An Experimental Analysis of Auxiliary and Copula Verb Generalization in Aphasia

Abstract

Two subjects with chronic Broca's aphasia were taught to produce third person singular auxiliary is in sentence contexts to determine if is production would generalize to untrained auxiliary is items and to copula is contexts. A single subject (ABAB) reversal design was employed. Results revealed that training a few exemplars of the present tense auxiliary is resulted in generalized responding to untrained auxiliary is and copula is plus predicate adjective items. Generalized responding to untrained copula is plus predicate nominative and locative items was marked by individual variability. Although auxiliary and copula is verb production was maintained on 2- and 6-week follow-up probes, transfer to spontaneous speech was negligible. The results were interpreted as providing partial support for the existence of a functional or generative response class between verbal auxiliary and the copula is verbs.

Facilitating Generalized Requesting Behavior in Broca's Aphasia: An Experimental Analysis of a Generalization Training Procedure

“…The otherwise extensive stimulus generalization effects found in the present study stand in contrast to those of most investigations in the aphasia treatment literature (Doyle et al, 1987;Kearns & Salmon, 1984;Thompson & Byrne, 1984;Thompson & McReynolds, 1986;Wambaugh & Thompson, in press). Methodological differences such as the behaviors targeted for intervention, the sampling procedures used, and the generalization programming employed make comparisons across studies difficult.…”

“…Early investigations reported consistent and rapid acquisition effects using a variety of treatment approaches replicated across a number of syntactic forms (Crystal, Fletcher, & Garman, 1975;Holland & Levy, 1971;Naeser, 1975;Shewan, 1976;Wiegel-Crump, 1976), but more recent investigations have found that subjects failed to use morpho-syntactic forms in the absence of training stimuli (Doyle, Goldstein, & Bourgeois, 1987;Kearns & Salmon, 1984;Thompson & McReynolds, 1986;Thompson, McReynolds, & Vance, 1982). As a result, recent aphasia intervention studies have attempted to facilitate transfer of treatment effects by employing various generalization-promoting techniques proposed by Stokes and Baer (1977), including loose training (Kearns, 1985;Kearns & Potechin, 1988; Thompson & Byrne, 1984), sequential modification (Wambaugh & Thompson, in press), and training common stimuli and sufficient stimulus exemplars (Thompson & Warner, in press).…”

Efficacy of two different types of speech therapy for aphasic stroke patients

“…Howard, 1986;Howard, Patterson, Franklin, Orchard-Lisle, & Morton, 1985). What seems to be needed instead is a large series of pilot experiments, perhaps employing within-subject designs, in which carefully described individual patients, systematically treated by means of a variety of well-described, specific, and rational treatment programs, are followed to determine whether any functional progress has occurred as a result of the therapeutic methods employed (for some representative examples, see Doyle, Goldstein, & Bourgeois, 1987;Kearns & Salmon, 1984;Kearns, Simmon, & Sisterhen, 1982;Thompson & Byrne, 1984;Thompson & Kearns, 1981). In a following stage, the efficacy of treatments that have produced encouraging results in pilot experiments should be evaluated in terms of various settings, various language functions (including spontaneous speech), and various types of subjects; and finally with small, well-defined patient groups.…”

Environmental correlates of child copula verb growth

“…Most accounts of facilitating copula verb learning relate to language delay or impairment, for example in aphasic patients (e.g. Kearns & Salmon, 1984), language-impaired children (e.g. Hughes & Carpenter, 1989), or specific language-disordered children (Yoder, 1989).…”

“…The similarities between copula be and auxiliary be are, of course, even greater and it would be possible to regard these as a single category. In fact, there is some support from the field of speech therapy (Hegde, Noll & Pecora, 1979;Hegde, 1980;Kearns & Salmon, 1984) for the view that the development of auxiliary and copula be is to some degree interdependent. However, the aim of the current investigation is to test the hypothesis that if auxiliary inversions in yes-no questions predict auxiliary verb development, then inversions in yes-^no questions of copula be, as comprising a tightly defined, maximally homogeneous set of verb forms, will equally predict development.…”