Effects of Semantic Feature Analysis Treatment on Landmark Naming in Individuals with Subjective Memory Impairment

Abstract

Objectives: This study was carried out to investigate the effects of Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA)-plus treatment on landmark naming difficulties of the elderly with subject memory impairment (SMI). Methods: Twenty-six Korean individuals aged 60 or older with SMI participated in this study, eleven participants were in the intervention group and fifteen individuals who matched their age and years of education made up the control group. The landmark naming intervention consisted of a total of 9 steps based on SFA, presenting photo stimuli of famous places in Korean or abroad. The intervention used in this study was performed 1:1 with the subject for 60 minutes per session with 16 sessions. Visual stimulation, semantic categories, and semantic features such as geographic location, were applied to promote the performance of naming. The researcher provided tasks and clues to facilitate activation of the semantic and phonological information of landmark names. Results: Results demonstrated that there were significant increases in the performance of the trained and untrained place proper names among the intervention group. There was no generalization effect of the object naming. Conclusion: The current study suggested that the naming treatment using place names was effective in activating the semantic network, facilitating phonological information output, and enhancing landmark naming abilities in people with subjective memory decline.