Syntactic comprehension in agrammatism: A computational model

Abstract

In this paper we present a detailed computational model of agrammatic aphasia that is consistent with the Slow Syntax Hypothesis. In particular, our model postulates that the cause of the slowing of syntax processing is a deficit in overcoming irrelevant active lexical cues. This causes interference in retrieval of lexical and semantic information, which in turn causes a misrepresentation of semantic content. We show that the model, opportunely damaged, can simulate the impairment of patients in the understanding of psychological verbs. Syntactic comprehension in agrammatism: A computational model