Computerised treatment of anomia in acute aphasia: Treatment intensity and training size

Abstract

In this study we analysed the outcome of computer-assisted therapy (CAT) for anomia on eight acute aphasic patients. Since therapy for anomia generally leads to an item-specific effect, the aim of the present study was to investigate whether it is possible to enhance recovery from anomia by increasing the number of treated items. Two periods of five daily written-naming CAT sessions were compared: In one period the CAT included one set of 48 words (single list) and in the other period a double list of 96 items was treated. Seven out of eight patients improved in naming performance for treated items. Overall gains were superior after practising the double list, despite fewer item repetitions. These results suggest that the size of the effect of therapy for anomia depends more on the number of treated items than on the number of repetitions per item. The integration of these results within the framework of studies on intensity is discussed.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by Swiss National Science Foundation grant no. 105312-100741/1. The authors wish to thank Myrna Schwartz, Kathleen Baynes and an anonymous reviewer for their helpful comments on a previous version of this paper.