Chapter 4 – Modality-Specific Lexical Dissociations

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the internal architecture of the linguistic and perceptual processing systems and their interaction in naming. With respect to naming a visual word in reading, the current majority view is that there are multiple routes from recognition to name output. The direct route involves attaching a spoken label immediately to the graphemically recognized word. The indirect route requires mediation via the semantic system. With respect to object naming, a direct route from object recognition to name output is also proposed. It is stated that the articulation of a response to an object is always mediated by semantics or the cognitive system. The nature of the semantic system itself is controversial, in particular, whether it is unitary or whether it consists of multiple sensory-based knowledge systems to be distinguished from a suprasensory verbal semantic system. The contemporary models of visual perception, language, and their interface are partly derived from classical aphasiology, but they differ in important ways. The chapter clarifies the inheritance from 19th century aphasiologists. It discusses the modality-specific as well as supramodal approaches. It explains the sequential stage models and connectionist models of naming.