PMID- 10505140
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 19991019
LR  - 20191103
IS  - 1368-2822 (Print)
IS  - 1368-2822 (Linking)
VI  - 33
IP  - 4
DP  - 1998 Oct-Dec
TI  - The resolution of lexical ambiguity with reference to context in dementia of the 
      Alzheimer's type.
PG  - 393-412
AB  - The present study investigated how a dementing illness such as Alzheimer's 
      disease, might affect an individual's recourse to higher order contextual 
      information in the access and integration of lexical material in on-line 
      discourse comprehension. More specifically, the experiment investigated the 
      priming of homophones in a discourse context, by use of a cross-modal lexical 
      decision task, and compared the performances of a group of six subjects with mild 
      to moderate dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT) with those of a matched 
      control group. The subjects listened to 2-sentence paragraphs and performed a 
      lexical decision on visually presented targets that followed ambiguous prime 
      words (or homophones) at two inter-stimulus intervals (ISIs): 330 and 1000 msec. 
      When the target was a word, it was either an associate of the prime word, a 
      probable inference suggested by the discourse, or an unrelated word. The control 
      subjects primed both the discourse-appropriate and discourse-inappropriate 
      associate of the homophone at short (330 msec) ISIs (but not an appropriate 
      inference word), a finding which supports the exhaustive access model of 
      ambiguity resolution. As the ISI was lengthened to 1000 msec, however, the 
      discourse-appropriate inference word was primed, and reflects the operation of 
      attention-dependent integrative strategies. The subjects with DAT primed both 
      appropriate associates and inference words at the short ISI. At ISI of 1000 msec, 
      the DAT subjects primed the appropriate associate and showed substantial 
      inhibition priming of the inappropriate associate. These results point to 
      disturbances in the selective automatic activation of lexical material, and in 
      the conscious integration and elaboration of lexical material in ongoing 
      discourse comprehension in persons with DAT.
FAU - Chenery, H J
AU  - Chenery HJ
AD  - Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, University of Queensland, 
      Australia.
FAU - Ingram, J C
AU  - Ingram JC
FAU - Murdoch, B E
AU  - Murdoch BE
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PL  - United States
TA  - Int J Lang Commun Disord
JT  - International journal of language & communication disorders
JID - 9803709
SB  - IM
MH  - Aged
MH  - Aged, 80 and over
MH  - Alzheimer Disease/*complications/psychology
MH  - Analysis of Variance
MH  - Case-Control Studies
MH  - Female
MH  - Humans
MH  - Language Disorders/*etiology
MH  - Language Tests
MH  - Male
MH  - Middle Aged
EDAT- 1999/10/03 00:00
MHDA- 1999/10/03 00:01
CRDT- 1999/10/03 00:00
PHST- 1999/10/03 00:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 1999/10/03 00:01 [medline]
PHST- 1999/10/03 00:00 [entrez]
AID - 10.1080/136828298247703 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Int J Lang Commun Disord. 1998 Oct-Dec;33(4):393-412. doi: 
      10.1080/136828298247703.