Effect of visual and inferential variables on scene descriptions by right-hemisphere-damaged and non-brain-damaged adults.

This study investigated the effects of visual and inferential complexity on the pictured scene descriptions of right-hemisphere-damaged (RHD) and non-brain-damaged (NBD) adults. The number and accuracy of noun phrases generated by both groups were significantly affected by the inferential complexity of pictured scenes, but not by their visual complexity (as measured by the number of objects and amount of object embedding in the scenes). RHD subjects, particularly those with high levels of neglect, were significantly impaired relative to the NBD subjects in generating accurate inferences from the pictures, but not in their ability to recognize and identify pictured elements.