Elsevier

Brain and Language

Volume 2, 1975, Pages 333-344
Brain and Language

A unimodal deficit in operational thinking1

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0093-934X(75)80074-5Get rights and content

The case is reported of a 41-year-old male who suffered a left hemisphere stroke with global aphasia 11 years ago. Though his major language functions have improved in the intervening years, the patient remains unable to comprehend the meaning of numerical terms, or to perform mathematical and logical operations, when these are presented in the auditory modality. Such operations are readily performed when the problems are presented in a nonlinguistic or in written form. In addition the patient performs tests of abstract thinking and of concrete and formal operations at a level consistent with his premorbid intellectual status.

Special tests indicate that this unique unimodal deficit is not due to an elementary defect in auditory perception, information processing capacities, short-term memory, or sequencing ability. Possible explanations of the deficit are entertained and it is tentatively proposed that a deficit in comprehending reversible relationships underlies both the linguistic and the mathematical-logical impairments. In addition, the role of linguistic capacities in cognitive processing and possible biases in the standard evaluation of operational thinking are considered in the light of the patient's clinical picture.

References (31)

  • DimondS.J. et al.

    A right hemisphere basis for calculation in the human brain

    Psychonomic Science

    (1972)
  • FurthH.

    Piaget and knowledge

    (1969)
  • FurthH.

    Thinking without language

    (1966)
  • GardnerH.

    The quest for mind: Piaget, Levi-Strauss and the structuralist movement

    (1973)
  • GardnerH.

    A psychological examination of Nelson Goodman's theory of symbols

    The Monist

    (1974)
  • Cited by (11)

    • Numerical transcoding: A general production model

      2021, Psychology Library Editions: Neuropsychology
    View all citing articles on Scopus
    1

    Howard Gardner's address: Psychology Service, 14th floor, Veterans Administration Hospital, 150 So. Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02130. This research was supported in part by Harvard Project Zero, the Livingston Fund, the Milton Fund, and the National Institutes of Health, (Grants NS11408-01 and NS2548-01). We thank Dr. Frank Benson and Dr. Harold Goodglass for constructive comments.

    View full text