LEXICAL RETRIEVAL MECHANISMS UNDERLYING WHOLE-WORD PERSEVERATION ERRORS IN ANEMIC APHASIA

In this study, factors that influence the occurrence of perseverative and non-perseverative word substitution errors produced by three subje cts on the Philadelphia Naming Test are examined. Specifically, target -error similarity (semantic and/or phonological) is shown to influence the occurrence of both perseverative and non-perseverative errors wit hin a subject's error profile. In a second analysis, an interaction be tween target-error similarity and processing factors (recency and freq uency of prior production) are identified on the overall probability t hat word perseverations will occur. Two accounts of perseveration are considered in the discussion of these findings: (1) perseveration resu lts from a failure to inhibit a prior response; and (2) perseveration results from a summation of residual priming activation of a prior res ponse and spreading activation from the representation of the current target word.