Abstract
Marshall (1977) constructed a plausible simulation of "anomic" speech out of the 100 most common words in the English language. He suggested that impaired access to lower frequency vocabulary might underlie anomic word finding difficulties. But he also noted that another factor, age of acquisition, may exert an influence, with anomic patients experiencing particular difficulty with later acquired vocabulary. A review of research on word-finding in aphasia and other neuropsychological conditions suggests that Marshall (1977) may have been right on both counts, and that in many patients both frequency of use and age of acquisition influence the likelihood that a given word will be able to be accessed and used. Theoretical accounts of why the age of acquisition of words might affect their retention or loss following brain injury in adulthood are considered.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 817-822 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Cortex |
| Volume | 42 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| Publication status | Published - Aug 2006 |
Keywords
- aphasia
- anomia
- age of acquisition
- word frequency
- familiarity
- category specificity
- AGE-OF-ACQUISITION
- CUMULATIVE-FREQUENCY HYPOTHESIS
- CATEGORY-SPECIFIC DEFICITS
- NAME AGREEMENT
- ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE
- NONLIVING THINGS
- RETRIEVAL
- APHASIA
- ANOMIA
- CONCRETENESS