Varieties of errors produced by aphasic patients in phonemic cueing

Abstract

This study investigated the types of verbal errors produced by aphasic patients when phonemic cueing was administered. Subjects consisted of 40 aphasic patients-10 each of Broca's, conduction, Wernicke's and anomic aphasics. Phonemic cueing was employed following failure to name on confrontation. Prior to phonemic cueing the most frequent naming errors were related words in Broca's aphasics, multiple responses and extended circumlocutions in Wernicke's aphasics, related words and multiple responses in conduction aphasics and related words in anomic aphasics. These errors predominated prior to correct and incorrect response to cueing. A separate analysis examined naming errors surrounding unsuccessful cueing response. In these instances the prevalence of related words and inadequate responses prior to cueing shifted to a significantly greater proportion of phonemic errors, semantic-phonemic errors, multiple responses and neologisms following cueing. These patterns of performance suggest that phonemic cueing intervenes at the semantic level of processing.