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

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

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.

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.

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