Browsing by Subject "aphasia"

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Rehabilitation In Bilingual Aphasia: Evidence For Within- And Between-Language Generalization
(2013-05) Kiran, Swathi; Sandberg, Chaleece; Gray, Teresa; Ascenso, Elsa; Kester, Ellen; Kester, Ellen
Purpose: The goal of this study was to examine if there was a principled way to understand the nature of rehabilitation in bilingual aphasia such that patterns of acquisition and generalization are predictable and logical. Method: Seventeen Spanish-English bilingual individuals with aphasia participated in the experiment. For each participant, three sets of stimuli were developed for each language: (a) English Set 1, (b) English Set 2 (semantically related to each item in English Set 1), (c) English Set 3 (unrelated control items), (d) Spanish Set 1 (translations of English Set 1), (e) Spanish Set 2 (translations of English Set 2; semantically related to each item in Spanish Set 1), and (f) Spanish Set 3 (translations of English Set 3; unrelated control items). A single-subject experimental multiple baseline design across participants was implemented. Treatment was conducted in 1 language, but generalization to within- and between-language untrained items was examined. Results: Treatment for naming on Set 1 items resulted in significant improvement (i.e., effect size >4.0) on the trained items in 14/17 participants. Of the 14 participants who showed improvement, within-language generalization to semantically related items was observed in 10 participants. Between-language generalization to the translations of trained items was observed in 5 participants, and between-language generalization to the translations of the untrained semantically related items was observed in 6 participants. Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrated within- and between-language patterns that were variable across participants. These differences are indicative of the interplay between facilitation (generalization) and inhibition.
Semantic Complexity In Treatment Of Naming Deficits In Aphasia: Evidence From Well-Defined Categories
(2008-11) Kiran, Swathi; Johnson, Lauren; Kiran, Swathi; Johnson, Lauren
Purpose: Our previous work on manipulating typicality of category exemplars during treatment of naming deficits has shown that training atypical examples generalizes to untrained typical examples but not vice versa. In contrast to natural categories that consist of fuzzy boundaries, well-defined categories (e.g., shapes) have rigid category boundaries. Whether these categories illustrate typicality effects similar to natural categories is under debate. The present study addressed this question in the context of treatment for naming deficits in aphasia. Methods: Using a single-subject experiment design, 3 participants with aphasia received a, semantic feature treatment to improve naming of either typical or atypical items of shapes, while generalization was tested to untrained items of the category. Results: For 2 of the 3 participants, training naming of atypical examples of shapes resulted in improved naming of untrained typical examples. Training typical examples in 1 participant did not improve naming of atypical examples. All 3 participants, however, showed weak acquisition trends. Conclusions: Results of the present study show equivocal support for manipulating typicality as a treatment variable within well-defined categories. Instead, these results indicate that acquisition and generalization effects within well-defined categories such as shapes are overshadowed by their inherent abstractness.
A World Without Words: Reconceptualizing Aphasia Through the Agency of Rape Survivors in America
(2019-05) Garrett, Marina; Smith, Christen
This study examines the overwhelming silence survivors of rape feel in the United States. Using a feminist activist anthropological framework, I examine the ways rape culture in the United States has caused rape survivors to feel they do not matter, which causes them to lose their ability to speak. The culture of silence that thrives within police departments across the U.S. is the first space of silence rape survivors encounter. As they move forward from their assaults, family members also create spaces of silence. The United States has developed a culture of aphasia around the topic of rape. This cultural aphasia affects survivors and causes them to lose the ability to speak in many aspects of their lives. However, the most common diagnosis for the trauma of rape is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and PTSD has no lens to examine or heal survivors with aphasia. Through the interviews with three survivors that experienced aphasia after rape, and my own experience with this silence, this thesis explores rape, silence and trauma through the lens of the anthropology of violence and trauma with the hope that theorists will develop further studies to develop a more holistic healing approach for rape survivors.