Lexical disorders in aphasia


2001   Lexical disorders in aphasia: A single case in the connectionist model of G.S. Dell (Magisterarbeit)

The master thesis (Magisterarbeit, supervised by Liedtke/Huber, RWTH Aachen University) presents an aphasiological single case study. The person with aphasia received model-based lexical therapy with increasing cueing hierarchies based on the connectionist model of Gary Dell and colleagues. For the first time, the method of decreasing/vanishing cues - originally established in the learning/memory domain - was introduced to the SLT research area and its significance highlighted (p. 70), and the advantage of the Dell model for therapy planning was empirically examined. The thesis introduces and reviews diagnosis and therapy in cognitive neuropsychology, model-based naming disorders in aphasia, the variety of cueing techniques, the diagnosis in the connectionist Dell model and the analysis of error types. The empirical part of the thesis investigates error types in the course of therapy and the effect of semantic versus phonological cueing-therapy.

The full text and interesting protocol sheets can be downloaded at ResearchGate (open access):
  • Abel, S. (2001). Lexikalische Störungen bei Aphasie: Ein Einzelfall im konnektionistischen Modell von G.S. Dell. Magisterarbeit, RWTH Aachen. (Request HERE)