The experimental analysis of certain aspects of an aphasic's recovery

This paper describes the experimental analysis of certain aspects of the recovery of an aphasic patient. Specifically, this study focused on the extent to which a psycholinguistic principle could predict a particular facet of the aphasic's recovery; and the utility of reaction time as a measure of the recovery from aphasia. The subject of this investigation was a 21-year-old female, who developed aphasia consequent to the ligation of a cerebral aneurysm. The patient was administered an auditory word comprehension test during the sixth week of therapy. It was found that an inverse relation existed between the subject's reaction times in responding to the test items, and the familiarity of those words. During the seventh month of treatment, the auditory word comprehension test was re-administered to the subject. A statistically significant decrement in reaction times was noted from the original to the second auditory word comprehension testing. This improved latency was taken as an indication of the patient's recovery from her language impairment.