What best distinguishes receptive aphasia from expressive aphasia?

• A. Receptive aphasia affects producing words.
• B. Receptive aphasia affects understanding; expressive affects producing words.
• C. Both affect only writing.
• D. Both are purely memory disorders.

Answer: (B)

Language processing is what’s being tested here. In receptive aphasia, understanding language is the problem—people may hear words but can’t grasp their meaning, and their speech, while fluent, may sound nonsensical or filled with unrelated terms. In expressive aphasia, producing language is the challenge—speech is effortful, halting, or grammatically simplified, but comprehension of what is said is typically better preserved. So the key distinction is whether comprehension is impaired or production is impaired.

The other statements don’t fit because aphasia is about language, not memory or a restriction to writing, and it often affects spoken language rather than being limited to writing.