LEXICAL RETRIEVAL, VERBAL SHORT TERM MEMORY AND LEARNING

Temple University, Philadelphia PA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

Almost without exception, acquired language disorders resulting from focal brain injury are accompanied by impairments of verbal short-term memory (STM) and verbal learning. Moreover, disturbances in verbal STM are generally associated with language dysfunction, in some cases mild and not disruptive to most language activities. The co-occurrence of language and mnestic deficits in the aphasic population affords the opportunity to examine their relationships. The hypothesis that motivates this project is that word retrieval, verbal STM and verbal learning are three functions linked by processes that support the activation of linguistic representations. We propose to continue to explore these relationships in the study of language-impaired populations. The long-term goals of this project include (1) development of a computational model that integrates word retrieval, verbal short-term memory and the capacity for verbal learning and (2) application of this approach to the remediation of word retrieval disorders. A common theme of both theoretically- and treatment-oriented experiments is the examination of effects of phonological and semantic impairments on the performance of tasks that involve verbal STM and verbal learning. This approach will contribute to an understanding of the links between language processes and mnestic capacities that are engaged by the use of language materials.