Acquisition of new "words" in normal subjects: a suggestion for the treatment of anomia

The study explores the efficacy of three learning methods in normal controls. Thirty subjects, randomly assigned to the repetition, reading aloud, or orthographic cueing method, were asked to learn 30 new "words" (legal nonwords arbitrarily assigned to 30 different pictures); 30 further new "words" were used as controls. Number of trials to criterion was significantly lower, and number of words remembered at follow-up was significantly higher for the orthographic cueing method. Two aphasic patients with damage to the output lexicons were also rehabilitated with the same three methods. In both patients the orthographic cueing method was significantly more efficacious. The differences in learning efficacy of the three methods are discussed.