Declarative memory and discursive cohesion in hippocampal amnesia

Kurczek, J., & Duff, M.C. (2010, October). Declarative memory and discursive cohesion in hippocampal amnesia. Poster presentation at the Iowa Speech Hearing Association (ISHA), Iowa City, IA.

Originally defined as surface indicators of relations within and between sentences (Halliday & Hasan, 1976), cohesive ties are a linguistic device that gives our communication continuity, allowing us to make connections across utterances, speakers, and topics. Given that we routinely return to and elaborate on conversations across long stretches of interaction (days, weeks, and longer), cohesive ties also link our communicative histories across time.
•Investigations of discourse cohesion, and coherence, have been particularly fruitful in indentifying discourse level impairments in individuals with various cognitive-communication impairments (e.g., TBI, dementia).
•While deficits in working memory (e.g, Dijkstra et al., 2004; Youse & Coelho, 2005), executive function (e.g., Glosser & Deser, 1990), and broad cognitive dysfunction (e.g., Davis & Coelho, 2004) have all been associated with impairments in cohesion and coherence, the diffuse nature of the pathology and the constellation of observed cognitive deficits associated with TBI and dementia have made identification of a specific underlying cognitive impairment to explain these disruptions difficult. •We believe there are compelling reasons to investigate the contribution of declarative memory to cohesion and coherence. Taking advantage of a rare patient group with selective and severe declarative memory impairments, the current study is an attempt to isolate the contribution of declarative memory to cohesion and coherence in discourse.