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Nonword repetition, phonological memory, and vocabulary: A reply to Snowling, Chiat, and Hulme

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Susan E. Gathercole ,
Cath Willis  and
Alan D. Baddeley
Susan E. Gathercole*
Affiliation:
Lancaster University
Cath Willis
Affiliation:
Lancaster University
Alan D. Baddeley
Affiliation:
MRC Applied Psychology Unit, Cambridge, England
*
Dr. Susan Gathercole, Department of Psychology, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YF, England
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Extract

The opportunity taken by Snowling, Chiat, and Hulme to step into the debate concerning the nature of the relationship between nonword repetition abilities and vocabulary acquisition in young children should be welcomed. Vocabulary size is strongly associated with a range of abilities, including general intelligence scores, reading ability, reading comprehension, and school success (e.g., Anderson & Freebody, 1981) and as a consequence, vocabulary knowledge provides the major index of verbal intelligence in many standardized ability tests used with both children and adults. Given the weight attached by psychologists to vocabulary knowledge, it seems surprising that until recently the cognitive processes underpinning word learning had been largely neglected. Any progress in understanding the psychological constraints in vocabulary development, whether it takes the form of informed theoretical debate or further empirical work, should therefore be encouraged.

Type
Dialogue
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 12 , Issue 3 , September 1991 , pp. 375 - 379
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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References

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