Working memory and language processes in children with specific language impairment.
Item
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Title
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Working memory and language processes in children with specific language impairment.
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Identifier
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AAI9830736
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identifier
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9830736
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Creator
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Marton, Klara.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Richard G. Schwartz
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Date
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1998
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Cognitive | Psychology, Developmental | Language, General
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Abstract
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Phonological working memory functions correlate with several language processes in both children and adults (e.g., Daneman & Carpenter, 1980; Gathercole & Baddeley, 1989; Carpenter, Miyake, & Just, 1995). Phonological working memory skills have close links with vocabulary acquisition, with language comprehension, with syntactic processing, and with reading comprehension. The present study was designed to investigate the relationship between phonological working memory and two levels of language processes: such as syntactic processing, speech perception, and speech production.;13 children with specific language impairment (SLI) and 13 children with typical language development (TLD) participated in the first experiment, and three groups of typically developing children differing in age (6:9-8;3, 8;4-9;10, 9;11-11;5) participated in the second experiment. Five working memory tasks were employed in both experiments. These tasks combined the traditional nonword repetition tests and sentence comprehension by using sentences that differed in length and syntactic complexity.;The results showed that the children with SLI performed more poorly than their age-matched typically developing peers in each working memory task including production of nonwords and real words. There was no difference between the 2 groups in nonword discrimination. The results of Experiment 2 showed that working memory capacity develops with age. The results across tasks in both experiments revealed that an increase in working memory load resulted in a reduction of working memory capacity, consequently in a decrease in performance accuracy. There were individual variations that might have occurred because of the differences in the amount of memory activation available. Alternatively, the same working memory load might have occupied a different amount of working memory capacity in different individuals.;The results suggest that tasks combining nonword repetition and sentence comprehension reflect the dynamic nature of working memory and the individual working memory differences more accurately than the traditional nonword repetition tests.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
