The effects of semantic and orthographic blocking on written word production

Abstract

In investigating the efficacy of acquired dysgraphia treatments, relatively little attention has been directed to the relationships amongst treated items. Is it beneficial or detrimental to treat together items that belong to the same semantic category or share segments (phonemes or letters)? In spoken production, interference is observed when individuals produce items in the context of other semantically related vs. unrelated items—neurologically normal participants initiate naming more slowly and individuals with aphasia produce more errors (e.g. Damian et al., 2001; Schnur et al., 2006). On the other hand, facilitation is observed for the production of blocks of phonologically related vs. unrelated items— normal participants initiate naming more quickly (e.g. Damian, 2003), although there is some evidence of interference in individuals with aphasia (Hodgson et al., 2005). In the present study, we extend this research to examine the effects of semantic and orthographic blocking on written production in neurologically intact individuals (Experiments 1A and 1B) as well as one individual with acquired dysgraphia (Experiment 2). While the investigation does not involve treatment, the findings may have implications for word retrieval treatment