Expectation in Visual Symbolic Processing of Environmental Symbols in People with Fluent Aphasia

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine aspects of visual symbolic processing in those individuals with fluent aphasia, and how it compares to that of their lexical ability. Two groups of participants were examined: a group with fluent aphasia, and a group of non-neurologically damaged controls. Participants were administered four computer based expectation tasks, two of which were symbolic, and two which were lexical. Each task contained a simple and a complex level. Participants were required to determine if the final stimulus, within a set of four, was congruent or incongruent. The measures taken included both reaction time and accuracy. Results suggest significant differences in reaction times for individuals with aphasia and non-neurologically damaged individuals. Individuals with aphasia also identified fewer incongruent stimuli correctly. Within the aphasia group, statistical significance was approached between the simple symbolic condition and simple lexical condition. If this study were completed with a larger sample size, results could indicate a relative preservation of the non-verbal symbolic system as compared to the lexical system for simple conditions. Strong correlations were also noted for several opposing non-verbal and lexical conditions.