Abstracts Category : Other

Investigation of a Computerized Nonverbal Word-PictureVerification Task in Healthy Adults

by Alexandra Zezinka

Word-picture verification tasks (WPVTs) have beenfound to be a more sensitive measure of auditory comprehensioncompared to multiple choice formats (Breese & Hillis, 2004) andprovide further insight into lexical-semantic processing abilities(Hillis, Tuffiash, & Wityk, 2002) in individuals with aphasia.There is a need for more empirically-supported language assessmentsin clinical and research practices, and nonverbal WPVTs may proveto be a useful implicit linguistic task by elucidating processingstrengths and weaknesses while reducing confounding metacognitiveand motor speech influences. However, no standardized WPVT protocolexists to date, and previous studies have varied in administrationprocedures, populations, and stimuli (Breese & Hillis, 2004;Cloutman et al., 2009; Hillis & Caramazza, 1995; Hillis,Tuffiash, & Wityk, 2002; Stadthagen-Gonzalez, Damian, Perez,Bowers, & Marin, 2009). Additionally, reaction time data on theWPVT has not been collected with clinical populations, and reactiontimes may better explain lexical-semantic processing abilitiesoverlooked with measures of accuracy alone (Best, Greenwood,Grassly, Herber, & Hicken, 2013). The current study aimed toinvestigate performance accuracy and reaction times on a novelcomputerized nonverbal WPVT in healthy adults. Since lexicalretrieval differences have been observed during typical aging(e.g., Feyereisen, 1997; Gordon & Kindred, 2011; Mortensen,Meyer, & Humphreys, 2006; Nicholas, Obler, Albert, &Goodglass, 1985; Schmitter-Edgecombe, Vesneski, & Jones, 2000),younger and older adults' performances were obtained, analyzed, andcompared. Participants simultaneously saw a picture and read orheard a single word presented on a laptop computer. They thenjudged if word-picture pairs were congruent or incongruent viabutton press. Words in incongruent pairs werephonologically-related, semantically related, or unrelated to thepresented picture. Younger adults (M age = 23.20) responded morequickly across auditory and reading WPVT formats. However, olderadults (M age = 64.47) were significantly more accurate on targetword-picture pairs compared to younger adults. On the auditoryWPVT, younger and older adults responded more quickly andaccurately to unrelated word-picture pairs compared tophonologically-related, semantically-related, and correct pairs.They also responded more quickly on semantically-related pairscompared to phonologically-related foils. On the reading WPVT,participants responded more quickly and accurately onphonologically-related and unrelated pairs. They also respondedmore quickly on phonologically-related pairs compared tosemantically-related and target word-picture pairs. The currentstudy provides support that younger and older adults responddifferently to auditory and reading versions of a computerizednonverbal WPVT. Reaction time data provided additional informationabout lexical-semantic processing that accuracy alone could notexpress. Future investigation is warranted to determine theeffectiveness of aAdvisors/Committee Members: Harnish, Stacy (Advisor).