Proposes a method for processing datasets that show whether or not each of several patients was impaired on each of several tests, and expressing conclusions about them. Advantages are that results from the patterns of impairment alone are shown, uninfluenced by theories, previous empirical work, knowledge of lesions, or ideas about what the tests…

Reviews the logic of neuropsychological inference in the context of connectionist modeling, focusing on the inference from double dissociation to modularity of function. Argues that connectionism appears to create no additional problems for the traditional neuropsychological approach. (50 references) (MDM)

Discusses connectionist models of two subcomponents of the spelling process that, internally, blur modular boundaries, and that explain, rather than describe, the relevant neuropsychological evidence. The competitive queuing spelling model gives a promising account of the characteristics of graphemic buffer disorder. (76 references) (MDM)

Compared the performance of participants with Williams Syndrome on two past tense elicitation tasks with that of four typically-developing control groups. Results were consistent with the hypothesis that the Williams Syndrome language system is delayed, because it developed under different constraints. (Author/VWL)

Evaluates the input-processing, deficit/single system and the grammar-specific deficit/dual system models to account for past tense formation in impaired and normal language development. Investigated regular and irregular past tense formation of 60 real and novel regular and irregular verbs in grammatical specifically language impaired (G)-SLI…

Discusses connectionist techniques that can be used for modeling perception, memory, and language processing, concentrating on a class of network with dual-weight connections in which each connection has both short- and long-term weight and describes a novel architecture in which the short- and long-term weights are independent. (45 references)…

Argues that the lexical production system takes a compositional approach to processing morphologically complex forms in cases of productive word formation even if the semantics of the word cannot be derived formally from the meaning of its constituents. Evidence is presented from a case of acquired naming impairment in a patient whose ability to…

Presents evidence that although patients with semantic deficits can sometimes show good performance on tests or object decisions, this pattern applies when nonsee-objects do not respect the regularities of the domain. Patients with semantic dementia viewed line drawings of a real and chimeric animals side-by-side and were asked to decide which was…

Presents the case for a mapping theory of developmental language impairment, which branches into a theory that specific language impairment arises from impaired phonological processing and the consequent disruption of the mapping process through which the words and sentence structure of language are established. (Author/VWL)

Explores the extent to which children with specific language impairment (SLI) with severe phonological working memory deficits express knowledge uniquely in gesture as compared to speech. Using a paradigm in which gesture-speech relationships have been studied extensively, children with SLI and conversation judgment-matched, typically developing…

Studied children with word finding difficulties who were identified through a wider survey of educational provision for those with language and communication difficulties. (Author/VWL)

A "hippocampal amnesiac" (H.M.) and memory-normal controls of similar age, background, intelligence, and education read novel sentences aloud in tasks where fast and accurate reading was or was not the primary goal. H.M produced more misreadings than normal and cerebellar controls, usually without self-correction. Results support a theoretical…

In this paper, we reconsider some of the processes that distinguish production and comprehension. In particular, we discuss the specific forms of thinking involved in each: "thinking for speaking" and "thinking for listening" (Black and Chiat, 2000; Slobin, 1996). We argue that thinking for speaking (or for any form of language output) crucially…

Examines Nickels's claim that interactive models of lexical access in speech production cannot account for naming data from a group of anomic patients. This paper reiterates that the behavior of connectionist models is not easily predictable without running the appropriate simulations, and discusses the role of frequency in lexical access in…

Compares speech-related (coverbal) gestures in brain-damaged patients (aphasics and visuo-spatial deficits) and in matched controls. Results suggest ideational gestures probably facilitate word retrieval and reflect transfer of information between propositional and non-propositional representations during message construction, and that conceptual…