Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research Vol.53 1656-1672 December 2010. doi:10.1044/1092-4388(2010/08-0240)
© American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrowCustom Print
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow My Folders
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Mainela-Arnold, E.
Right arrow Articles by Coady, J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Mainela-Arnold, E.
Right arrow Articles by Coady, J.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Delicious   Add to Digg   Add to Facebook   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Articles

Beyond Capacity Limitations II: Effects of Lexical Processes on Word Recall in Verbal Working Memory Tasks in Children With and Without Specific Language Impairment

Elina Mainela-Arnold
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA

Julia L. Evans
San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, and University of California, San Diego

Jeffry Coady
Boston University, Boston, MA

Contact author: Elina Mainela-Arnold, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Pennsylvania State University, 308 Ford Building, University Park, PA 16802-3100. E-mail: ezm3{at}psu.edu.

Purpose: This study investigated the impact of lexical processes on target word recall in sentence span tasks in children with and without specific language impairment (SLI).

Method: Participants were 42 children (ages 8;2–12;3 [years;months]): 21 with SLI and 21 typically developing peers matched on age and nonverbal IQ. Children completed a sentence span task in which target words to be recalled varied in word frequency and neighborhood density. Two measures of lexical processes were examined: the number of nontarget competitor words activated during a gating task (lexical cohort competition) and word definitions.

Results: Neighborhood density had no effect on word recall for either group. However, both groups recalled significantly more high- than low-frequency words. Lexical cohort competition and specificity of semantic representations accounted for unique variance in the number of target word recalled in the SLI and chronological age-matched (CA) groups combined.

Conclusions: Performance on verbal working memory span tasks for both SLI and CA children is influenced by word frequency, lexical cohorts, and semantic representations. Future studies need to examine the extent to which verbal working memory capacity is a cognitive construct independent of extant language knowledge representations.

KEY WORDS: SLI, verbal working memory, lexical processing, word frequency, neighborhood density


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Delicious Delicious   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Facebook Facebook   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 JSLHRHome page
E. Mainela-Arnold, J. L. Evans, and J. A. Coady
Explaining Lexical-Semantic Deficits in Specific Language Impairment: The Role of Phonological Similarity, Phonological Working Memory, and Lexical Competition
J Speech Lang Hear Res, December 1, 2010; 53(6): 1742 - 1756.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]