllables and phonemes as random slopes for participants (see Table 3).
 DISCUSSION
In this experiment, we examined the effect of a long-lag priming task using word repetition in the presence of the picture on
subsequent spoken word retrieval in a series of people with aphasia.

In the analysis of the effect of identity on the accuracy and reaction time of the
response, we observed a consistent pattern of faster and more accurate performance in post-priming naming at both
group and individual subject levels.

The benefit from identity repetition observed here converges with the evidence shown in previous aphasia studies (e.g.,
Patterson et al., 1983; Podraza & Darley, 1977) as well as with studies with healthy participants (e.g., Wheeldon &
Monsell, 1992).

Three other participants (HBC, LBL, ICM) all showed significant interference from repetition of associated coordinate
primes

To provide a better understanding of the nature of priming from associated coordinates, we therefore conducted a second
experiment where association and coordination were examined as separate factors.
EXPERIMEN
02
T
To further examine the effect of repetition primes that are pure
associates (+associate –coordinates) and pure coordinates (–
associate +coordi- nates) on subsequent accuracy and
reaction time of response in people with aphasia, using an
unrelated condition as a control.
 
 Experiment 2
participan
procedure
t

Material and
design
Results
Nine of the 12 people with This experiment followed a similar
aphasia procedure as Experiment 1

Experiment 2 was implemented at both

One hundred and twenty photographs were individual subject and group levels
selected for this experiment (some following the same rationale as in
overlapping with Experiment 1) Experiment 1.
 
 Experiment 2

Analysis of accuracy Effect of semantic relationships

Effect of priming. Eight participants showed no significant differences in
Six participants (IRM, ART, CBH, DTF, HBC, ICM) showed no
significant changes in the accuracy of response between post-test accuracy and SSJ showed significantly greater
naming relative to pre-test accuracy in the identity condition
 In this experiment, we examined the effect of repetition of primes that were
identical, associates (+associate −coordinate), and/or semantic coordinates
(−associate +coordinate) to the target on accuracy and latency of
subsequent picture naming.

Discussion
In this experiment
 General Discussion

In Experiment 1, we also examined the effect of associated coordinate

primes on spoken word retrieval and, in Experiment 2, we further tested
the effect of association and coordination as separate factors. In
Experiment 1, we contrasted performance with both unrelated and
unprimed conditions and, in Experiment 2, only with an unrelated condition.

The results of both experiments showed convergent evidence

for improved word retrieval (accuracy and/or latency) following
long-lag priming with identical primes.
Thank you
By Rosi Rahmawati
Nim 4322319020041
Class Eng-4B