Identification of pictured homonyms: Latent phonological knowledge in Broca's aphasia

To examine phonological access in Broca's aphasia, a pointing test was used which required a complete phonological representation of target words for successful performance. Broca's aphasics (N = 9) were asked to identify pictured homonyms from among pictured rhyming, alliterative, & semantic distractors within a multiple-choice paradigm. Homonym pointing performance was then compared to the naming of the pictured homonyms to examine how accessed phonological information is utilized by Broca's aphasics during naming. Phonemic pointing errors were rare (eg, rhyming errors were not committed), thus indicating that Broca's aphasics generally access complete phonological representations. Moreover, the relationship between pointing & naming performance distinguished two subgroups which, in turn, suggested two independent deficits that contribute to the phonemic speech errors of Broca's aphasics: (1) approximately equal scores on homonym pointing & naming suggested a primary deficit in accessing phonological representations, while (2) superior scores on homonym pointing relative to homonym naming suggested a primary deficit in articulating accessed phonological information. 2 Figures, 18 References. AA