Picture Naming Error Patterns in Aging and Aphasia
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1
University of Iowa, Communication Sciences & Disorders, United States
Introduction
Word-retrieval difficulties are common in both aphasia and typical aging, particularly after age 70 (Connor, Spiro, Obler, & Albert, 2004). However, little is known about how the mechanisms of lexical breakdown differ in these populations. Here, we examine a large database of naming errors collected using the same protocol from healthy adults and individuals with aphasia for qualitative and quantitative differences in error patterns.
Methods
Picture naming responses were collected from 144 healthy individuals, ranging in age from 22 to 89 years, and from 22 individuals with aphasia (IwA). To make the difficulty level of the task more similar for the two populations, the IwA named 200 pictures with single-syllable names, while the healthy individuals named 400 pictures with names ranging from 1 to 4 syllables long. Responses were coded using both coarse-grained (Dell, Schwartz, Martin, Saffran, & Gagnon, 1997) and fine-grained systems. In the fine-grained system, different types of semantic errors (synonyms, category coordinates, superordinates, subordinates, and associates) were coded to capture the variety of error types in this largest category of errors. In addition, we coded various types of non-naming responses (visually based errors, picture-part errors, descriptions, and no responses) to examine the use of strategies in the face of word-retrieval failures. To examine effects of aging on error patterns, the healthy adults were divided into 3 age groups: Younger (<50 years old, n=52); Young-Old (50-70 years old, n=49); and Older (>70 years old, n=43).
Results
As expected, error rates increased with age: 4.7% for the Younger group; 5.9% for the Young-Old group; and 9.3% for the Older group. Despite naming an easier set of items, the IwA produced 7.6% errors, intermediate to Young-Old and Older groups. IwA produced smaller proportions of semantic and mixed errors, but greater proportions of phonologically related and unrelated errors (both words and non-words), compared to the healthy groups. Older healthy adults and IwA, however, produced similar proportions of non-naming responses. Looking at different types of semantic errors (Figure 1a) showed some age-related trends, specifically the production of more subordinate names, but fewer category coordinate names, with aging. IwA produced fewer synonyms, but more semantic associates, than the healthy groups, suggesting more distant errors. However, they produced similar proportions of subordinates and category coordinates to the Younger healthy adults. Examination of non-naming responses (Figure 1b) revealed that a larger proportion of errors produced by healthy adults, compared to IwA, arose from visual confusions. IwA produced significantly more descriptions than any of the healthy groups. Both Older healthy adults and IwA produced more no-responses than Younger and Young-Old healthy adults.
Conclusion
Error patterns by IwA revealed both qualitative and quantitative differences from healthy adults. However, some types of errors occurred with similar frequencies in healthy individuals and individuals with aphasia, suggesting that these serve a more strategic purpose in the face of word-retrieval difficulty. Understanding the mechanisms underlying different errors can help understand the extent to which normal aging underlies word-retrieval breakdown, and can help guide the treatment of anomia.
Acknowledgements
Funding from the John Templeton Foundation and NIH (NIDCD-R03-DC007072) helped to support data collection for this project.
References
Connor, L. T., Spiro, A. R., Obler, L. K., & Albert, M. L. (2004). Change in object naming ability during adulthood. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci, 59(5), P203-209.
Dell, G. S., Schwartz, M. F., Martin, N., Saffran, E. M., & Gagnon, D. A. (1997). Lexical access in aphasic and nonaphasic speakers. Psychological Review, 104(4), 801-838.
Keywords:
Aphasia,
Anomia,
lexical retrieval,
Aging,
picture naming
Conference:
54th Annual Academy of Aphasia Meeting, Llandudno, United Kingdom, 16 Oct - 18 Oct, 2016.
Presentation Type:
Poster Sessions
Topic:
Academy of Aphasia
Citation:
Gordon
JK
(2016). Picture Naming Error Patterns in Aging and Aphasia.
Front. Psychol.
Conference Abstract:
54th Annual Academy of Aphasia Meeting.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fpsyg.2016.68.00126
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Received:
30 Apr 2016;
Published Online:
15 Aug 2016.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Jean K Gordon, University of Iowa, Communication Sciences & Disorders, Iowa City, Iowa, 52245, United States, jean-k-gordon@uiowa.edu