Auditory vigilance during divided task attention in aphasic individuals

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Abstract
Little research has been reported on auditory vigilance skills of aphasic individuals, particularly under a dual task paradigm designed to divide attention. Six aphasic males and six gender and age-matched control subjects listened to two, twenty-minute 400 word lists and were asked to identify a target word that was randomly interspersed 50 times. During Condition A, subjects were only required to remain auditorily vigilant and identify target words. During Condition B subjects were required to listen for and identify target words while simultaneously conducting a card sorting task. Aphasic and non-brain-damaged subjects performed similarly under Condition A, auditory vigilance alone. For the dual task, divided attention condition, the non-aphasic group performed virtually the same as in Condition A. The aphasic group revealed significantly less accurate performance under Condition B's dual task requirements. Apparently the added task of card sorting so divided or preoccupied the attention of most aphasic subjects that the auditory targets could not be identified readily. These findings lend support to the notion that deficient processing superimposed upon linguistic deficit may be a useful model for understanding the nature of aphasia and perhaps offers a germinal explanation of the variability so characteristic of aphasic performance.

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