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A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of - Queen Margaret University

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and evaluat<strong>in</strong>g the severity <strong>of</strong> each participant’s presentation <strong>of</strong> aphasia. It<br />

supported the various tasks and procedures for the tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g sessions and the<br />

assessment procedure facilitat<strong>in</strong>g the measurement <strong>of</strong> basel<strong>in</strong>e performance<br />

and the demonstration <strong>of</strong> new learn<strong>in</strong>g. Predictions were made for each<br />

participant on their performance on spoken and written tasks and error analysis<br />

facilitated predictions derived from qualitative data. All predictions for the<br />

learn<strong>in</strong>g characteristics <strong>of</strong> the new words were supported except where the new<br />

words became established as real words or strong representations <strong>in</strong> the<br />

lexicons <strong>of</strong> participants. An example <strong>of</strong> this was where participants had difficulty<br />

spell<strong>in</strong>g non-words <strong>in</strong> basel<strong>in</strong>e measures and it was predicted that the new<br />

words (orig<strong>in</strong>ally non-words) would also conta<strong>in</strong> spell<strong>in</strong>g errors. This prediction<br />

was supported for many <strong>of</strong> the participants, however some participants<br />

demonstrated a marked reduction <strong>in</strong> the number <strong>of</strong> spell<strong>in</strong>g errors with the new<br />

stimuli with closer responses to the target words than pre-tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g abilities for<br />

spell<strong>in</strong>g non-words. This could be considered as a type <strong>of</strong> target-related<br />

neologism where representations <strong>of</strong> new words are established but not fully<br />

accessible. While the limitations <strong>of</strong> the cognitive neuropsychology model are<br />

acknowledged, particularly <strong>in</strong> terms <strong>of</strong> the dynamic process <strong>in</strong>volved <strong>in</strong> learn<strong>in</strong>g,<br />

the model fulfilled the criteria for this <strong>in</strong>vestigation, i.e. to establish whether<br />

people with post-stroke aphasia could learn new language representations.<br />

While the f<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>gs <strong>of</strong> this <strong>in</strong>vestigation were not dependent on the validity <strong>of</strong> the<br />

model used, the cognitive neuropsychological model proved useful as an<br />

<strong>in</strong>strument to demonstrate change.<br />

6.6 CLINICAL RELEVANCE<br />

The ma<strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>vestigation has established that young adults with post-stroke<br />

aphasia can learn new vocabulary despite residual language impairments. This<br />

knowledge has significant cl<strong>in</strong>ical relevance <strong>in</strong> terms <strong>of</strong> the development <strong>of</strong> a<br />

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