A group of 20 patients with probable Alzheimer disease (AD) and a control group were tested in a verb generation task, in a verb synonym task and several cognitive tests. Three types of verbs and novel verbs were presented in simple sentence frames, in two different conditions. In one condition participants were presented with the verb in the…

In order to explore the impact of a degraded semantic system on the structure of language production, we analysed transcripts from autobiographical memory interviews to identify naturally-occurring speech errors by eight patients with semantic dementia (SD) and eight age-matched normal speakers. Relative to controls, patients were significantly…

Complex working memory span tasks have been shown to predict performance on a number of measures of higher-order cognition including fluid abilities. However, exactly why performance on these tasks is related to higher-order cognition is still not known. The present study examined the patterns of errors made on two common complex span tasks. The…

Nonsense utterances were presented to subjects for immediate recall in order to test two hypotheses: (1) the more complex sounds should be more difficult to recall under memory-taxing conditions; (2) the erroneous recall of a less marked for a more marked sound should occur more frequently than the converse error. (CFM)

To examine possible explanations of reported inaccuracies of children with specific language impairment (SLI) on nonword repetition, study compared repetitions of 54 SLI children and peers for number and type of error, latency, and duration of response. Found no evidence of differences between groups in auditory discrimination or response…

Examines 158 examples of malapropisms and determines three possible sources of this type of error: (1) childhood errors that were never corrected, (2) other kinds of imperfect learning, and (3) breakdown in the storage and retrieval system of the mental lexicon. (AM)

A common error in children's attempts to solve verbal analogies is to respond with a word strongly associated with the third term in the analogy. This is known as associative response. A study was conducted to investigate the cognitive processes underlying this response. Subjects, 112 fifth grade students, were administered a battery of tests…

Spelling strategies were examined based on error analysis and strategy reports for errors and correct spellings for 50 Grade 4 and 5 students with and without spelling difficulties. Based on their own reports, all students possessed a repertoire of effective spelling strategies. Strategy use, however, differed as a function of spelling accuracy…