Phonological neighborhood effects in aphasic speech errors: spontaneous and structured contexts

• Published in: Brain and language Vol. 82; no. 2; pp. 113 - 145
• Main Author: Gordon, Jean K
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Diego, CA Elsevier Inc 01.08.2002; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Aphasia; Aphasia - diagnosis; Biological and medical sciences; Error Analysis; Female; Humans; Language and communication disorders; Lexical Access; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Neighborhood effects; Organic mental disorders. Neuropsychology; Phonetics; Phonological Processing; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Slips of the Tongue; Speech errors; Speech Production; Speech Production Measurement; Vocabulary; Aphasia; Neighborhood effects; Speech errors; Lexical access; Facilitation; Human; Phonological neighborhood; Nervous system diseases; Error; Cognition; Verbal production; Naming; Language disorder; Cerebral disorder; Central nervous system disease; Speech; Phonology; Neurological disorder
• ISSN: 0093-934X; 1090-2155
• DOI: 10.1016/S0093-934X(02)00001-9

The current study investigates the influence of phonological neighborhoods on the accuracy of speech production in aphasia by examining errors produced in both spontaneous and structured speech tasks. Characteristics of the phonological neighborhoods of spontaneously produced aphasic errors are compared to the neighborhood characteristics of correctly produced targets in a picture description task. Accuracy of picture naming is also examined with reference to the phonological neighborhood characteristics of the stimuli. Results show that frequency of occurrence and neighborhood density play a facilitative role in speech production, replicating findings from recent studies with normal subjects. It is argued that the results are most parsimoniously explained within an interactive activation framework of lexical access.