Similarities And Differences Between Concrete and Abstract Semantic Organizations
Open Access
Author:
Thatcher, Allison Anne
Area of Honors:
Communication Sciences and Disorders
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Dr. Chaleece Wyatt Sandberg, Thesis Supervisor Dr. Carol Anne Miller, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
Aphasia Semantic Organization Concrete Abstract
Abstract:
This study examines the differences of semantic organization between concrete and abstract words. The participants were divided into two groups: Neurotypical Adults and Persons with Aphasia. Each participant completed a semantic relatedness judgement task. Stimuli in the study were categorized by concreteness (concrete, abstract) and relatedness (association, similarity, unrelated). The results of the study will be discussed by participant group (NTA and PWA) and by accuracy and reaction time. Although I hypothesized that concrete words will be more accurate and have a faster reaction time in a similarity condition, and abstract words will be more accurate and have a faster time in an association condition, no significant effects of concreteness by relatedness were found.
