A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of - Queen Margaret University

(CLQT) was developed as a screening assessment for adults with acquired
neurological impairment (Helm-Estabrooks, 2001) and was therefore considered
appropriate to screen the cognitive strengths and weaknesses of main
investigation participants. The lack of depth in such a screening tool is
acknowledged, however the deductions made from it in relation to new
vocabulary learning was secondary to the main research question which aimed
to ascertain whether people with aphasia could demonstrate the ability to learn
new vocabulary. The factors considered under the heading of cognitive abilities
were attention, memory, executive function and clock drawing skills. The
evidence for the impact of attention, memory and executive functions on
language recovery and the acquisition of new learning are discussed in the
literature review (see section 2.6.3.3). The clock drawing task is thought to
involve attention, memory, executive function, visuospatial and language skills
and has been reported to be in itself useful as a mini-screening tool for cognitive
abilities (Helm-Estabrooks, 2001). While the CLQT revealed visuospatial
impairments in a number of participants, all had adequate visual skills to copy
the stimuli (pictures and words). Therefore any visuospatial impairment did not
affect participant ability to interact with the stimuli, questioning the robustness of
the CLQT for the functional assessment of these skills. The cognitive capacity of
each participant to learn was also evaluated by assessing the ability to learn and
recall a non-linguistic route task devised by the researcher based on a previous
study (Evans et al., 2000). The findings related to the cognitive abilities and the
capacity to learn will now be discussed.
6.3.3.1 The impact of attention on the learning of new vocabulary
The importance of attention in the processing of information has been discussed
in the literature review (see section 2.6.3.3). The learning of new vocabulary
required active participation in the training procedures and independent learning
time in order to incorporate the new vocabulary into participants’ current
knowledge. Active participation included tasks such as drawing and copying,
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