CBR Seminar Series: Sofia Vallila Rohter
CBR Seminar Series: Sofia Vallila Rohter, January 27, 2025
Title: Rehabilitation as Learning: Examining learning and strategy use in people with aphasia
Abstract: Linguistic deficits are central to the diagnosis and treatment of aphasia, yet there is increasing recognition of the cognitive processes that contribute to rehabilitation outcomes, particularly the role of learning. Our lab’s research is grounded in the hypothesis that optimizing outcomes for individuals with aphasia requires an understanding of the mechanisms underlying learning and of the individualized learning profiles that might inform tailored intervention. This presentation will highlight recent work from our lab investigating the effects of different instructional approaches — errorless versus errorful learning, observational versus rule-based learning — and their impact on outcomes. We will present findings from a study investigating the processing of immediate and delayed feedback. Additionally, we will share results from a pilot treatment study that integrated metacognitive strategy training to support people with aphasia to better understand the “why” of therapy and promote generalization.
Bio:
Education
BA, Romance Languages, UNC-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
MS, Linguistics, Georgetown University, Washington, DC
PhD, Speech and Hearing Biosciences and Technology, MIT, Cambridge, MA
Current Position
Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and Co-Director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Group.
Areas of Interest
Aphasia Rehabilitation, Category Learning, Feedback-based learning, Feedback processing, Executive Functions, Strategy Development, Individual Differences, Neural organization of language, Neural substrates of learning