A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of - Queen Margaret University

5.7.1.1 Personal attributes
C2 was aged 33.11 at the time of the investigation and was the youngest
participant. It would therefore be predicted that C2 would learn more vocabulary
than older participants. C2 had experienced 17 years in education and would be
expected to have developed learning skills. He was employed in a highly
specialised job, which required the development of analytical skills and the
ability to critically evaluate complex problems and solutions as well as excellent
communication skills (www.learndirect-advice.co.uk - profile 357). C2’s selfrating
for anxiety and depression was considered to be within normal limits and
he was 39 months post-stroke. It was predicted that C2’s personal attributes
would contribute favourably to the learning of new vocabulary.
5.7.1.2 Cognitive abilities and the capacity to learn
The cognitive sub-tests of the CLQT indicated that C2’s cognitive abilities were
within normal limits with the exception of memory (moderately impaired). Such
impairment would predict a difficulty learning and recalling the new vocabulary
(see section 2.6.3.3). However, it was felt that the CLQT score did not give an
accurate reflection of C2’s memory. Firstly, the CLQT only accepted spoken
responses – C2 gave accurate gesture and written responses to the tasks
(being unable to do so in spoken form – see section 5.7.1.3). Secondly, he
demonstrated the capacity to recall newly learned information by recalling 100%
of the non-linguistic task for both immediate and delayed recall. These issues
will be addressed in the discussion chapter.
5.7.1.3 Severity of aphasia
The language sub-test of the CLQT suggested that C2 had severe language
difficulties. His language screening scores are displayed in Table 5.12 for each
task and mapped on to a cognitive neuropsychology model in Figure 5iv below.
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