Kari E. Pacer

Publication Date

1988

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Stephens, M. Irene (Mary Irene)

Degree Name

M.A. (Master of Arts)

Legacy Department

Department of Communication Disorders

LCSH

Problem solving; Verbal ability; Brain damage--Patients--Rehabilitation

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of concurrent self-verbalization on the problem-solving efficiency of closed head-injured individuals. These persons have been known to exhibit deficits in problem solving, and self-verbalization was seen as a possible method to be used in remediation of these deficits. A total of eight adult subjects participated in this study: four who had experienced a closed head injury, and four normal subjects who comprised a control group. Each subject was required to solve the Tower of Hanoi disk problem under four conditions: silently, using five disks; verbally, using five disks; silently, using three disks; and verbally, using three disks. Although it was hypothesized that verbalizing during performance would improve efficiency, this result was found for only three of the eight subjects: one in the clinical group and two in the control group. Statements made by the subjects during the verbalization trials were categorized and compared across and within the groups, yielding highly varied trends in the data. Although each measure yielded highly varied indivdual results, as a group, the clinical subjects performed better on the task, as shown by the total number of moves required for completion. The number of rule violations that occurred was equal for the groups. The control group required more prompts to elicit verbalization, and, as was expected, the clinical group required more time to complete the task.

Comments

Bibliography: pages [56]-58.

Extent

viii, 69 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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