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This dissertation, The Role of Integrity of Semantic Knowledge and Semantic Short-term Memory in Verbal Recall: Evidence From Cantonese Aphasic Individuals by Wing-sze, Wong, 黃穎思, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: Abstract of thesis entitled The Role of Integrity of Semantic Knowledge and Semantic Short-term Memory in Verbal Recall: Evidence from Cantonese Aphasic Individuals Submitted by WONG Wing Sze for the degree of Master of Philosophy at the University of Hong Kong in September 2007 In light of the mixed findings of verbal recall of words and nonwords with varying semantic integrity, the present study investigated verbal recall of semantically preserved and degraded words and nonwords by taking into consideration the lexico-phonological status of the stimuli and semantic STM capacities of the participants. After evaluating different STM models in terms of their ability to explain the presence or absence of semantic effects in verbal recall, it was hypothesized that the degree of such effects might be modulated by semantic STM abilities. Two experiments were conducted on three Cantonese aphasic individuals, CSW, FWL, and LCK. The first experiment demonstrated the dissociability between processing and STM at the phonological and semantic levels, and between phonological and semantic STMs. The aphasic participants as a group were found to show a gradation in semantic STM impairments. The second experiment contrasted the performances of 2 recalling words and nonwords with different semantic knowledge. It was found that the extent of semantic effects observed in the word ISR task was correlated with the semantic STM capacities of the participants. This observation is compatible with models that assume separate phonological and semantic STM components such as R. C. Martin, Shelton and Yaffee (1994). However, the distributions of errors of the ISR tasks were different from previous studies; order errors predominated while few phonological errors occurred. The former observation was discussed by reanalyzing the data with a revised definition of order errors and considering the current views regarding the nature of semantic STM. The latter was explained by the claim that syllable is basic unit of phonological processing of Chinese. Mixed results were obtained in the nonword ISR task. Plausible explanations for the observations in the nonword ISR task were given in terms of the lexico-phonological representations of Chinese language and the pathways involved in the processing of nonwords used in the current study, as well as the strategies adopted by different individuals. (word count: 319) Signed: _____________________ WONG Wing Sze DOI: 10.5353/th_b3895698 Subjects: SemanticsShort-term memoryAphasic persons - Language

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