Graduation Year
2010
Document Type
Thesis
Degree
M.S.
Degree Granting Department
Communication Sciences and Disorders
Major Professor
Nathan D. Maxfield, Ph.D.
Co-Major Professor
Stefan A. Frisch, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Joseph L. Constantine, Ph.D.
Keywords
Stuttering, Psycholinguistic, Event-related potentials, Cognitive Neuroscience, Adults
Abstract
Objective: A neuroscientific picture-word task was used to investigate semantic and phonological activation spreading in adults who stutter (AWS).
Method: Fourteen AWS and 14 adults who do not stutter (AWNS) participated. On each trial, a picture was named at a delay. Sometimes, an attended probe word was heard before naming. Some probes were Semantically-Related to the labels. Those same probes also appeared following pictures with Unrelated labels. N400 ERPs recorded to these two probe types were compared (Semantically-Related versus Unrelated). Other probes were Phonologically-Related to the labels. Those same probes also appeared following pictures with unrelated labels (P-Unrelated). N400 ERPs recorded to these two probe types were compared (Phonologically-Related versus P-Unrelated).
Results: AWNS exhibited typical N400 priming effects. AWS exhibited non-robust Semantic N400 priming, and a reverse Phonological N400 priming effect.
Conclusions: Results suggest that AWS use attentional control strategies to influence the activation of words in the mental lexicon.
Scholar Commons Citation
Pizon-Moore, Angela A., "N400 Activations in Adults who Stutter in a Picture-Word Priming Task Requiring Attention to Probe Word Phonology" (2010). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/1740
