TY - JOUR A1 - Zakarias, Lilla A1 - Salis, Christos A1 - Wartenburger, Isabell T1 - Transfer effects on spoken sentence comprehension and functional communication after working memory training in stroke aphasia JF - Journal of neurolinguistics : an international journal for the study of brain function in language behavior and experience N2 - Recent treatment protocols have been successful in improving working memory (WM) in individuals with aphasia. However, the evidence to date is small and the extent to which improvements in trained tasks of WM transfer to untrained memory tasks, spoken sentence comprehension, and functional communication is yet poorly understood. To address these issues, we conducted a multiple baseline study with three German-speaking individuals with chronic post stroke aphasia. Participants practised two computerised WM tasks (n-back with pictures and aback with spoken words) four times a week for a month, targeting two WM processes: updating WM representations and resolving interference. All participants showed improvement on at least one measure of spoken sentence comprehension and everyday memory activities. Two of them showed improvement also on measures of WM and functional communication. Our results suggest that WM can be improved through computerised training in chronic aphasia and this can transfer to spoken sentence comprehension and functional communication in some individuals. KW - Aphasia KW - Working memory KW - n-back training KW - Transfer KW - Sentence comprehension KW - Verbal communication Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2017.12.002 SN - 0911-6044 VL - 48 SP - 47 EP - 63 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zakarias, Lilla A1 - Kelly, Helen A1 - Sails, Christos A1 - Code, Chris T1 - The methodological quality of short-term/working memory treatments in poststroke aphasia BT - a systematic review JF - Journal of speech, language, and hearing research N2 - Purpose: The aims of this systematic review are to provide a critical overview of short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM) treatments in stroke aphasia and to systematically evaluate the internal and external validity of STM/WM treatments. Method: A systematic search was conducted in February 2014 and then updated in December 2016 using 13 electronic databases. We provided descriptive characteristics of the included studies and assessed their methodological quality using the Risk of Bias in N-of-1 Trials quantitative scale (Tate et al., 2015), which was completed by 2 independent raters. Results: The systematic search and inclusion/exclusion procedure yielded 17 single-case or case-series studies with 37 participants for inclusion. Nine studies targeted auditory STM consisting of repetition and/or recognition tasks, whereas 8 targeted attention and WM, such as attention process training including n-back tasks with shapes and clock faces as well as mental math tasks. In terms of their methodological quality, quality scores on the Risk of Bias in N-of-1 Trials scale ranged from 4 to 17 (M = 9.5) on a 0-30 scale, indicating a high risk of bias in the reviewed studies. Effects of treatment were most frequently assessed on STM, WM, and spoken language comprehension. Transfer effects on communication and memory in activities of daily living were tested in only 5 studies. Conclusions: Methodological limitations of the reviewed studies make it difficult, at present, to draw firm conclusions about the effects of STM/WM treatments in poststroke aphasia. Further studies with more rigorous methodology and stronger experimental control are needed to determine the beneficial effects of this type of intervention. To understand the underlying mechanisms of STM/WM treatment effects and how they relate to language functioning, a careful choice of outcome measures and specific hypotheses about potential improvements on these measures are required. Future studies need to include outcome measures of memory functioning in everyday life and psychosocial functioning more generally to demonstrate the ecological validity of STM and WM treatments. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_JSLHR-L-18-0057 SN - 1092-4388 SN - 1558-9102 VL - 62 IS - 6 SP - 1979 EP - 2001 PB - American Speech-Language-Hearing Assoc. CY - Rockville ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rofes, Adria A1 - Zakarias, Lilla A1 - Ceder, Klaudia A1 - Lind, Marianne A1 - Johansson, Monica Blom A1 - de Aguiar, Vania A1 - Bjekic, Jovana A1 - Fyndanis, Valantis A1 - Gavarro, Anna A1 - Simonsen, Hanne Gram A1 - Hernandez Sacristan, Carlos A1 - Kambanaros, Maria A1 - Kraljevic, Jelena Kuva A1 - Martinez-Ferreiro, Silvia A1 - Mavis, Ilknur A1 - Mendez Orellana, Carolina A1 - Sor, Ingrid A1 - Lukacs, Agnes A1 - Tuncer, Muge A1 - Vuksanovic, Jasmina A1 - Munarriz Ibarrola, Amaia A1 - Pourquie, Marie A1 - Varlokosta, Spyridoula A1 - Howard, David T1 - Imageability ratings across languages JF - Behavior research methods : a journal of the Psychonomic Society N2 - Imageability is a psycholinguistic variable that indicates how well a word gives rise to a mental image or sensory experience. Imageability ratings are used extensively in psycholinguistic, neuropsychological, and aphasiological studies. However, little formal knowledge exists about whether and how these ratings are associated between and within languages. Fifteen imageability databases were cross-correlated using nonparametric statistics. Some of these corresponded to unpublished data collected within a European research network-the Collaboration of Aphasia Trialists (COST IS1208). All but four of the correlations were significant. The average strength of the correlations (rho = .68) and the variance explained (R (2) = 46%) were moderate. This implies that factors other than imageability may explain 54% of the results. Imageability ratings often correlate across languages. Different possibly interacting factors may explain the moderate strength and variance explained in the correlations: (1) linguistic and cultural factors; (2) intrinsic differences between the databases; (3) range effects; (4) small numbers of words in each database, equivalent words, and participants; and (5) mean age of the participants. The results suggest that imageability ratings may be used cross-linguistically. However, further understanding of the factors explaining the variance in the correlations will be needed before research and practical recommendations can be made. KW - Imageability KW - Linguistics KW - Cross-linguistic KW - Correlations Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-017-0936-0 SN - 1554-351X SN - 1554-3528 VL - 50 IS - 3 SP - 1187 EP - 1197 PB - Springer CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Marton, Klara A1 - Eichorn, Naomi A1 - Campanelli, Luca A1 - Zakarias, Lilla T1 - Working Memory and Interference Control in Children with Specific Language Impairment JF - Language and linguistics compass N2 - Language and communication disorders are often associated with deficits in working memory (WM) and interference control. WM studies involving children with specific language impairment (SLI) have traditionally been framed using either resource theories or decay accounts, particularly Baddeley's model. Although significant interference problems in children with SLI are apparent in error analysis data from WM and language tasks, interference theories and paradigms have not been widely used in the SLI literature. A primary goal of the present paper is to provide an overview of interference deficits in children with SLI. Review of the extant literature on interference control shows deficits in this population; however, the source and the nature of the deficit remain unclear. Thus, a second key aim in our review is to demonstrate the need for theoretically driven experimental paradigms in order to better understand individual variations associated with interference weaknesses in children with SLI. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/lnc3.12189 SN - 1749-818X VL - 10 SP - 211 EP - 224 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER -