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A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of - Queen Margaret University

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Younger people who are hav<strong>in</strong>g and surviv<strong>in</strong>g strokes may present with<br />

expectations for quality <strong>of</strong> life quite different from those <strong>of</strong> more elderly people.<br />

They may desire to return to employment or retra<strong>in</strong> for a different career,<br />

perhaps cont<strong>in</strong>ue or undertake personal development <strong>in</strong> the form <strong>of</strong> life long<br />

learn<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> further education or leisure pursuits alongside their peers. All <strong>of</strong> these<br />

activities require the person to learn new <strong>in</strong>formation follow<strong>in</strong>g their stroke. The<br />

question <strong>of</strong> the potential <strong>of</strong> the damaged bra<strong>in</strong> to learn new <strong>in</strong>formation has not<br />

yet been adequately addressed. This <strong>thesis</strong> exam<strong>in</strong>es, <strong>in</strong> particular, new<br />

vocabulary learn<strong>in</strong>g for those people who have persistent language difficulties<br />

follow<strong>in</strong>g a stroke.<br />

The ma<strong>in</strong> aim for this research was to address the question <strong>of</strong> whether young<br />

adults with post-stroke aphasia can learn new vocabulary. As this was the first<br />

<strong>in</strong>vestigation <strong>in</strong>to the learn<strong>in</strong>g <strong>of</strong> new vocabulary by post-stroke adults with<br />

aphasia, the stimuli and methodology had to be developed. The <strong>in</strong>vestigation<br />

began with prelim<strong>in</strong>ary studies <strong>in</strong> which novel stimuli (new words with new<br />

mean<strong>in</strong>gs) were developed and evaluated for use <strong>in</strong> the ma<strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>vestigation.<br />

Next, <strong>in</strong>vestigation <strong>of</strong> the learn<strong>in</strong>g abilities <strong>of</strong> 75 adults with no history <strong>of</strong> bra<strong>in</strong><br />

<strong>in</strong>jury and the strategies that they used to learn the new words contributed to the<br />

development <strong>of</strong> the learn<strong>in</strong>g procedure for the participants with aphasia. The<br />

completed methodology was evaluated with one adult with no cognitive or<br />

language impairments as well as with post-stroke adults with and without<br />

aphasia. The ma<strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>vestigation <strong>in</strong>volved a case series <strong>of</strong> 12 post-stroke<br />

<strong>in</strong>dividuals (six male and six female) with a range <strong>of</strong> severity <strong>of</strong> aphasia to<br />

ascerta<strong>in</strong> if young adults could learn new vocabulary despite hav<strong>in</strong>g language<br />

impairments follow<strong>in</strong>g a stroke. The <strong>in</strong>dividual performance <strong>of</strong> each person was<br />

evaluated and group analyses were undertaken to determ<strong>in</strong>e if predictions could<br />

be made regard<strong>in</strong>g the ability <strong>of</strong> adults with post-stroke aphasia to learn new<br />

vocabulary. An analysis <strong>of</strong> the potential factors that could have facilitated or<br />

h<strong>in</strong>dered this new learn<strong>in</strong>g was also carried out.<br />

2

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