Text comprehension in residual aphasia after basic-level linguistic recovery: a multiple case study

Background: Text comprehension entails a complex interaction between cognitive and linguistic factors. In ageing, text comprehension depends on text characteristics, particularly semantic load. Persons with residual aphasia may complain of discourse comprehension difficulties without linguistic problems. Three levels of representation are involved in text comprehension (surface level, semantic level constituted by macrostructure and microstructure and situational level). Attention, verbal working memory, long-term memory and executive functions combine to allow processing of all levels of representation.Aims: The primary objectives of this multiple case study were (1) to examine microstructure, macrostructure and situational model updating in text comprehension in five participants with left-brain damage (PWLBD), who continued to complain about problems with discourse comprehension without linguistic problems, and (2) to examine executive function and memory in these participants.Methods & Procedures: Fiv...