Effects of Verbal Labeling on Visual Recall by Adult Aphasic Patients

Abstract

The performance of 30 adult aphasics and 30 normal Ss was compared on a task of visual recall for ambiguous figures. A verbal label was presented simultaneously with the figure in some conditions. Aphasics recalled the visual stimuli significantly less accurately than did the normals, but both groups demonstrated the same pattern of errors. When verbal labels accompanied the visual stimuli, aphasics and normals more frequently selected responses which corresponded most closely with the verbal name they heard during original exposure to the ambiguous stimuli. The data suggested that both groups used verbal strategies to perform the task but that the aphasics' strategies perhaps were less complex than those of their normal counterparts.