Abstract
Forty aphasic patients with left unilateral hemisphere damage were tested in two non-verbal color tasks (coloring drawings of objects and pointing to appropriately colored drawings) and verbal tasks (SLTA, the naming and auditory comrehension of colors and the same drawings employed in non-verbal color tasks) in order to obtain information about the relationship between impaired performance on the non-verbal color tasks and aphasic disorder. Moreover, the relation between coloring performance and ability to recall the form of named objects or to draw their pictures was studied.
Results revealed that half of the aphasics scored below the poorest normal in the coloring task, namely, 4 global, 3 severe Broca's (with damage encroaching upon the posterior region), 5 Wernicke's (severely impaired in word meanings), 4 amnesic, 1 transcortical sensory, and 3 unclassified aphasics. There was a significantly high correlation between the scores of the two non-verbal color tasks. The performances for coloring of drawings showed no correlation with those for reading aloud and repetition, but significantly correlated with those for comprehension and word finding. There was no correlation between the scores for coloring and drawing of pictures.
The inability of aphasics to associate non-verbally drawings of objects with their specific characteristic colors is interpreted as an impairment in the process of isolating and recognizing attributes of objects or the process of handling a concept, and is not concerned with the phonological process.
