Resource allocation in auditory processing of emphatically stressed stimuli in aphasia

Slansky, B. L. and McNeil, M. R. (1997) Resource allocation in auditory processing of emphatically stressed stimuli in aphasia. [Journal (Paginated)]

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Abstract

Kimelman and McNeil (1987) suggested that improved auditory comprehension for emphatically stressed information might be attributed to recruitment of additional processing resources. This study investigated effects of emphatic stress when it was applied to target words during a semantic judgement task on the auditory processing of non-stressed targets for a lexical decision task. Response time and accuracy were analysed for this dual-task experiment. It was first established that the stimuli contained appropriately placed stressed lexical items and that all subjects benefited from the emphatic stress. Next it was established that all subjects were able to voluntarily trade processing resources in the dual task under investigation, and were able to generate a performance operating curve (POC). Normal subjects showed the predicted performance decrement on the non-stressed word in the context of the preceding stressed word; subjects with aphasia did not. Results are discussed relative to resource allocation theory with normal subjects, and a working memory explanation for aphasic subjects' performance.

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