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A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of - Queen Margaret University

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4.6.3 Methodological issues<br />

A number <strong>of</strong> methodological issues emerged follow<strong>in</strong>g the immediate recall<br />

assessment <strong>of</strong> pilot study three. Firstly, it was apparent that P3 knew some <strong>of</strong><br />

the creature names but was unable to pronounce them accurately. While he<br />

<strong>of</strong>ten (eventually) managed to speak the words, albeit with phonological errors,<br />

other participants with aphasia may not be able to do so, because <strong>of</strong> severe<br />

spoken and/or written difficulties. A task was devised for the ma<strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>vestigation<br />

that would tap <strong>in</strong>to the phonological knowledge <strong>of</strong> the word forms <strong>of</strong> the new<br />

vocabulary. The task chosen was a picture-syllable match<strong>in</strong>g task, where a<br />

picture <strong>of</strong> an object (<strong>in</strong> this case a picture <strong>of</strong> a creature) would be shown to the<br />

participant and they would <strong>in</strong>dicate how many syllables the creature’s name<br />

conta<strong>in</strong>ed by po<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g to the number one, two or three (tapp<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>to the<br />

phonological output lexicon). This <strong>in</strong>formation would be taught to participants<br />

dur<strong>in</strong>g the tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g sessions. To practise this task some pictures <strong>of</strong> familiar items<br />

would be shown to participants (for example, apple, banana, tomato etc.) to<br />

ensure that any task difficulty artefact was elim<strong>in</strong>ated.<br />

At this stage it was also considered that it would be advantageous to observe if<br />

participants could read aloud the new words that they had learned. Follow<strong>in</strong>g the<br />

errorless learn<strong>in</strong>g approach this would only be appropriate after tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g,<br />

otherwise, it could give rise to ‘errorful’ memory traces be<strong>in</strong>g established if done<br />

as a basel<strong>in</strong>e measure. The words could then be compared to the participant’s<br />

ability to read words and non-words which were gathered dur<strong>in</strong>g the pre-tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g<br />

screen<strong>in</strong>g assessments. These additional tasks were piloted on P3 dur<strong>in</strong>g the<br />

delayed recall assessment and found to be useful assessment tools for the ma<strong>in</strong><br />

<strong>in</strong>vestigation.<br />

4.6.4 Summary <strong>of</strong> pilot study three<br />

The amended methodology from pilot study one was evaluated to ascerta<strong>in</strong> its<br />

suitability for participants with post-stroke aphasia. The outcome confirmed the<br />

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