Effects of facilitation and cueing on labelling of «novel» stimuli by aphasic subjects

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Abstract
Facilitation and cueing are integral to the stimulation approaches to aphasia rehabilitation, but the degree to which these techniques affect untrained responses is rarely documented. This study determined the effects of facilitation and cueing training on aphasic subjects' labelling of novel stimuli. Twenty-three aphasic adults were trained on facilitation and cueing tasks designed to simulate those used in aphasia therapy. Oral responses were elicited by repetition or sentence-completion cues from the examiner, or with self-cues developed by the subject. Effects of training were assessed with probes administered after each block of training and 1 week after training (follow-up). Normal subjects had little difficulty with training tasks or the probes. Aphasic subjects improved significantly on the training tasks and the probes, but their rate and amount of improvement differed across training conditions. Overall performance on training tasks and probes favoured auditory and combined conditions. Non-rehearsal deleteriously affected training task and probe performance. Aphasic subjects did significantly better on training tasks involving repetition and determinate and indeterminate sentence completion than a self-cue task, but the self-cue training resulted in higher probe means than the repetition and determinate sentence completion task. Although training led to significantly improved probe scores in all conditions, probe means dropped significantly when training was discontinued. The amount of decline approached probe one levels for all conditions except the self-cue condition. The superiority of the self-cue task is discussed in terms of Craik and Lockhart's (1972) levels of processing hypothesis, the need to provide aphasic persons more time for stimulus processing, and subjects' potential use of imagery strategies. Some potential applications to aphasia therapy are presented.