ABSTRACT
Many processing stages may be implicated in the complex process of picture naming. Models of picture naming aim to specify these component stages. There are two distinct approaches to this problem. One is to investigate the influence on picture naming by normal subjects, of variables which may be assumed to influence particular processes such as the similarity of the picture to other depicted items, or the frequency of occurrence of a particular picture’s name. A second is to investigate breakdowns in picture naming following brain damage. A patient may be impaired in the naming of pictures for a variety of reasons; most commonly, patients can be found to have a marked word finding difficulty in normal speech; the same difficulty is apparent in their naming of pictures (Goodglass, 1968; Spreen, Benton, & Van Allen, 1966). Such patients are termed “ anomic” and their difficulty is thought to reflect a problem in accessing or using output phonology because they clearly understand the nature of the item (e.g., they know what an item is used for, where it is found, etc.), and, furthermore, they demonstrate a marked frequency effect with relative sparing of high frequency items (Stemberger, 1984). In contrast, patients may be demonstrated with normal speech but with marked impairments in picture naming attributable to deficits in low level perceptual processes (see chapters by Campion, Humphreys & Riddoch, and Kertesz, this volume). Between these two extremes are other patients
whose picture naming impairment seems consequent on a deficit in accessing or using more central information concerning stored knowledge of the structure of the object or of associated conceptual information.
