Action naming in anomic aphasic speakers: Effects of instrumentality and name relation

Many studies reveal effects of verb type on verb retrieval, mainly in agrammatic aphasic speakers. In the current study, two factors that might play a role in action naming in anomic aphasic speakers were considered: the conceptual factor instrumentality and the lexical factor name relation to a noun. Instrumental verbs were shown to be better preserved than non-instrumental verbs in a group of anomic aphasic speakers but not in a group of Broca’s aphasic speakers. Name relation to a noun improved the performance of the anomic aphasic speakers as well. Again, no effect was found in the group of Broca’s aphasic speakers. Verbs with a name relation to a noun were better retrieved in action naming than verbs without a name relation. These findings are discussed in terms of the spreading activation theory of Dell. (Dell, G. S. (1986). A spreading activation theory of retrieval in sentence production. Psychological Review 93, 283–321.)