Quantifying Meaningful Information in Incorrect Naming Responses Following Strategic Word Retrieval Treatment in Primary Progressive Aphasia

Purpose: Anomia is a core feature of both logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia (lvPPA) and semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (svPPA). Naming interventions targeting self-cueing in persons with lvPPA and svPPA have been shown to promote generalized improvement in word finding. However, studies have typically characterized response to treatment using binary scoring of naming attempts. There is no established method for evaluating how well people with aphasia communicate meaningful lexical and semantic information for items that they are unable to name. The purpose of this study is to evaluate changes in communicative value of Boston Naming Test (BNT) error responses for individuals with lvPPA and svPPA following a strategy-based naming treatment. Method: Using a novel scoring procedure, the meaningful information score (MIS), we quantified the amount of meaningful information shared on incorrectly named or unnamed items from the BNT before and after a strategy-based naming treatment administered to persons with lvPPA ( n = 20) and svPPA ( n = 14). We analyzed change in BNT naming accuracy with a linear mixed-effects model and change in MIS score using a negative binomial mixed-effects model. Individual change was tested with a bootstrapping analysis. Results: At the group level, BNT accuracy did not significantly change from pre- to posttreatment. However, participants showed a significant increase at posttreatment in the amount of meaningful information provided for items not correctly named as measured by the MIS ( p = .002). The majority of individuals showed change in the positive direction on the MIS, with 13 of 34 showing statistically significant improvement. Conclusions: The MIS is a promising tool for capturing gains in functional communication following naming treatment. Findings also indicate that strategy-based naming treatment can increase the meaningful information conveyed during naming attempts, even in the context of progressive language decline. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.34515681