학령기 고기능 자폐스펙트럼장애 아동의 낱말정의하기와 의미점화 특성

Abstract

ABSTRACT

The Characteristics of Word Definition and Semantic Priming in School-age Children with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder

CHOI, SOOP Advisor: Prof. Shin, Moon-Ja, Ph. D. Department of Speech & Language Pathology, Graduate School of Chosun University

The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of word definition and semantic priming between children with High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder(HFASD) and typical developmental children(TD). The subjects were 15 children with HFASD and 15 TD who are equal in age, perceptual reasoning index and expressive vocabulary ability on a one-to-one basis. The method of this study was as follows. First, in order to compare the depth of the word knowledge between the two groups, definition accuracy and definition category were compared using a word definition task divided of the concrete word and the abstract word. Second, to compare lexical processing ability, semantic priming task according to semantic relation, which consists of function relations and category coordinate relations, was used. The data were analyzed for the reaction time and response accuracy, and error types using semantic priming task was analyzed. The findings of this study are as follows; First, The data was a statistically significant difference in the definition of the concrete word and total score between HFASD and TD but there is no significant difference in abstract word definition. The definition of concrete words showed significant differences in definition accuracy because even though the subjects of HFASD had word knowledge, they could not comprehend or express the meaning of target words comprehensively in terms of the quality of meaning knowledge compared to the subjects TD. In addition, in the case of abstract word definition, it meant that understanding and expressing the meaning of the word was difficult for the subjects of TD as well. As a result of analyzing the definition category, there was an inadequate definition category that showed a significant difference between the two groups. The HFASD child was able to define the meaning of the target word when defining concrete words, but showed difficulty in selecting the core words, which they could not suppress unnecessary information Second, there was no difference in response accuracy between HFASD and TD in semantic priming task. Even though, the task examined the lexical processing ability by dividing it into function relations and category coordinate relations considering the HFASD's vocabulary developmental characteristics, the result did not show the difference between the two groups. It assumed that the lexical processing ability and lexical system of HFASD had no atypicality. These results can be interpreted as having no difficulty in the basic ability of one word level for .HFASD with normal language and cognitive abilities. Next, the reaction time did not show a significant difference between the two groups, but the main effect was observed in the priming condition. This implies that the HFASD have a meaningful semantic priming effect depending on the semantic related condition and the reaction time was fast in the semantic related condition. As a result of the analysis of the error type, the main effect according to the error type was observed in the category coordinate relation, which seems to be derived from the fact that the inadequate error type is less than the other error types in both groups. In functional relations, interaction effect between priming condition and error type was observed. Visual error type showed significant difference in semantic-related condition and non-responsive error type showed significant difference in semantic-not related type. This is likely to have favored the visual processing of experience-based rather than semantic processing in functional relations. The results of this study show that HFASD can define words like TD and that the lexical knowledge system stored in the mental lexicon is not significantly different from TD. Although they showed a significant difference between the two groups in defining the concrete words, HFASD were able to explain the meaning of the word in relation to the target word, and they did not show a significant difference from TD in defining abstract word. In addition, there was no significant difference in response accuracy and response time the two groups in the semantic priming task. This implies that, regardless of the effects of function relations and category coordinate relations, it indirectly indicates that semantic are activated according to semantic relevance as in TD. However, in the definition category analysis, HFASD used an inappropriate type of definition because it can not suppress unnecessary information. It could be deduced that the cognitive factors that can suppress unnecessary information or integrate and process various information are influential in explaining the meaning of the word. Therefore, it is necessary to understand HFASD's cognitive characteristics when mediating and intervening for HFASD, especially in the cases when definition of words needed to improve receptive and expressive ability of qualitative lexical knowledge. It is also necessary to distinguish differences from other language disorders by qualitative analysis of language use when evaluating them. In addition, the frequency of visual errors was higher in HFA than TD in category coordinate relations. The reason for more visual errors are probably that HFASD prefer classifying objects according to their visual appearance rather than semantic relevance and that they are more sensitive to visual stimuli. This study proposed to consider in vocabulary intervention and vocabulary assessment for HFASD. It is important to consider that they are sensitive to visual stimuli for efficient intervention. An assessment of the depth of the vocabulary as well as the amount of vocabulary should be considered.