THE INFLUENCE OF SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC INFORMATION ON PICTURE-NAMINGPERFORMANCE IN APHASIC PATIENTS

Two experiments are described investigating which aspects of the sente nce completion prompt are requisite for enhancing the ability of aphas ic subjects to retrieve picture names. Naming performance of eight aph asic subjects is assessed in response to sentence frames containing a semantically related word (sentence completions), semantically empty s entence frames (carrier phrases) and provision of semantic information alone (associate verbs). It was shown that, as a group, subjects demo nstrated better naming performance in response to sentence completions containing a semantically related word than to semantically empty sen tence frames or to verb associates. Consideration of response times pr ovides evidence that the sentence completion condition facilitates sub jects' access to picture names. Our results support the notion that it is the combination of syntactic and semantic variables that enhances naming.