A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of - Queen Margaret University

assessing the learning of new vocabulary. Pre-training assessments provided
baseline measures for cognitive, emotional and language abilities (see section
4.2 and sub-tests). The training procedure incorporated auditory, written and
picture stimuli to facilitate access to the learning stimuli. Independent learning
time was also embedded into the training procedure to promote rehearsal and
consolidation of the new learning. It was unforeseen that some participants
would have been unable to plan and organise their own learning time, however
they were given close guidance by the researcher who introduced each of the
tasks therefore such participants were given the same opportunity to complete
tasks as all other participants. At the end of the final training session participants
reviewed all 20 details of the vocabulary to reduce primary and recency effects.
The assessment procedure provided the opportunity for participants to
demonstrate their new learning despite spoken and / or written language
difficulties.
6.5 THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE COGNITIVE NEUROPSYCHOLOGY MODEL
IN SUPPORTING THE MAIN INVESTIGATION AND ITS USEFULNESS AS A
TOOL IN LEARNING STUDIES
A cognitive neuropsychology single word processing model (Ellis and Young,
1996; Kay, Lesser and Coltheart, 1992) was chosen as a method of recording
and evaluating participant ability to learn the new vocabulary. The model is now
discussed in relation to the requirements previously defined for recording and
evaluating the learning of the new words (see section 2.9.3). Support and
criticisms of the model’s architecture for use in new learning studies are then
discussed with reference to the literature.
6.5.1 Assess and evaluate the severity of aphasia
One of the requirements of the main investigation was that the chosen single
word processing model would facilitate the assessment of the severity of each
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