The Relationship between Memory Span and Measures of Imitative and Spontaneous Language Complexity in Preschool Children

Abstract

Preschool children, aged 2 to 5 years, were given a memory task that required them to repeat a list of animal names and a sentence imitation task. A sample of their spontaneous speech was also recorded. Word span was found to predict sentence imitation scores across the whole preschool age range. Word span and chronological age (CA), together, also predicted the mean length of utterance in spontaneous speech in younger preschool children. In a replication with children aged 2 to 3 years, word span predicted mean length or utterance (MLU) better than both CA and mental age (MA). These results extend previous findings regarding the relationship between word span and language imitation to younger preschool children. They also support the notion of a memory constraint on early spontaneous language. Increasing mastery of linguistic rules appears to obviate a memory constraint on spontaneous language, at least with these measures.

Longitudinal relationships between language and verbal short-term memory skills in children with Down syndrome

“…Adams and Gathercole, therefore, concluded that verbal short-term memory predicts syntactic development. Blake, Austin, Cannon, Lisus, and Vaughan (1994) found similar results for children between 2 and 5 years of age. A study by Montgomery (1995) found a strong positive correlation between verbal short-term memory skills and levels of sentence comprehension in a study of 14 children with specific language impairment and 13 typically developing control children.…”

How do verbal short-term memory and working memory relate to the acquisition of vocabulary and grammar? A comparison between first and second language learners

“…VSTM shows strong associations with word learning (Gathercole, Willis, Emslie, & Baddeley, 1992; see Gathercole, 2006, for an overview) as well as with the production of long and grammatically complex sentences (Adams & Gathercole, 1996, 2000Blake, Austin, Cannon, Lisus, & Vaughan, 1994). VWM is related to grammar learning, more specifically, to monolingual children's grammaticality judgments (Gottardo, Stanovich, & Siegel, 1996), receptive syntax (Ellis Weismer, Evans, & Hesketh, 1999), and sentence comprehension (Montgomery, 1995).…”

rôle de la mémoire phonologique dans le processus d'acquisition du genre en français langue seconde /

“…Depuis la discussion de Baddeley, Gathercole et Papagno (1998), les chercheurs considèrent avec plus de sérieux la possibilité que la MP ait un rôle significatif à jouer non seulement dans l'acquisition du vocabulaire (en Ll, voir : Baddeley et al 1998;Gathercole, Hitch, Service & Martin, 1997;en 12, voir : Atkins & Baddeley, 1998;Cheung, 1996), mais aussi dans l'acquisition de la grammaire, et ce, autant en Ll (Adams & Gathercole, 1996;Blake, Austin, Cannon, Lisus & Vaughan, 1994) qu'en L2 (Adams & Gathercole, 1995;Blake et al, 1994) Toutefois, la relation entre la facilité à apprendre du vocabulaire et l'habileté à apprendre et appliquer des règles grammaticales n'est pas confirmée. De plus, tandis que l'apprentissage de vocabulaire nouveau exige l'emmagasinage de formes phonologiques nouvelles ou inconnues, l'apprentissage et la mise en application de règles de grammaire requièrent souvent l'emmagasinage et le traitement de morphèmes apparentés ou connus.…”