Verbal Working Memory and Sentence Comprehension in Children With Specific Language Impairment

Abstract

In this study we examined the influence of verbal working memory on sentence comprehension in children with SLI. Twelve children with SLI, 12 normally developing children matched for age (CA), and 12 children matched for receptive vocabulary (VM) completed two tasks. In the verbal working memory task, children recalled as many real words as possible under three processing load conditions (i.e., no-load condition; single-load condition, where words were recalled according to physical size of word referents; and dual-load condition, where words were recalled by semantic category and physical size of word referents). In the sentence comprehension task, children listened to linguistically nonredundant (shorter) and linguistically redundant (longer) sentences. Results of the memory task showed that the children with SLI recalled fewer words in the dual-load condition than their CA peers, who showed no condition effect. The SLI and VM groups performed similarly overall, but both groups showed poorer recall in the dual-load condition than in the other conditions. On the sentence comprehension task, children with SLI comprehended fewer sentences of both types than the CA children and fewer redundant sentences relative to themselves and to the VM children. Results were interpreted to suggest that children with SLI (a) have less functional verbal working memory capacity (i.e., ability to coordinate both storage and processing functions) than their CA peers and (b) have greater difficulty managing both their working memory abilities and general processing resources than both age peers and younger children when performing a "complex" off-line sentence processing task.

Inhibition Control and Working Memory Capacity in Children With Sli

“…Hypothesis 1 predicted that children with SLI show decrements in listening span compared to their age-matched and language-matched peers. The listening span measures served to ensure that the SLI participants in this study show similar performance patterns to other reported data (e.g., Ellis-Weismer, Evans, & Hesketh, 1999, Marton & Schwartz, 2003Montgomery, 1995Montgomery, , 2000. The results of the listening span task are in line with previous findings.…”

Differences in the cognitive demands of word order, plural, and subject-verb agreement constructions

“…The other half were asked to remember digits while processing the sentences. Specifically, before each sentence they were presented with an orienting asterisk for 500 msec, followed by a random seven-digit string for language impairment are known to have working memory and/or phonological deficits; similar deficits are exhibited by second-language learners in their second language (Bird et al, 2003;McDonald, 2006;Montgomery, 2000aMontgomery, , 2000b. These processing deficits could contribute to poor plural or agreement performance, whereas SVO word order is relatively well maintained.…”

“…Working memory capacity was measured using a syntax-free size judgment task (Cherry & Park, 1993;Montgomery, 2000aMontgomery, , 2000b, in which participants were given a list of items that they were to give back in the order of physically smallest to physically largest object. For example, if given pig, door, butterfly, participants were to say, "butterfly, pig, door."…”

Treino musical e capacidade da memória operacional em crianças iniciantes, veteranas e sem conhecimentos musicais

“…Limitações em sua capacidade podem resultar em dificuldades para leitura (Gathercole, Alloway, Willis, & Adams, 2006;Gathercole, Lamont, & Alloway, 2006;Siegel & Ryan, 1989;Swanson, 2003), matemática (Bull & Scerif, 2001;Geary, Hoard, Byrd Craven, & DeSoto, 2004;Gersten, Jordan, & Flojo, 2005), linguagem (Archibald & Gathercole, 2006;Ellis Weismer et al, 2000;Montgomery, 2000), e atenção (Barkley, 1997;Martinussen & Tannock, 2006). Portanto, a avaliação dos componentes da memória operacional pode fornecer entendimentos cruciais sobre transtornos de aprendizagem (Gathercole & Alloway, 2004).…”