The interface between vision and language in normal ageing and in neurological patients

• Main Author: Mortensen, Linda
• Published: University of Birmingham 2006
• Subjects: 153.6
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.426879

This thesis investigates multiple-object naming in young and older speakers, focusing on the coordination of speech planning with speech articulation and with shifts of visual attention. The results demonstrate that both young and older speakers plan object names sequentially, but that they differ in how successful they are in maintaining speech fluency. The results further show that both young and older speakers are able to process extrafoveal objects, even when the processing load for the fixated object is high. Extrafoveal processing appears unaffected by variation in foveal load, suggesting that fixated and extrafoveal objects are attended to sequentially. The thesis studies the processes underlying the reversed length effect observed in young speakers' multiple-object naming. The findings demonstrate that this effect arises from differences in spoken durations between long and short first object names. It may be linked to advance planning of the next object name or to coordination of planning processes for the first object name. Finally, a study of single-object naming in a patient with impaired object recognition and name retrieval yielded results consistent with the patient having two separate deficits, one in object recognition and one in name retrieval, which supports a serial processing view of object naming.