A semantic cue is a prompt that contains semantic information, and is given to facilitate word retrieval. Semantic information is knowledge that is related to the meaning of the word. This may include a formal description or definition (e.g., “Something that contains coffee” for cup), grammatical information (e.g., word class, conventional usage), word/phrase associations (e.g., “I spilled the water out of mine this morning” for cup), sentence completion (e.g., “Here is my coffee…” [cup]), and perceptual information (e.g., gesturing the object’s use). A semantic cue may be considered weak or strong depending on how much semantic information is provided. Semantic cues are distinguished from phonemic cues, which provide information about the sounds of the word (e.g., /k/ as a cue for cup).
The individual’s response to semantic cues may be included in the assessment of naming ability, either informally or as part of a standardized naming test (e.g., see Boston Naming Test).
