The recognition of gender-marked nouns and verbs in Polish-speaking aphasic patients.

Full Abstract

In the present study, we investigated the on-line recognition of gender-marked lexical items by three aphasic patients and eighteen matched control participants, all native speakers of Polish. Polish is unique in that it allows investigating grammatical gender across the major categories of nouns and verbs. Patients and their controls were tested using a simple visual lexical decision paradigm in which gender, number and grammatical category were manipulated. Results show that, while response latencies were markedly slower for aphasic patients, gender did not yield differential results in either grammatical category, for both patients and control participants. Plural forms, on the other hand, showed significantly slower response latencies than singular forms in both brain-damaged and unimpaired participants, but only for nouns. We interpret these findings in terms of the inherent vs. contextual, i.e. underspecified, nature of gender and number in the two grammatical categories. This study suggests that while gender can be impaired in off-line performance in aphasia, on-line recognition patterns parallel the performance of non-brain-damaged individuals, confirming the preservation of access procedures in automatic word recognition.

Author information

Author/s: Perlak, Danuta (D); Jarema, Gonia (G);

Affiliation: Département de linguistique et de traduction, Université de Montreal, Centre de Recherche de l'Institut universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal. danuta.perlak(-atsign-)umontreal.ca

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Clinical Trial; Controlled Clinical Trial; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior (Cortex), published in Italy. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-Jun; vol 39 (issue 3) : pp 383-403

Dates: Created 2003/07/21; Completed 2003/08/28; Revised 2009/11/11;

PMID: 12870818, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/11/2009, IMS Date: )

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