Learning to fail in aphasia: an investigation of error learning in naming.

Purpose: To determine whether the naming impairment in aphasia is influenced by error learning and whether error learning is related to type of retrieval strategy.

Method: Nine participants with aphasia and 10 neurologically intact controls named familiar proper noun concepts. When experiencing tip-of-the-tongue naming failure (TOT) in an initial TOT-elicitation phase, participants were instructed to adopt phonological or semantic self-cued retrieval strategies. In the error learning manipulation, items evoking TOT states during TOT elicitation were randomly assigned to a short or long time condition in which participants were encouraged to continue to try to retrieve the name for either 20 s (short interval) or 60 s (long). The incidence of TOT on the same items was measured on a post-test after 48 hr. Error learning was defined as a higher rate of recurrent TOTs (TOT at both TOT elicitation and post-test) for items assigned to the long (versus short) time condition.

Results: In the phonological condition, participants with aphasia showed error learning, whereas controls showed a pattern opposite to error learning. There was no evidence for error learning in the semantic condition for either group.

Conclusion: Error learning is operative in aphasia but is dependent on the type of strategy used during naming failure.