Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2020Many people with anomia (PWA), or word-finding difficulties, seek treatment to ameliorate their deficits; however, it is unclear why some PWA experience significant acquisition, generalization, and maintenance of the skills they learn in treatment, while others experience very limited effects. The purpose of this retrospective study was to determine the predictive value of specific pre-treatment linguistic skills to acquisition, generalization, and maintenance of anomia treatment skills in 58 PWA who were randomized to one of two intensive anomia interventions: Phonomotor Treatment (PMT, n = 28) or Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA, n = 30). Mixed-effect logistic regressions were used to determine whether participants’ baseline scores on measures of auditory comprehension, input phonological processing, input-output phonological processing, and semantic and phonological impairment levels predicted naming of items representing acquisition and generalization immediately and three months post-treatment. Higher baseline input-output phonological processing was the most robust predictor of greater acquisition, generalization and maintenance for all 58 PWA combined, the PMT group, and the SFA group. Semantic and phonological impairment also generally predicted outcomes in the combined and PMT groups, such that greater baseline impairment related to higher acquisition, generalization, and maintenance. These results suggest that input-output processing – and the skills that underlie it – may be critical for favorable response to anomia treatment in general. Furthermore, PMT may be a superior treatment for people who are more impaired prior to treatment than SFA
