Theses and Dissertations from UMD
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
Browse
6 results
Search Results
Item Automatic Syntactic Processing in Agrammatic Aphasia: The Effect of Grammatical Violations(2020) Kim, Minsun; Faroqi-Shah, Yasmeen; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study aimed to examine syntactic processing in agrammatic aphasia. We hypothesized that agrammatic individuals’ automatic syntactic processing would be preserved, as measured by word monitoring task, and their knowledge of syntactic constraints would be impaired, as measured by sentence judgment task, and their performance would vary by type of syntactic violation. The study found that the sentence processing in agrammatism differed based on the type of violation in both tasks: preserved for semantic and tense violations and impaired for word category violations. However, there was no correlation between the two tasks. Furthermore, single-subject analyses showed that automatic syntactic processing for word category violations does not seem to be impaired in aphasia. Based on the findings, this study supports that knowledge of syntactic constraints and automatic processing may be relatively independent abilities which are not related. Findings suggest that individuals with agrammatic aphasia may have preserved automatic syntactic processing.Item AN INVESTIGATION OF NEURAL MECHANISMS UNDERLYING VERB MORPHOLOGY DEFICITS IN APHASIA(2019) Pifer, Madeline R; Faroqi-Shah, Yasmeen; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Agrammatic aphasia is an acquired language disorder characterized by slow, non-fluent speech that include primarily content words. It is well-documented that people with agrammatism (PWA) have difficulty with production of verbs and verb morphology, but it is unknown whether these deficits occur at the single word-level, or are the result of a sentence-level impairment. The first aim of this paper is to determine the linguistic level that verb morphology impairments exist at by using magnetoencephalography (MEG) scanning to analyze neural response to two language tasks (one word-level, and one sentence-level). It has also been demonstrated that PWA benefit from a morphosemantic intervention for verb morphology deficits, but it is unknown if this therapy induces neuroplastic changes in the brain. The second aim of this paper is to determine whether or not neuroplastic changes occur after treatment, and explore the neural mechanisms by which this improvement occurs.Item Role of Processing Speed and Cognitive Control during Word Retrieval in Persons with Aphasia(2019) Gehman, Megan; Faroqi-Shah, Yasmeen; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)It is possible that word retrieval is not associated with general processing speed but is associated with a highly specific cognitive process - that of inhibiting competing alternative words. This study aims to measure domain general processing speed, domain general cognitive control, domain specific linguistic processing, and domain specific linguistic selection control. Twelve PWA and 15 neurotypical controls completed all four tasks. Results: domain general processing speed and domain general cognitive control response times differed between the groups but were nonsignificant. In neurotypical adults, word retrieval response time was predicted by domain general measures. However, this pattern was not observed in PWA – rather, word retrieval was predicted by domain specific linguistic measures. The implications of these findings indicate that aphasia is ultimately defined by language deficits, and increased word retrieval times in PWA cannot be attributed to a generalized processing speed deficit.Item Representative Data and Psychometric Properties of Short Version of the Korean-English Bilingual Aphasia Test(2018) Lee, Seongsil; Faroqi Shah, Yasmeen; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Previous studies investigating the psychometric properties of the Bilingual Aphasia Test (BAT) have found variable results. This study sought to investigate performance of high proficiency Korean-English (KE) bilinguals on Korean and English BAT and examine the equivalency of test difficulty across the two languages. A total of thirty KE bilinguals took the Korean-BAT, English-BAT, and Korean-English Translation Test (KETT). Their performance was evaluated and compared across two languages. Results showed that KE bilinguals performed above 80% on all subtests, however, they displayed different performance between Korean and English in three subtests. Item analyses found eighteen items with whose accuracy was below 80% and sixteen item pairs with unequal performance across the two languages. These results support the importance of testing psychometric properties of BAT and developing normative data for each language. Based on the representative data, recommendations for further modification of the BAT and a new ceiling criterion are proposed.Item A communication partner training program: Assessing conversational behaviors and attitudes towards communication in Persons with Aphasia and their Communication Partners(2016) Yutesler, Allison E. Carlson; Faroqi-Shah, Yasmeen; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study examined the conversational behaviors of eleven dyads consisting of a person with aphasia (PWA) and their familiar communication partner (CP), and investigated changes in behaviors as a result of attending a communication partner-training program CPT). Attitudes about communication were examined and related to conversational behaviors observed pre- and post- training. Results indicated that CPs and PWA used significantly more facilitating behaviors than barrier behaviors, although most dyads experienced some barriers. A comparison of pre-and post-CPT conversations revealed a significant interaction between time and type of behavior, with the increase in the number of facilitators approaching significance. Overall, persons with aphasia and their conversational partners expressed positive attitudes about communication. There were no significant correlations between scores on attitude surveys and behaviors pre or post-training. This study demonstrated that these dyads employed facilitative conversational behaviors even before CPT, and that facilitative behaviors can increase after a one-day training workshop.Item Verb Production in Aphasia: Testing the Division of Labor Between Syntax and Semantics(2015) Thorne, Julia; Faroqi-Shah, Yasmeen; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Verb production is commonly impaired in aphasia, but it has been shown that not all verbs are impaired equally. Some individuals with aphasia have been shown to prefer semantically general "light" verbs, while others prefer semantically specific "heavy" verbs. The "division of labor" theory, that access to syntactic and semantic processes in language production influences the weight of verbs selected, was explored in this study by examining the verbs used in the narrative language of 166 neurologically healthy individuals and 164 individuals with aphasia. The proportions of light verbs used were compared to narrative language measures of syntactic and semantic ability as well as test scores. It was found that certain semantic and syntactic measures showed a significant relationship to the proportion of light verbs used for individuals with aphasia, supporting the "division of labor" model. For healthy individuals, one measure of syntactic complexity significantly predicted light verb use.