Figure 9.

Different computational deficits producing the same behavioral impairment respond differently to intervention. Data show treatment effects of phonological versus semantic interventions for the Best et al. (2015) model of word-finding difficulties, where equivalent behavioral impairments were caused by three different underlying computational deficits. The atypical language profiles of two individual children were simulated and then interventions applied (here measured in how much naming development was advanced). The profile of each child was simulated either by reduced network connectivity (Deficit C), reduced hidden units (Deficit H), or a shallower sigmoid activation function in the artificial neurons (Deficit T). Intervention responses differed depending on how the deficit was implemented. Error bars show standard errors of 10 replications of each intervention (See Best et al., 2015, for further details).