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A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of - Queen Margaret University

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with aphasia can demonstrate the learn<strong>in</strong>g <strong>of</strong> new vocabulary <strong>in</strong>corporat<strong>in</strong>g both<br />

new word forms and new mean<strong>in</strong>gs.<br />

This <strong>in</strong>vestigation aims to address this gap <strong>in</strong> our knowledge by facilitat<strong>in</strong>g the<br />

learn<strong>in</strong>g <strong>of</strong> new vocabulary and assess<strong>in</strong>g the ability <strong>of</strong> people with aphasia to<br />

demonstrate this new learn<strong>in</strong>g. This <strong>in</strong>formation will contribute towards a<br />

theoretical account <strong>of</strong> aphasia rehabilitation. New words will be taught to people<br />

with aphasia us<strong>in</strong>g optimal learn<strong>in</strong>g techniques from learn<strong>in</strong>g approaches – preexposure,<br />

self-judgement and an errorless learn<strong>in</strong>g paradigm will be followed.<br />

The cognitive neuropsychological <strong>in</strong>formation-process<strong>in</strong>g model <strong>of</strong> s<strong>in</strong>gle word<br />

process<strong>in</strong>g will be used to <strong>in</strong>form the design <strong>of</strong> the learn<strong>in</strong>g and assessment<br />

procedures (see section 2.9.3) and optimal techniques from theories <strong>of</strong> learn<strong>in</strong>g<br />

will be used (see section 2.9.2). The <strong>in</strong>vestigation will take both a top-down<br />

approach where active participation will be an <strong>in</strong>tegral part <strong>of</strong> the procedure<br />

ensur<strong>in</strong>g to recruit attention gat<strong>in</strong>g (see section 2.6.3.3) and bottom up<br />

procedures will be utilised to facilitate repetition and rehearsal <strong>of</strong> learn<strong>in</strong>g with<br />

less errors <strong>in</strong>voked (see section 2.9.2) suggest<strong>in</strong>g less maladaptive neuronal<br />

connections be<strong>in</strong>g made for the new vocabulary. The learn<strong>in</strong>g performance <strong>of</strong><br />

each participant will also be evaluated <strong>in</strong> terms <strong>of</strong> the contribut<strong>in</strong>g factors that<br />

<strong>in</strong>fluence language recovery (see section 2.6) to hypo<strong>thesis</strong>e if predictions could<br />

be made about the ability <strong>of</strong> people with aphasia to learn affected by such<br />

<strong>in</strong>fluenc<strong>in</strong>g factors. As this is a pioneer<strong>in</strong>g study the stimuli and procedure will be<br />

developed and evaluated <strong>in</strong> prelim<strong>in</strong>ary studies <strong>in</strong> Chapter 3 and the pilot<strong>in</strong>g <strong>of</strong><br />

the f<strong>in</strong>al methodology with healthy and post-stroke adults <strong>in</strong> Chapter 4. The ma<strong>in</strong><br />

<strong>in</strong>vestigation will be presented <strong>in</strong> Chapter 5 where the results <strong>of</strong> each participant<br />

will be presented <strong>in</strong> the form <strong>of</strong> a case series. A discussion <strong>of</strong> the f<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>gs and<br />

its relevance to aphasia rehabilitation will be presented <strong>in</strong> Chapter 6.<br />

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