Can the resource reduction hypothesis explain sentence processing in aphasia? A visual world study in German

Area of Science:

• Psycholinguistics
• Neurolinguistics
• Aphasiology

Background:

• Resource limitation is a proposed cause of sentence comprehension difficulty in both unimpaired and impaired language users.
• Caplan's resource reduction hypothesis (RRH) is influential in understanding aphasia.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate three key predictions of the RRH regarding online sentence processing in individuals with aphasia.
• To examine the generality and variability of RRH predictions in German aphasia.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the visual world paradigm combined with a sentence-picture matching task for online processing measures.
• Investigated four sentence types across two test phases in 21 individuals with aphasia and 22 controls.

Main Results:

• Processing patterns supported two out of the three predictions derived from the RRH.
• Evidence was found for the RRH's applicability to specific aspects of sentence processing in aphasia.

Conclusions:

• The study provides empirical support for the resource reduction hypothesis in explaining sentence processing deficits in aphasia.
• The findings highlight the RRH's utility in accounting for core features of sentence comprehension difficulties observed in aphasia.