Developing a Test of Lexical Processing in Aphasia (TLPA): The Japan Logopedics and Phoniatrics Association Committee on Speech and Language: Subcommittee on Aphasia

Abstract

A Test of Lexical Processing in Aphasia (TLPA) was developed by the Japan Logopedics and Phoniatrics Association Committee on Speech and Language : Subcommittee on Aphasia. It forms the core of a battery that has been developed to the present. It consists of lexical decision tests (visual and auditory), noun and verb tests (naming and comprehension), synonym judgment tests (visual and auditory), and a test of nouns in ten semantic categories (naming and comprehension). The TLPA is designed to assess closely the performance of lexical processing in patients with brain damage. The TLPA was administered to 70 non-brain-damaged normal subjects. They scored nearly full marks in each test. The results indicate that normal subjects can perform easily the tasks of each test. The results of ANOVA by age and gender did not demonstrate any significant main effect in any tests except for the synonym judgment test (kanji). Word frequency affected performance in the visual lexical decision test (kanji), and noun tests (naming and auditory comprehension). On the other hand, word imageability affected performance in the visual lexical decision test (kanji), noun test (auditory comprehension), and synonym judgement test. The TLPA should be a viable resource for diagnosing lexical deficits in brain-damaged patients, planning their treatment programs and measuring efficacy of the treatment.