Browsing by Subject "Lyhytkestoinen kielellinen muisti"

Background. Aphasia is a linguistic disorder most commonly caused by a stroke. The ability to learn is essential to rehabilitation from aphasia. Verbal short-term memory is seen as one prerequisite for verbal learning and refers to the temporary, limited-capacity storage of linguistic information. It might explain the individual variation in the learning ability of people with aphasia since studies have shown that verbal short-term memory impairments are common in aphasia but may not occur in all individuals. A correlation has also been found between verbal short-term memory and novel word learning ability in chronic aphasia but some of the research findings are contradictory. Verbal short-term memory is little studied in the subacute stage of aphasia. Also, the relationship between verbal short-term memory and novel word learning ability has not been previously studied in subacute aphasia. Aims. The aim of this study was to examine verbal short-term memory in subacute aphasia and compare it with verbal short-term memory in healthy controls. The objective was also to determine whether there is a relationship between verbal short-term memory and novel word learning ability in people with aphasia and healthy subjects. Methods. 10 aphasic individuals were examined 0–3 months post-stroke. The control group consisted of 20 healthy elderly subjects. Verbal short-term memory was measured with a word pointing span task in which participants heard sequences of words and pointed corresponding images in a visual array of items. Novel word learning ability was examined with a computer-based word learning task in which participants’ task was to learn to identify correct nonword-visual referent associations on the basis of online visual feedback. The data was analyzed with statistical methods, as well as at the individual level. Results and conclusions. At the group level, verbal short-term memory capacity of the aphasic subjects was lower than that of the healthy controls, but there was individual variation. Some of the aphasic subjects had impaired verbal short-term memory, some performed at the level of the controls and one subject presented only partially impaired verbal short-term memory, regarding the span for serial order. Both the healthy and the aphasic subjects recalled items better than simultaneously their order. Verbal short-term memory capacity correlated with the severity of aphasia, naming accuracy and language processing skills of the aphasic subjects. Verbal short-term memory was not correlated with novel word learning ability in the aphasic and healthy subjects. Consequently, verbal short-term memory does not predict novel word learning ability, and even weak verbal short-term memory does not impede learning. However, the results suggested some kind of link between verbal short-term memory and novel word learning ability.