On-line processing of filler-gap construction in aphasia.

Two experiments were conducted exploring on-line processing of filler-gap construction in aphasia. An auditory-auditory lexical decision paradigm was used to investigate whether Broca's and Wernicke's aphasic patients show, as do normals, reactivation of the filler at the gap site. Experiment I investigated the processing of a number of filler-gap constructions including wh-questions, relative clauses as subject, relative clauses as object, and embedded wh-questions. Broca's aphasics showed reactivation of the filler at the gap site, whereas Wernicke's aphasics did not. Experiment II examined object relative clauses and their processing by Broca's aphasics. In addition, we investigated whether the presence (or absence) of the relative pronoun played any role in on-line processing. Broca's aphasics performed as did normals. In addition, their performance was unaffected by the presence or absence of the relative pronoun. The results of these experiments suggest that Broca's aphasics do not have an impairment in processing or representing thematic relationships of NP arguments to predicates or relating traces to their antecedents.

Language comprehension in language-learning impaired children improved with acoustically modified speech.

A speech processing algorithm was developed to create more salient versions of the rapidly changing elements in the acoustic waveform of speech that have been shown to be deficiently processed by language-learning impaired (LLI) children. LLI children received extensive daily training, over a 4-week period, with listening exercises in which all speech was translated into this synthetic form. They also received daily training with computer "games" designed to adaptively drive improvements in temporal processing thresholds. Significant improvements in speech discrimination and language comprehension abilities were demonstrated in two independent groups of LLI children.