Masked Repetition Priming in Treatment of Anomia: A Phase 2 Study.

Purpose: Previous research has demonstrated that exposure to masked primes may improve naming accuracy for individuals with anomia. This study investigates the effect of repeated exposures to masked identity primes paired with pictures over multiple trials, sessions, and days on the ability of people with anomia to name those pictures.

Method: Four participants with anomia completed this single-subject, multiple-baseline design study. Twelve treatment sessions were conducted for each of 2 semantic categories. Comparisons of performance on naming probes were made between items that were primed, unprimed but seen the same number of times, and unprimed and seen only during naming probes.

Results: All participants showed some gains in naming trained items although to varying degrees, and trained (primed) items generally showed greater improvement than untrained items seen the same number of times. Cross-category generalization was observed for some participants, but little to no within-category generalization occurred. Minimal changes occurred on measures of general language ability.

Conclusions: These data provide continued evidence that masked repetition priming can have a positive effect on naming for people with anomia. Factors that may influence participant response and additional questions that must be settled for this line of research to continue are discussed.