load and children's language processing

[judith johnston]

Although Julie already has these references, I will contribute them to
the list. I think they are of interest because they show associations
between processing load/capacity and the actual form of the language
produced.

1) Johnston, J., Smith, L.B., & Box, P.   (1997) "Cognition and
communication: Referential strategies used by preschoolers with specific
language impairment," Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 40, 964-974 .

 We asked four years olds to describe two objects that were similar in
some fashion (color, size, identity).  The language forms they used to
refer to the set varied systematically with the complexity of the
cognitive analysis required by the set.

2) Moser, R. and Johnston, J. (2003) Beyond storage.  Poster
presentation at SRCLD, Madison.

 Among other things, in this project we found correlations between
auditory-verbal working memory task and scores on a test of narrative
production (child creates story with picture support).

 3) Curran, M., Colozzo, P., and Johnston, J. (2004)  Narrative
assessment: Form vs Content, Poster presentation at SRCLD, Madison.

 Here we looked at the relative strength of language forms (mostly
grammaticality) and story content(e.g. overall coherence, explicit
causality) in narratives created by 7-9 year olds. Children who had
lower auditory working memory scores were the most likely to show
dissociations of form and content (one or the other very much better
than the other).

 4) A last general reminder: the studies looking explicitly at
'tradeoffs' between various language domains may also prove relevant to
this issue. For example, we have data showing increased morphology error
rates in sentences with more complex syntax.



Jean Berko Gleason wrote:

> See also a recent Boston University doctoral dissertation (2004) by
> Elena Zaretsky, now at U Mass, Amherst:   Auditory Comprehension in
> Children with Specific Language  Impairment: The Role of Verbal
> Working Memory.  She used a competing language processing task, and
> results pointed to working memory capacity as an important variable..
> From the abstract:
>
>> .  Phonological working memory was assessed through the Nonsense Word
>> Repetition Task (NWRT), and verbal working memory capacity through
>> the Competing Language Processing Task (CLTP).  As hypothesized,
>> children with SLI showed decreased capacity compared with typical
>> language developing controls, and showed different patterns of
>> association between the capacity measure and short story
>> comprehension. A major finding of the study was that for children
>> with SLI, but not for typically developing children, there was a
>> direct correlation between capacity measures and comprehension
>> measures.  Moreover, phonological memory scores predicted
>> comprehension for only the youngest children in either group.
>
>
>
> The dissertation is available through the UMichigan service, and
> articles are forthcoming.
>
> Jean Berko Gleason
>
>
>
> ---
> [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus]
>
>
>

--

 "All grammars leak."
     (E. Sapir, 1921)

-----------------------------
Judith R. Johnston
Professor, Audiology and Speech Sciences
University of British Columbia
5804 Fairview Ave.
Vancouver B.C.    V6T 1Z3
Canada

FX: 604-822-6569
PH: 604-822-6005


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