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A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of - Queen Margaret University

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of - Queen Margaret University

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the methodology for the learn<strong>in</strong>g and assessment procedure. The effectiveness<br />

<strong>of</strong> the cognitive neuropsychology approach <strong>in</strong> support<strong>in</strong>g the ma<strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>vestigation<br />

and its strengths and weaknesses are discussed <strong>in</strong> Chapter 6 (see section 6.5).<br />

The next chapter addresses the question <strong>of</strong> whether post-stroke young adults<br />

can learn new vocabulary despite hav<strong>in</strong>g language difficulties. Chapter 5<br />

presents the f<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>gs <strong>of</strong> the ma<strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>vestigation and describes the pr<strong>of</strong>iles <strong>of</strong> 12<br />

post-stroke adults with aphasia (six male and six female) who participated <strong>in</strong> the<br />

ma<strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>vestigation. As discussed, various factors are thought to affect the<br />

outcome <strong>of</strong> aphasia rehabilitation and it is possible that these factors may also<br />

<strong>in</strong>fluence the learn<strong>in</strong>g <strong>of</strong> new vocabulary (see section 2.6). Therefore, the ma<strong>in</strong><br />

<strong>in</strong>vestigation also evaluated the contribution <strong>of</strong> each participant’s pre-exist<strong>in</strong>g<br />

characteristics to their learn<strong>in</strong>g abilities. These <strong>in</strong>cluded personal attributes (age,<br />

education, employment, months post-stroke and emotional status); cognitive<br />

abilities (attention, memory, executive function and performance on the nonl<strong>in</strong>guistic<br />

learn<strong>in</strong>g task) and also their language abilities (word recognition,<br />

categorisation, read<strong>in</strong>g, nam<strong>in</strong>g and spell<strong>in</strong>g). This <strong>in</strong>formation was utilised to<br />

expla<strong>in</strong> the ability (or <strong>in</strong>ability) <strong>of</strong> each participant to learn the new vocabulary<br />

and additionally, to enable predictions to be made which may <strong>in</strong>form speech and<br />

language therapists regard<strong>in</strong>g which adults would be most successful <strong>in</strong> learn<strong>in</strong>g<br />

new l<strong>in</strong>guistic <strong>in</strong>formation and why.<br />

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