Spoken language comprehension in a fluent aphasic patient

This paper describes an aphasic patient, RH, who, on standard tests of language comprehension, appears to have a severe comprehension deficit. We compared performance on these standard tests with that obtained on tasks which measure the processes involved in constructing a representation of the speech input as it is heard (so-called “on-line” tasks). Performance on these on-line tests was essentially normal, whereas performance on standard tests of comprehension was no better than chance. These data are interpreted in terms of a distinction between the mental processes involved in constructing a representation and those involved in consciously reflecting upon it.