A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of - Queen Margaret University

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assessment procedure. Another strength of this investigation was the provision of an overview of a wide range of possible influencing factors that affected the learning of the new vocabulary. The lack of detail in cognitive assessments is acknowledged however these analyses were secondary to the main focus of the investigation, which was to establish the ability of adults with aphasia to learn new representations of language. Twelve participants took part in the main investigation with no attrition throughout the training and assessment procedure. Ten participants further took part in delayed recall assessments enabling the assessment of the retention of this initial learning 3-5 days following training. While twelve participants may be considered small in number it was successful recruitment for this type of study and was sufficient to answer the main research question. However a larger population would facilitate more powerful statistics. As already discussed this research is novel, the findings of which provide many areas of opportunity for further research. Suggestions for future research will now be discussed. 6.8 SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH The main investigation involved a case series of 12 participants with post-stroke aphasia. The collected data was analysed and established that people with language impairment could learn new vocabulary despite varying severities of aphasia. A large-scale replication of this research would increase the dataset and provide additional information regarding the learning abilities of the aphasic population. Individual participant data in this investigation supports the requirement for single case study reporting, however a larger sample may identify aspects of new learning that could inform the general aphasic population rather than reflecting individual idiosyncrasies. A larger sample would also enable more powerful statistical analyses of the data in consideration of the various factors found to impact upon the ability to learn the new vocabulary. 283
Further statistical analyses with a larger sample may enable the interacting influential factors to be fractionated to determine which factors impact most on the learning of new vocabulary. The provision of more detailed biological and neurological information with a larger population would also allow for analyses of the biological limitations to learning new vocabulary and related cortical plasticity. Additionally, the impact of type of stroke (i.e. infarct versus haemorrhage) could be analysed in relation to the number of new words learned. The use of brain-imaging techniques could determine the location and severity of neurological damage and identify the extent and location of cortical reorganisation following training, thus further contributing to knowledge of the abilities and mechanisms involved in the damaged brain learning new vocabulary. Findings may indicate new ways of approaching the rehabilitation of such language impairments. The social impact and influence on recovery should be considered such as family, active engagement, return to work and emotional disturbances as a result of the biological and psychological effects of the stroke. Close liaison with the multidisciplinary team is recommended in order to reduce the impact of such factors on rehabilitation, particularly where depression is involved which has a temporary and reversible impact on language and cognitive functioning. In this investigation participants were trained on five words per day for four days and each day had a maximum of 30 minutes to consolidate this learning. The investigation indicated that participants had different learning styles and premorbid experience in learning skills. The lower scoring participants also had less education and subsequently may have been less skilled in learning strategies and techniques. Any further investigation should ensure that all participants were given some time pre-training to explore their particular learning techniques. In addition to learning techniques, participants may have different learning processes where some people can memorise information more quickly than 284
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An Investigation into the Ability o
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Abstract Recent studies have establ
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Christine Malcolm (Chief Speech and
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2.6.2.1 Lesion size and site 37 2.6
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3.6.1.2 Number and type of items to
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4.8 Chapter summary 132 Chapter 5 T
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5.9.1.1 Personal attributes 176 5.9
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5.15.1.1 Personal attributes 208 5.
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6.3.3.5 The impact of clock drawing
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Appendices 2.1 Main representative
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5.2 Raw and percentage scores for n
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Figures 2i Cognitive neuropsycholog
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Younger people who are having and s
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Chapter 2 Review of the literature
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sentences. As aphasia also affects
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continue to experience significant
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noted that there were three areas t
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natural reaction to the loss of abi
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2.3.3 Impact of aphasia on the fami
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facets of a person’s life as well
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with the literature regarding the l
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Rehabilitation is not thought to al
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everything that we learn and experi
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eorganisation in hemiplegic stroke
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(Kasten and Sabel, 1995) and replic
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1998), tingling, itching or painful
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Emission Tomography (PET) scans ana
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ehabilitation, function can be limi
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Studies have not always found age t
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larger intracranial capacity could
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permanent loss of particular skills
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depression in people with severe ap
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maintenance of permanent records of
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intensity aphasia rehabilitation wa
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2.7 CURRENT THEORETICAL ACCOUNTS OF
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people with apparently similar char
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Additionally, harmful or redundant
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information about a word (Harley, 2
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(as in semantic dementia) as well a
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esearchers (Breedin et al., 1998; W
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As many adults have acquired a wide
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healthy individuals as mentioned ab
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et al. (2001) evaluated the ability
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of new vocabulary where both the wo
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syllables in each word, therefore t
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vocabulary; facilitate the demonstr
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methodology developed and used in t
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Chapter 3 Preliminary Studies 3.1 I
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for the main investigation by the n
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3.2.1.4 Delayed recall Approximatel
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written recall assessment task (par
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indicates a large reduction of item
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ehearsal taking place prior to the
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one were discussed with each partic
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Graph 3.2 Comparison of number of i
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As with preliminary study one, part
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during the training session, some p
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3.5 PRELIMINARY STUDY FOUR This stu
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Fifty four percent of participants
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preliminary studies the British Nat
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where main investigation participan
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perhaps reduce the number of items
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preliminary studies as described in
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emember the route taking them from
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4.3 TRAINING SESSION PROCEDURE Each
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4.3.2.1 Training of stimuli: phonol
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assessments was administered both i
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to match the name and skill present
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4.4.3 Results of P1’s post-traini
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Table 4.4 Pilot Study One Total raw
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session. This reflected the general
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4.4.5 Summary of pilot study one Pi
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4.5.2 Results of P2’s performance
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P2 recalled 14 (70%) of the new wor
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demonstrate this learning during im
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4.6.3 Methodological issues A numbe
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would be asked not to repeat the wo
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4.8 CHAPTER SUMMARY The three pilot
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Chapter 5 Main Investigation 5.1 IN
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- The medical stability of particip
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The methodology for the training an
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(i.e. C1, P3 and C2) remained the t
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the immediate recall was not the sa
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Table 5.5 Characteristics of error
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scores (Zigmond and Snaith, 1983) a
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expected that younger participants
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5.4.2.3 Severity of aphasia While t
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5.5 PARTICIPANT C1 Participant C1
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SPOKEN WORD PICTURE WRITTEN WORD Au
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written form again without the aid
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vocabulary than younger participant
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was non-fluent with many repetition
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emembering 49% of information origi
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5.7.1.1 Personal attributes C2 was
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GOB pathways). C2’s speech was ch
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assessment tasks (see Table 5.2), w
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C3’s narration of the Cinderella
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errors with six out of the 20 new w
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5.9.1.4 Rehearsal and consolidation
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achieved 100% recognition on the li
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any other fictional stories so he w
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the reading task. C5 matched eight
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some word-finding difficulties with
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pathways), spell words and non-word
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(reading) words she made 15 false p
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and PLC pathways). C8’s speech wa
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C9’s data (see Table 5.26 and Fig
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assessments indicated that she had
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5.15.1.1 Personal attributes C10 wa
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naming. C10 had some difficulties c
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SPOKEN WORD PICTURE WRITTEN WORD Au
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Table 5.31 C11’s detailed perform
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influencing factors (for example, a
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each participant’s relevant data,
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Table 5.32 Hierarchical cluster ana
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for months post-stroke, severity of
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Table 5.33 Correlation co-efficient
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Page 255 and 256: ecency and primacy effect, however,
Page 257 and 258: drawing skills and the ability to l
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Page 261 and 262: 5.8.2.1). Secondly, the participant
Page 263 and 264: 6.3.1.1 The impact of age on the le
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Page 267 and 268: unethical, even perhaps illegal, to
Page 269 and 270: assessment and treatment of emotion
Page 271 and 272: theories on the negative effects of
Page 273 and 274: (CLQT) was developed as a screening
Page 275 and 276: 6.3.3.2 The impact of memory on the
Page 277 and 278: (executive scores of moderate, mild
Page 279 and 280: 320). Additionally, the CLQT indica
Page 281 and 282: 6.3.4.1 Pre-training language scree
Page 283 and 284: abilities of each participant and a
Page 285 and 286: person with aphasia only ever produ
Page 287 and 288: 6.4.2 Methodology As previous resea
Page 289 and 290: assessing the learning of new vocab
Page 291 and 292: provided flexibility not only for s
Page 293 and 294: presentation. It was proposed that
Page 295 and 296: participants also lexicalised the n
Page 297 and 298: module and how it communicates with
Page 299 and 300: theory of rehabilitation and in rel
Page 301 and 302: experience in different ways and ch
Page 303 and 304: upon language rehabilitation, for e
Page 305: the investigation of people with po
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Page 311 and 312: task), severity of aphasia and amou
Page 313 and 314: References Alexander, M. P. (1994)
Page 315 and 316: Candia, V., Schafer, Th., Taub, E.,
Page 317 and 318: Fillingham, J. K., Sage, K. and Lam
Page 319 and 320: Howard and Hatfield (1987) Aphasia
Page 321 and 322: Linebaugh, C. W. (1999) Merging the
Page 323 and 324: Nation, I. S. P. (1983) Teaching an
Page 325 and 326: Scheibel, A., Conrad, T., Perdue, S
Page 327 and 328: Warrington, E. K. and McCarthy (198
Page 329 and 330: Appendix 3.1 Preliminary study one:
Page 331 and 332: Appendix 3.2 (continued) Preliminar
Page 333 and 334: Appendix 3.4a Preliminary study two
Page 335 and 336: Appendix 3.6 Stimuli used for the m
Page 337 and 338: Appendix 3.6 (continued) Stimuli us
Page 339 and 340: Appendix 4.1 Methods of learning ne
Page 341 and 342: Appendix 4.2 Hospital Anxiety and D
Page 343 and 344: Appendix 4.2 (Continued) Hospital A
Page 345 and 346: Appendix 4.4 Non-linguistic learnin
Page 347 and 348: Appendix 4.5 Language screening ass
Page 349 and 350: Appendix 4.6 Familiar, trained and
Page 351 and 352: Appendix 4.8 Examples of written an
Page 353 and 354: APPENDIX 5.2 Participant consent fo
Page 355 and 356: Appendix 5.3 (Continued) Narrations
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Appendix 5.3 (Continued) Narrations
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Appendix 5.4 (continued) Hierarchic
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Page 363 and 364:
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Appendix 5.5 (continued) Group corr
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Appendix 5.5 (continued) Group corr
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Appendix 5.7 Total recall of tasks
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