Cognitive Psychological Study of a Case of Amnesic Aphasia

Abstract

A case of amnesic aphasia was reported from the viewpoint of cognitive psychology. The major findings were as follows : 1) The subject demonstrated defective recall, but she had normal recognition. These findings suggest that she has a defect only in the search process for word information. They also support the “model of double process”, and show that the search process is independent of recognition. 2) The subject did not exhibit the “tip of the tongue phenomenon” even when she could not retrieve words. This search was performed at a very low level, and she was unable to search partially. 3) She was unable to retrieve “shinkansen” (bullet train) with the hint of “ shi-n-ka-n-se”. This phenomenon suggests that she may remember the word as one unit. 4) She was unable to find a target word regardless of all hints. Her main search was automatic and she showed difficulty in the controlled process of word retrieval. © 1987, The Japan Society of Logopedics and Phoniatrics. All rights reserved.