| Abstract: | The talk presents a capacity theory of syntactic comprehension disorders in aphasia. The work described was done in collaboration with Patricia Carpenter and Akira Miyake. The theory assumes that aphasic patients still possess the structural (syntactic) and procedural knowledge necessary to perform syntactic analysis, but that they suffer from reductions in working memory capacity for language. The theory explains how reductions in working memory capacity can lead to the pattern of comprehension breakdown observed in aphasic patients. According to a resource-reduction view of comprehension impairments in aphasia, patients are assumed to have intact structural and procedural knowledge to parse various sentences, but suffer from consequences of severely reduced working memory resources. Two types of experiments provide relevant supporting data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
