Developing a New Set of 128 ImagesIllustrating Activities and Objects forTreatment Processes in Aphasia

Abstract

Word production is stimulated by images in treatment pro-cesses for individuals with aphasia, both for formal andinformal assessment purposes (Aphasiology,21, 883–900;Heuer & Hallowell, 2007). Although stimulation throughimages has a long tradition in aphasia therapy, there is alack in research on which image stimuli are the most suit-able for this purpose (Brown & Thiessen, 2018,AmericanJournal of Speech-Language Pathology,27, 504–515). Currentresearch assumes that stimulation via photographic imagesevokes better and more direct retrieve of searched words,than stimulation by illustrations (Heuer, 2016,30(8), 943–961). However, the illustrations investigated hithertomostly comprise black and white line drawings and there are no studies investigating possible effects of differentimage styles in relation to clear naming. In addition, hardlyany pictorial material to provoke the evocation of verbs isavailable in aphasia therapy. We developed a visual conceptof illustrated images enabling clear determinability of activ-ities and objects. The 128 designed images were rated by 68undergraduate students on a 5-point scale for name agree-ment, visual complexity, and image agreement. This studywas designed as a prestudy and will be followed by a studyanalyzing naming correctness in illustrations and photo-graphic stimuli in individuals with aphasia.