specific language impairment; sentence comprehension; processing capacities
Abstract :
[en] Purpose: This study assesses the hypothesis of a limitation in attentional allocation capacity as underlying poor sentence comprehension in children with SLI.
Method: Fifteen children with SLI, 15 age-matched controls, and 15 grammar-matched controls. Sixty sentences were presented in isolation, and 60 sentences were presented with a concurrent non-linguistic target-detection task. If poor attentional allocation capacity is a core deficit in SLI, they should be impaired to a greater extent in the dual task condition relative to the grammatical-age controls. On the contrary, a comparable performance decrement under the dual-task condition in children with SLI and younger language controls would attest of a limitation in attentional allocation capacity in children with SLI that is not disproportionate to their language level.
Results: Sentence comprehension was affected by the dual-task condition to a greater extent in children with SLI relative to age-controls, but not relative to grammatical-controls.
Conclusions: Our study does not support limitations in attentional allocation capacity as representing a core deficit in SLI. Rather, our data show that these children show attentional allocation capacity comparable to that of younger children having similar language level, suggesting that SLI is characterized by a slowed development of both attentional and language domains.
Disciplines :
Neurosciences & behavior
Author, co-author :
Leclercq, Anne-Lise ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Psychologie : cognition et comportement > Logopédie clinique
Majerus, Steve ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Psychologie : cognition et comportement > Psychopathologie cognitive
Prigent, Gaïd ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Psychologie : cognition et comportement > Logopédie clinique
Maillart, Christelle ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Psychologie : cognition et comportement > Logopédie clinique
Language :
English
Title :
The Impact of Dual-Tasking on Sentence Comprehension in Children with Specific Language Impairment
Publication date :
February 2013
Journal title :
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
ISSN :
1092-4388
eISSN :
1558-9102
Publisher :
American Speech Language Hearing Association, Rockville, United States - Maryland
Archibald, L. M., & Gathercole, S. E. 2007. The complexities of complex memory span: Storage and processing deficits in specific language impairment. Journal of Memory and Language, 57, 177-194.
Aydelott, J., & Bates, E. 2004. Effects of acoustic distortion and semantic context on lexical access. Language and Cognitive Processes, 19, 29-56.
Baddeley, A. 2000. The episodic buffer: A new component of working memory? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4, 417-423.
Baddeley, A. 2003. Working memory and language: An overview. Journal of Communication Disorders, 36, 189-208.
Baddeley, A., Della Sala, S., Papagno, C., & Spinnler, H. 1997. Dual-task performance in dysexecutive and nondysexecutive patients with a frontal lesion. Neuropsychology, 11, 187-194.
Baddeley, A., Gathercole, S., & Papagno, C. 1998. The phonological loop as a language learning device. Psychological Review, 105, 158-173.
Baddeley, A., & Hitch, G. 1974. Working memory. In G. A. Bouwer (Ed.), Recent advances in learning and motivation (Vol. 8, pp. 47-90). New York, NY: Academic Press.
Barrouillet, P., Bernardin, S., & Camos, V. 2004. Time constraints and resource sharing in adults' working memory spans. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133, 83-100.
Barrouillet, P., Bernardin, S., Portrat, S., Vergauwe, E., & Camos, V. 2007. Time and cognitive load in working memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 33, 570-585.
Bishop, D. V. M. 1983. Test for Reception of Grammar. Manchester, United Kingdom: Medical Research Council.
Bishop, D. 1997. Cognitive neuropsychology and developmental disorders: Uncomfortable bedfellows. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Experimental Psychology, 4(A), 899-923.
Bishop, D., Bright, P., James, C., Bishop, S., & van der Lely, H. 2000. Grammatical SLI: A distinct subtype of developmental language impairment? Applied Psycholinguistics, 21, 159-181.
Blackwell, A., & Bates, E. 1995. Inducing agrammatic profiles in normals: Evidence for the selective vulnerability of morphology under cognitive resource limitation. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 7, 228-257.
Coady, J. A., &Aslin, R. N. (2004). Young children's sensitivity to probabilistic phonotactics in the developing lexicon. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 89, 183-213.
Cowan, N. 1999. An embedded-processes model of working memory. In A. Miyake & P. Shah (Eds.), Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control (pp. 62-101). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Cowan, N. 2010. Multiple concurrent thoughts: The meaning and developmental neuropsychology of working memory. Developmental Neuropsychology, 35, 447-474.
Dick, F., Bates, E., Wulfeck, B., Utman, J. A., Dronkers, N., & Gernsbacher, M. A. 2001. Language deficits, localization, and grammar: Evidence for a distributive model of language breakdown in aphasic patients and neurologically intact individuals. Psychological Review, 108, 759-788.
Dollaghan, C. A. 2004. Taxometric analyses of specific language impairment in 3-and 4-year-old children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 47, 464-475.
Dunn, L., Thériault-Whalen, C., & Dunn, L. 1993. Échelle de Vocabulaire en Images Peabody [Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test]. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Psycan.
Ellis Weismer, S., & Thordardottir, E. 2002. Cognition and language. In P. Accardo, A. Capute, & B. Rogers (Eds.), Disorders of language development (pp. 21-37). Timonium, MD: York Press.
Engle, R. W. 2002. Working memory capacity as executive attention. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 19-23.
Evans, J. L., & MacWhinney, B. 1999. Sentence processing strategies in children with expressive-receptive specific language impairments. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 34, 117-134.
Ferreira, F., Henderson, J. M., Anes, M. D., Weeks, P. A., & McFarlane, D. K. 1996. Effects of lexical frequency and syntactic complexity in spoken-language comprehension: Evidence from the auditory moving-window technique. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 22, 324-335.
Gathercole, S. E. 1995. Is nonword repetition a test of phonological memory or long-term knowledge? It all depends on the nonwords. Memory & Cognition, 23, 83-94.
Gathercole, S., & Baddeley, A. 1990. The role of phonological memory in vocabulary acquisition: A study of young children learning new names. British Journal of Psychology, 81, 439-454.
Gibson, E. 1998. Linguistic complexity: Locality of syntactic dependencies. Cognition, 68, 1-76.
Hayiou-Thomas, M. E., Bishop, D. V., & Plunkett, K. 2004. Simulating SLI: General cognitive processing stressors can produce a specific linguistic profile. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 47, 1347-1362.
Henderson, J. M., & Ferreira, F. 1990. Effects of foveal processing difficulty on the perceptual span in reading: Implications for attention and eye movement control. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 16, 417-429.
Hoffman, L. M., & Gillam, R. B. 2004. Verbal and spatial information processing constraints in children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 47, 114-125.
Isaki, E., Spaulding, T. J., & Plante, E. 2008. Contributions of language and memory demands to verbal memory performance in language-learning disabilities. Journal of Communication Disorders, 41, 512-530.
Jefferies, E., Lambon Ralph, M. A., & Baddeley, A. D. 2004. Automatic and controlled processing in sentence recall: The role of long-term and working memory. Journal of Memory and Language, 51, 623-643.
Just, M. A., & Carpenter, P. A. 1992. A capacity theory of comprehension: Individual differences in working memory. Psychological Review, 99, 122-149.
Kail, R. 1994. A method for studying the generalized slowing hypothesis in children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 37, 418-421.
Khomsi, A. 2001. Evaluation du LangageOral [Oral Language Assessment]. Paris, France: ECPS.
Kilborn, K. 1991. Selective impairment of grammatical morphology due to induced stress in normal listeners: Implications for aphasia. Brain and Language, 41, 275-288.
King, J., & Just, M. A. 1991. Individual differences in syntactic processing: The role of working memory. Journal of Memory and Language, 30, 580-602.
Lambert, E., & Chesnet, D. 2001. Novlex: Une base de données lexicales pour les élèves de primaire [Novlex: A lexical database for elementary school students]. L'Année Psychologique, 101, 277-288.
Lecocq, P. 1996. Epreuve de Compréhension Syntaxico-Sémantique [French adaptation of the TROG: Reception of Grammar Test]. Villeneuve d'Ascq, France: Presses Universitaires du Septentrion.
Leech, R., Aydelott, J., Symons, G., Carnevale, J., &Dick, F. 2007. The development of sentence interpretation: Effects of perceptual, attentional and semantic interference. Developmental Science, 10, 794-813.
Leonard, L. B. 2009. Some reflections on the study of children with specific language impairment. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 25, 169-171.
Leonard, L. B., Weismer, S. E., Miller, C. A., Francis, D. J., Tomblin, J., & Kail, R. V. 2007. Speed of processing, working memory, and language impairment in children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 50, 408-428.
Lewis, R. L., & Vasishth, S. 2005. An activation-based model of sentence processing as skilled memory retrieval. Cognitive Science: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 29, 375-419.
MacDonald, M. C., & Christiansen, M. H. 2002. Reassessing working memory: Comment on Just and Carpenter (1992) and Waters and Caplan 1996. Psychological Review, 109, 35-54.
MacDonald, M. C., Just, M. A., & Carpenter, P. A. 1992. Working memory constraints on the processing of syntactic ambiguity. Cognitive Psychology, 24, 56-98.
Mainela-Arnold, E., & Evans, J. L. 2005. Beyond capacity limitations: Determinants of word recall performance on verbal working memory span tasks in children with SLI. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 48, 897-909.
Mainela-Arnold, E., Evans, J., & Coady, J. A. 2010. Beyond capacity limitations. II: Effects of lexical processes on word recall in verbal working memory tasks in children with and without specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 53, 1656-1672.
Majerus, S., & Lorent, J. 2009. Is phonological short-term memory related to phonological analysis stages in auditory sentence processing? Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 21, 1200-1225.
Majerus, S., &Van der Linden, M. 2003. Long-term memory effects on verbal short-term memory: A replication study. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 21, 303-310.
Marton, K. 2006. Commentaries: Do nonword repetition errors in children with specific language impairment reflect a weakness in an unidentified skill specific to nonword repetition or a deficit in simultaneous processing? Applied Psycholinguistics, 27, 569-573.
Marton, K., & Schwartz, R. G. 2003. Working memory capacity and language processes in children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 46, 1138-1153.
McElree, B., Foraker, S., & Dyer, L. 2003. Memory structures that subserve sentence comprehension. Journal of Memory and Language, 48, 67-91.
Miller, C. A., Leonard, L. B., Kail, R. V., Zhang, X., Tomblin, J., & Francis, D. J. 2006. Response time in 14-year-olds with language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 49, 712-728.
Miyake, A., Just, M. A., & Carpenter, P. A. 1994. Working memory constraints on the resolution of lexical ambiguity: Maintaining multiple interpretations in neutral contexts. Journal of Memory and Language, 33, 175-202.
Montgomery, J. W. 1995. Sentence comprehension in children with specific language impairment: The role of phonological working memory. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 38, 187-199.
Montgomery, J. W. 2000a. Relation of working memory to off-line and real-time sentence processing in children with specific language impairment. Applied Psycholinguistics, 21, 117-148.
Montgomery, J. W. 2000b. Verbal working memory and sentence comprehension in children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 43, 293-308.
Montgomery, J.W., &Evans, J. L. 2009. Complex sentence comprehension and working memory in children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 52, 269-288.
Montgomery, J. W., Evans, J. L., & Gillam, R. B. 2009. Relation of auditory attention and complex sentence comprehension in children with specific language impairment: A preliminary study. Applied Psycholinguistics, 30, 123-151.
Montgomery, J. W., & Windsor, J. 2007. Examining the language performances of children with and without specific language impairment: Contributions of phonological shortterm memory and speed of processing. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 50, 778-797.
Norbury, C. F., Bishop, D. V., & Briscoe, J. 2002. Does impaired grammatical comprehension provide evidence for an innate grammar module? Applied Psycholinguistics, 23, 247-268.
Pearlmutter, N. J., & MacDonald, M. C. 1995. Individual differences and probabilistic constraints in syntactic ambiguity resolution. Journal of Memory and Language, 34, 521-542.
Rohrer, D., & Pashler, H. E. 2003. Concurrent task effects on memory retrieval. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 10, 96-103.
Schneider, W., Eschmann, A., & Zuccolotto, A. 2002. E-Prime user's guide. Pittsburgh, PA: Psychology Software Tools.
Snowling, M. J., Chiat, S., & Hulme, C. 1991. Words, nonwords, and phonological processes: Some comments on Gathercole, Willis, Emslie, and Baddeley. Applied Psycholinguistics, 12, 369-373.
Snyder, L. E., Dabasinskas, C., & O'Connor, E. 2002. An information processing perspective on language impairment in children: Looking at both sides of the coin. Topics in Language Disorders, 22, 1-14.
Towse, J. N., Hitch, G. J., & Hutton, U. 2002. On the nature of the relationship between processing activity and item retention in children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 82, 156-184.
van der Lely, H., & Dewart, H. 1986. Sentence comprehension strategies in specifically language impaired children. British Journal of Disorders of Communication, 21, 291-306.
Wechsler, D. (2005). Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition. Paris, France: Les Editions du Centre de Psychologie Appliquée.
Weismer, S. E., Plante, E., Jones, M., & Tomblin, J. 2005. A functional magnetic resonance imaging investigation of verbal working memory in adolescents with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 48, 405-425.
Windsor, J., & Hwang, M. 1999. Testing the generalized slowing hypothesis in specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 42, 1205-1218.
Windsor, J., Milbrath, R. L., Carney, E. J., &Rakowski, S.E. 2001. General slowing in language impairment: Methodological considerations in testing the hypothesis. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 44, 446-461.
Wingfield, A., Tun, P. A., Koh, C. K., & Rosen, M. J. 1999. Regaining lost time: Adult aging and the effect of time restoration on recall of time-compressed speech. Psychology and Aging, 14, 380-389.