Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T21:26:50.880Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Exploration of Serial Structure Procedural Learning in Children with Language Impairment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2011

Audrey Gabriel ,
Christelle Maillart ,
Melody Guillaume ,
Nicolas Stefaniak  and
Thierry Meulemans
Audrey Gabriel*
Affiliation:
Department of Cognitive Science, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
Christelle Maillart
Affiliation:
Department of Cognitive Science, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
Melody Guillaume
Affiliation:
Department of Cognitive Science, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
Nicolas Stefaniak
Affiliation:
CLEA, Department of Psychology, University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne, Reims, France
Thierry Meulemans
Affiliation:
Department of Cognitive Science, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to: Audrey Gabriel, Department of Cognitive Science, University of Liège, B38, Rue de l'Aunaie, 30, 4000 Liège - Belgium. E-mail: audrey.gabriel@ulg.ac.be
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent studies on specific language impairment (SLI) have suggested that language deficits are directly associated with poor procedural learning abilities. Findings from our previous work are contrary to this hypothesis; we found that children with SLI were able to learn eight-element-long sequences as fast and as accurately as children with normal language (NL) on a serial reaction time (SRT) task. A probabilistic rather than a deterministic SRT paradigm was used in the current study to explore procedural learning in children with SLI to mimic real conditions of language learning. Fifteen children with or without SLI were compared on an SRT task including a probabilistic eight-element-long sequence. Results show that children with SLI were able to learn this sequence as fast and as accurately as children with NL, and that similar sequence-specific learning was observed in both groups. These results are novel and suggest that children with SLI do not display global procedural system deficits. (JINS, 2011, 17, 336–343)

Keywords

Language development disordersLanguage developmentChild languageSerial learningMotor skillsProbability learning
Type
Research Articles
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , 28 February 2011 , pp. 336 - 343
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aslin, R.N., Newport, E.L. (2008). What statistical learning can and can't tell us about language acquisition. In J. Colombo, P. McCardle, & L. Freund (Eds.), Infant pathways to language: Methods, models, and research directions (pp. 15–29, ). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Bavin, E.L., Wilson, P.H., Maruff, P., Sleeman, F. (2005). Spatio-visual memory of children with specific language impairment: Evidence for generalized processing problems. International Journal of Language Communication and Disability, 40, 319–332.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bishop, D. (1989). Test for reception of grammar. Toronto: Pearson Canada Assessment.Google Scholar
Bishop, D.V., Carlyon, R.P., Deeks, J.M., Bishop, S.J. (1999). Auditory temporal processing impairment: Neither necessary nor sufficient for causing language impairment in children. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 42, 1295–1310.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dunn, L.M., Dunn, L.M. (1981). Peabody picture vocabulary test – revised: Manual for forms L and M. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.Google Scholar
Dunn, L.M., Thériault-Whalen, C.M., Dunn, L.M. (1993). Echelle de vocabulaire en images Peabody: Adaptation française du Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. Toronto, Canada: Psycan.Google Scholar
Ellis Weismer, S., Evans, J.L., Hesketh, L. (1999). An examination of verbal working memory capacity in children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 42, 1249–1260.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ellis Weismer, S., Tomblin, J.B., Zhang, X., Buckwalter, P., Gaura Chynoweth, J., Jones, M. (2000). Nonword repetition performance in school-age children with and without language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 43, 865–878.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Evans, J.L., Saffran, J.R., Robe-Torres, K. (2009). Statistical learning in children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 52, 321–335.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Friederici, A.D., Wessels, J.M.I. (1993). Phonotactic knowledge of word boundaries and its use in infant speech perception. Perception & Psychophysics, 54, 287–295.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gabriel, A., Stefaniak, N., Maillart, C., Schmitz, X., Meulemans, T. Unimpaired implicit visual learning abilities in children with specific language impairment. Manuscript submitted for publication.Google Scholar
Gomez, R.L., Gerken, L.A. (1999). Artificial grammar learning by 1-year-olds leads to specific and abstract knowledge. Cognition, 70, 109–135.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hill, E.L. (2001). Non-specific nature of specific language impairment: A review of the literature with regard to concomitant motor impairments. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders/Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists, 36, 149–171.Google ScholarPubMed
Hill, P., Hogben, J., Bishop, D. (2005). Auditory frequency discrimination in children with specific language impairment: A longitudinal study. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 48, 1136–1146.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jusczyk, P.M., Friederici, A.D., Wessels, J.M., Svenkerud, V.Y., Jusczyk, A.M. (1993). Infants’ sensitivity to the soud patterns of native language words. Journal of Memory and Language, 32, 402–420.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jusczyk, P.W., Houston, D.M., Newsome, M. (1999). The beginnings of words segmentation in English-learning infants. Cognitive Psychology, 39, 159–207.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kemény, F., Lukács, A. (2010). Impaired procedural learning in language impairment: Results from probabilistic categorization. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 32, 249–258.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Khomsi, A. (2001). Evaluation du langage oral. Paris: Les Editions du Centre de Psychologie Appliquée.Google Scholar
Knowlton, B., Squire, L., Gluck, M. (1994). Probabilistic classification learning in amnesia. Learning & Memory, 1, 106–120.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lecocq, P. (1996). Epreuve de Compréhension Syntaxico-Sémantique. Villeneuve d'Ascq: Presses Universitaires du Septentrion.Google Scholar
Lum, J.A.G., Gelgec, C., Conti-Ramsden, G. (2009). Research report: Procedural and declarative memory in children with and without specific language impairment. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 45, 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marcus, G.F., Vijayan, S., Bandi Rao, S., Vishton, P.M. (1999). Rule learning by seven-month-old infants. Science, 283, 77–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mattys, S.L., Jusczyk, P.W., Luce, P.A., Morgan, J.L. (1999). Word segmentation in infants: How phonotactics and prosody combine. Cognitive Psychology, 38, 465–494.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McArthur, G.M., Bishop, D. (2004). Which people with specific language impairment have auditory processing deficits? Cognitive Neuropsychology, 21, 79–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meulemans, T., Van der Linden, M., Perruchet, P. (1998). Implicit sequence learning in children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 69, 199–221.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miller, C.A., Kail, R., Leonard, L.B., Tomblin, J. (2001). Speed of processing in children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 44, 416–433.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nissen, M.J., Bullemer, P. (1987). Attentional requirements of learning: Evidence from performance measures. Cognitive Psychology, 19, 1–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plante, E., Gomez, R., Gerken, L. (2002). Sensitivity to word order cues by normal and language/learning disabled adults. Journal of Communication Disorders, 35, 453–462.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rice, M.L., Buhr, J.C., Nemeth, M. (1990). Fast mapping word-learning abilities of language-delayed preschoolers. Journal of Speech & Hearing Disorders, 55, 33–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Saffran, J.R., Newport, E.L., Aslin, R.N. (1996). Word segmentation: The role of distributional cues. Journal of Memory and Language, 35, 606–621.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schvaneveldt, R.W., Gomez, R.L. (1998). Attention and probabilistic sequence learning. Psychological Research/Psychologische Forschung, 61, 175–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stefaniak, N., Willems, S., Adam, S., Meulemans, T. (2008). What is the impact of the explicit knowledge of sequence regularities in both deterministic and probabilistic serial reaction time task performance? Memory & Cognition, 36, 1283–1298.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tallal, P., Miller, S.L., Bedi, G., Byma, G., Wang, X., Nagarajan, S.S., Merzenich, M.M. (1996). Language comprehension in language-learning impaired children improved with acoustically modified speech. Science, 271, 81–84.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tomblin, B., Mainela-Arnold, E., Zhang, X. (2007). Procedural learning in children with and without specific language impairment. Journal of Child Language Learning and Development, 3, 269–293.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ullman, M.T. (2001). A neurocognitive perspective on language: The declarative/procedural model. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2, 717–726.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ullman, M.T., Pierpont, E.I. (2005). Specific language impairment is not specific to language: The procedural deficit hypothesis. Cortex, 41, 399–433.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van der Lely, H.K.J. (2003). Do heterogeneous deficits require heterogeneous theories? SLI subgroups and the RDDR hypothesis. In Y. Levy & J. Schaeffer (Eds.), Language competence across populations: Toward a definition of specific language impairment (pp. 97–133). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.Google Scholar
Wechsler, D. (2005). Echelle d'intelligence de Wechsler pour enfants et adolescents – quatrième édition – WISC IV. Paris: Les Editions du Centre de Psychologie Appliquée.Google Scholar