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Abstract
Objective: Semantic feature approaches are frequently included in treatment for people with aphasia. The present study investigated the role of distinctiveness and importance in the semantic feature knowledge of people with aphasia. The relationships between feature knowledge and the ability to choose among semantically-related foils, comprehension and naming abilities were examined.
Methods: Participants distinguished target nouns from related foils and completed a sorting task involving mid-importance common (MIC), mid-importance distinctive (MID), low-importance common (LIC) and low-importance distinctive (LID) features. Participants also completed sub-tests from the short version of the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination—Third Edition (BDAE-3) and Boston Naming Test—Second Edition (BNT-2). Participants were divided into two groups based on ability to accurately select target nouns from semantically-related foils.
Results: Group 1, participants with intact ability to choose among related foils, was significantly less impaired with the identification of distinctive features than Group 2, those with difficulty choosing among related foils. Importance was not a significant factor when comparing mid-importance to low-importance features.
Conclusions: These results suggest that distinctive feature knowledge contributes in a significant way to the integrity of semantic representations in people with aphasia which can influence their performance of language tasks.