procedural learning; sequential learning; specific language impairment; child language disorder; serial reaction time
Abstract :
[en] Purpose: According to the Procedural Deficit Hypothesis (PDH), difficulties in the Procedural Learning (PL) system may contribute to the language difficulties observed in children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI).
Method: Fifteen children with SLI and their typically developing (TD) peers were compared on visual PL tasks: specifically, deterministic Serial Reaction Time (SRT) tasks. In a first experiment, children with SLI and their TD peers performed the classical SRT task using a keyboard as response mode. In a second experiment, they performed the same SRT task but gave their responses through a touchscreen (instead of a keyboard) to reduce the motor and cognitive demands of the task.
Results: Although in Experiment 1, children with SLI demonstrated learning, they were slower and made more errors than their TD peers. Nevertheless, these relative weaknesses disappeared when the nature of the response mode changed (Experiment 2).
Conclusions: This study reports that children with SLI may exhibit sequential learning. Moreover, the generally slower RTs observed in previous deterministic SRT studies may be explained by the response mode used. Thus, our findings are not consistent with the predictions of the PDH, and suggest that language impairments in SLI are not sustained by poor procedural learning abilities.
Research center :
Ulg
Disciplines :
Neurosciences & behavior
Author, co-author :
Gabriel, Audrey ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Psychologie : cognition et comportement > Logopédie clinique
Stefaniak, Nicolas ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Psychologie : cognition et comportement > Neuropsychologie
Maillart, Christelle ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Psychologie : cognition et comportement > Logopédie clinique
Schmitz, Xavier ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Psychologie : cognition et comportement > Neuropsychologie
Meulemans, Thierry ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Services généraux (Fac. de psycho. et des sc. de l'éducat.) > Doyen de la Faculté de Psychologie et des sc. de l'éducation
Language :
English
Title :
PROCEDURAL VISUAL LEARNING IN CHILDREN WITH SPECIFIC LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT
Publication date :
29 May 2012
Journal title :
American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology
ISSN :
1058-0360
Publisher :
American Speech Language Hearing Association, Rockville, United States - Maryland
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