Abstract word anomia

Preserved thematic and impaired taxonomic categorisation: A case study

“…However, the generally intact knowledge store of LEW (Druks & Shallice, 2000) does not prevent him making taxonomic errors; clearly the disorders must be different. The same conclusion was drawn by Franklin et al (1995) in considering the selective impairment of the production of abstract words. One is, therefore, driven to the view that applying a name to a class of objects is a theoretically different ability to associating features in object-knowledge.…”

“…For example, WarringtonÕs patient could define an abstract word such as supplication as Òmaking a serious request for helpÓ but could give no definition for the word alligator. Their separation is also confirmed from a study in which there was a selective difficulty in retrieving abstract words without an impairment in comprehension (Franklin, Howard & Patterson, 1995); thus ruling out damage to knowledge structures as causal for an impairment for abstract terms. A similar conclusion was drawn for two patients where the retrieval deficit was limited to written production (Baxter & Warrington, 1985;Hillis, Rapp & Caramazza, 1999).…”

Semantic Representation and Ease of Predication

“…Although it is often reported that Jones' data support the notion that more predicates can be generated for concrete than abstract words (e.g., Franklin, Howard, & Patterson, 1995), in fact his subjects were not asked to generate predicates at all. Instead, they were asked to estimate the number of predicates they could produce, if asked, on a 7-point rating scale.…”

Imageability and subjective frequency of the 500 rated nouns in the Croatian Lexical Database

“…The term imageability effect refers to the fact that highly imageable words are processed faster and more accurately than poorly imageable ones (see . Previous studies have shown that word imageability predicts word reading, word association and picture naming performance by healthy subjects (Barry, Morrison & Ellis, 1997;Strain, Patterson and Seidenberg, 1995), as well as written and auditory comprehension and word production by patients with aphasia (Allport & Funnell, 1981;Franklin, Howard & Patterson, 1995;Hanley & Kay, 1997). More imageable words and higher-frequency words trigger faster and more accurate responses in tasks that require word processing (e.g.…”