ABSTRACT

Background: Up to 60% of people with aphasia experience persistent word-finding difficulties into the chronic stage, starting six months after the stroke. Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA) and Phonological Components Analysis (PCA) are two common word-finding interventions that use the generation of semantic features for SFA (e.g. category) and phonological features for PCA (e.g. first sound) to improve naming. Despite inconsistent support for the generalization to untreated items, studies have shown improvements on probe word naming for treated items. However, research concerning within-intervention effects and generalization to alternative contexts has been limited.

Aim: This study investigated the effect of treatment for SFA and PCA probe word naming as well as their within-intervention effects in four individuals with chronic post-stroke aphasia.

Methods & Procedures: Baseline and follow-up measures included standardized assessments and image naming tasks. The image naming task was used to generate three lists: an SFA treated list, a PCA treated list, and an untreated list. One SFA session and one PCA session per week were then provided concurrently to each participant for a period of six weeks.

Outcomes & Results: While only one participant experienced significant gains on treated probe word naming, these gains were maintained four weeks after the intervention. Exploratory results suggested that effects could transfer to two types of generalization items: different pictures of the same items and pictures of items shown in a natural context. Furthermore, while generalization to untreated items did not reach significance for any participant, some generalization of gains to standardized assessments was observed. Although rarely equivalent for SFA and PCA interventions, all participants also experienced some degree of within-intervention improvement over the progression of sessions. These improvements included a reduction in the number of forced choices required for feature generation and/or a reduction in the number of words never named during intervention sessions.

Conclusion: The results support additional avenues of investigation for SFA and PCA therapies for individuals with post-stroke aphasia, namely within intervention effects and the potential for generalization to different contexts.

摘要

背景：多达 60% 的失语症患者在中风后 6 个月开始进入慢性阶段时会经历持续的找词困难。语义特征分析 (SFA) 和语音成分分析 (PCA) 是两种常见的找词干预，它们使用 SFA 的语义特征（例如类别）和 PCA 的语音特征（例如第一声音）的生成来改进命名。尽管对未处理项目的泛化支持不一致，但研究表明已处理项目的探测词命名有所改进。然而，关于干预内效应和对替代环境的概括的研究受到限制。

目的：本研究调查了 SFA 和 PCA 探针词命名的治疗效果及其对四名慢性卒中后失语患者的干预效果。

方法和程序：基线和后续措施包括标准化评估和图像命名任务。图像命名任务用于生成三个列表：SFA 处理列表、PCA 处理列表和未处理列表。然后每周向每位参与者同时提供一次 SFA 会议和一次 PCA 会议，为期六周。

结果和结果：虽然只有一名参与者在处理过的探测词命名方面取得了显着的进步，但这些进步在干预后 4 周得以保持。探索性结果表明，效果可以转移到两种类型的泛化项目：相同项目的不同图片和在自然环境中显示的项目图片。此外，虽然对未经处理的项目的概括对任何参与者都没有意义，但观察到标准化评估的收益的一些概括。尽管 SFA 和 PCA 干预很少等同，但所有参与者也经历了一定程度的干预内改进。

结论：结果支持对卒中后失语症患者进行 SFA 和 PCA 疗法的其他调查途径，即在干预效果内和适用于不同背景的可能性。