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PubMed1999

Lexical constraints in phonological acquisition.

Lexical diffusion, as characterized by interword variation in production, was examined in phonological acquisition. The lexical variables of word frequency and neighbourhood density were hypothesized to facilitate sound change to varying degrees. Twelve children with functional phonological delays, aged 3;0 to 7;4, participated in an alternating treatments experiment to promote sound change. Independent variables were crossed to yield all logically possible combinations of high/low frequency and high/low density in treatment; the dependent measure was generalization accuracy in production. Results indicated word frequency was most facilitative in sound change, whereas, dense neighbourhood structure was least facilitative. The salience of frequency and avoidance of high density are discussed relative to the type of phonological change being induced in children's grammars, either phonetic or phonemic, and to the nature of children's representations. Results are further interpreted with reference to interactive models of language processing and optimality theoretic accounts of linguistic structure.

Child↗
PubMed1999

Reasoning about apparent contradictions: resolution strategies and positive-negative asymmetries.

Apparent contradictions, e.g. Did Susan like her supper?--Yes and no, involve asserting and denying the same proposition. They therefore violate the classical law of non-contradiction, suggesting the use of non-classical interpretive structures in natural language and reasoning. Experiment 1 explores the range of such interpretive structures available to adults (n = 24) in their reasoning about an apparent contradiction. Experiment 2 uses a similar task to study the emergence of these interpretive structures in young children's reasoning (3;6 to 8;4, n = 48). Results suggest an early facility with resolution strategies relating to object structure (as in, Maybe Susan liked one part of supper but didn't like another part) and an initial tendency to focus on the negative by referring to it first (as in, Maybe Susan didn't like one part of supper but did like another part). We discuss the results in terms of the natural logic of objects and their properties, and the logical resources available to young children.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Deixis, personal reference, and the use of pronouns by blind children.

Blind children are considered to use personal reference terms late and with a great deal of reversal errors. However, in previous research, there has been a dearth of both quantitative and qualitative data on their use of pronouns. In the present paper data from a longitudinal study of five children (three totally blind, one partially sighted, and one sighted) is presented. The children had different ages at the beginning of the study, ranging from 0.9 to 2.5, and were followed for a time span of over 12 months. Every spatial deictic term and personal reference term used by the children was analysed. Special attention was given to the analysis of the reversal errors. The data obtained clearly showed that the blind children began to use personal reference terms as early as the sighted children, and that the use of reversals was not a general characteristic of the language of the blind children, since only one of the four blind or partially sighted children produced a noticeable percentage of reversals. The analysis of the contexts in which reversal errors were produced showed that imitation does not fully explain them, and some proposals for a multiplex explanation of reversals are offered. Thus, the data do not give support to the idea that blind children in general show problems with pronouns, nor to those claims that link blind children with autistic children in this regard.

Blindness↗
PubMed2000

Conversational responsiveness in specific language impairment: evidence of disproportionate pragmatic difficulties in a subset of children.

Eighteen children with specific language impairment (SLI), from 6 to 8 years of age, were compared with 9 control children matched on age and nonverbal ability (CA controls) and with 9 younger control children of comparable language level (LA controls). Half of the SLI group were rated on a teacher checklist as having pragmatic difficulties: these were referred to as the pragmatic language impairment (PLI) group; the remainder were the typical (SLI-T) group. Children's responses to adult soliciting utterances were compared. All children usually responded to conversational solicitations, but children in the PLI group were more likely than control children to give no response, and they also made very little use of nonverbal responses, such as nodding. Nonverbal responding was closely related to the quality of children's responses. Children who failed to use nonverbal responses also had a relatively high level of pragmatically inappropriate responses that were not readily accounted for in terms of limited grammar or vocabulary. This study lends support to the notion that there is a subset of the language-impaired population who have broader communicative impairments, extending beyond basic difficulties in mastering language form, reflecting difficulty in responding to and expressing communicative intents. The analytic methods developed for this project have promise for the study of pragmatic difficulties in other clinical groups.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Child, parent, and parent-child emotion narratives: implications for developmental psychopathology.

Studies using narratives with children and parents offer ways to study affective meaning-making processes that are central in many theories of developmental psychopathology. This paper reviews theory regarding affective meaning making, and argues that narratives are particularly suited to examine such processes. The review of narrative studies and methods is organized into three sections according to the focus on child, parent, and parent-child narratives. Within each focus three levels of analysis are considered: (a) narrative organization and coherence, (b) narrative content, and (c) the behavior/interactions of the narrator(s). The implications of this research for developmental psychopathology and clinical work are discussed with an emphasis on parent-child jointly constructed narratives as the meeting point of individual child and parent narratives.

Affect↗
PubMed1997

Discourse processes underlying social competence in children with language learning disabilities.

Children with both a language impairment and a learning disability are at risk for poor social competence. Yet the processes that place these children at risk remain unclear. A developmental-organizational perspective was used to explore processes underlying risk for poor social competence among language learning disable children. To this end, the relative influences of language learning disability and social discourse skills on social competence were examined in 50 language learning disabled (LLD) and 50 control (non-LLD) children aged 8-12 years. Findings indicated that social discourse skills mediated the relation between LLD status and children's social competence. Specifically, a domain of social discourse, figurative language, was the strongest mediator of the effect of LLD status on social competence. Additionally, differences were confirmed between the LLD and non-LLD group in two domains of social discourse, recreating sentences and figurative language, as well as social competence. Two other domains of social discourse, understanding ambiguous sentences and making inferences, did not discriminate the groups. The findings emphasize the importance of analyzing interrelations among domains to identify critical factors related to developmental outcomes.

Child↗
PubMed1995

Working memory following improvements in articulation rate in children with cerebral palsy.

It has been postulated that rehearsal rate is the primary determinant of working memory capacity for verbal material (Baddeley et al., 1975). A previous study of normal control children and children with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy (SDCP) suggested that covert rather than overt rehearsal rate determines working memory capacity (White et al., 1994). In the current study, a subset of SDCP children who received a surgical treatment to relieve spasticity were retested on measures of articulation rate and memory span. A subset of control children from the original study were also retested. The SDCP group showed improvements in articulation rate at follow-up, though memory span did not change and was again equivalent to that of controls. These findings indicate that increases in articulation rate are not necessarily accompanied by improvements in memory span, and provide additional evidence that working memory capacity may be determined by covert rather than overt articulatory rehearsal.

Articulation Disorders↗
PubMed1996

Reading lexically without semantics: evidence from patients with probable Alzheimer's disease.

Recent modifications of the lexical model of oral reading make the prediction that under conditions where sublexical reading processes alone cannot achieve the target pronunciation (i.e., when words have exceptional spellings or when sublexical processes are impaired), patients with severe semantic impairment should have more difficulty reading aloud semantically impaired words than semantically retained words. In a battery of lexical-semantic and reading tasks, two neurologically normal control subjects and two subjects with probable Alzheimer's disease (AD) and only moderate semantic impairment read aloud all words accurately. One AD subject with severe semantic impairment was impaired in word reading but demonstrated no difference in reading words with regular and exceptional spellings. Another AD subject with severe semantic impairment read aloud without error virtually all regular and exception words. Neither severely impaired AD subject demonstrated any relationship between oral reading accuracy and semantic knowledge of exception words. These findings support a model of word reading incorporating lexical, nonsemantic processes by which lexical orthographic input representations directly activate lexical phonological output representations without the necessity of semantic mediation.

Aged↗
PubMed2001

Executive function in fluency and recall measures among children with Tourette syndrome or ADHD.

This study assessed two relevant aspects of executive dysfunction in children with either Tourette syndrome (TS) or ADHD. Process variables derived from existing neuropsychological measures were used to clarify the executive function construct. Clustering of responses on measures of verbal fluency, figural fluency, and verbal learning was examined to assess strategic response organization. Rule breaks, intrusions, and repetition errors were recorded to assess inhibition errors. No significant differences were found among the three groups (TS, ADHD, and controls) on tasks of response organization (clustering). In our sample, both the ADHD and the TS groups were largely free from executive function impairment, and their performance on the fluency and list learning tasks was in the average range. There was a significant group difference on one of the disinhibition variables, with both TS and ADHD groups showing significantly more intrusions on verbal list learning trials than controls. When more traditional total score variables were analyzed among the three groups, there were no significant differences; however, analysis of effect size revealed medium-to-large effect sizes for Letter Word Fluency total score differences (ADHD vs. controls), and for Semantic Word Fluency total score differences (ADHD vs. TS), with the ADHD group having weaker performance in both comparisons. Results provide some support for the use and analysis of process variables-particularly those related to inhibition and intrusion errors, in addition to the total score variables when assessing executive function deficits in children with ADHD and TS. While group differences may be found, children with uncomplicated TS should not routinely be considered to have significant executive function impairments, and when deficits are found, they may be attributable to other comorbid disorders.

Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity↗
PubMed2003

Category fluency in first-episode schizophrenia.

Animal word list generation (ANWLG) was administered to 47 first-episode schizophrenia (FES) participants and 31 controls. Fifty-nine left temporal lobe epilepsy (LTLE) participants were included as a comparison group with known temporal lobe damage and expected semantic deficits. Semantic knowledge was assessed with the Association Index (AI), a measure of the semantic relatedness of all consecutive ANWLG responses. Neuropsychological tests of language and executive functioning were also administered. Results showed that both FES and LTLE groups generated fewer ANWLG responses than controls, but only the LTLE participants obtained a lower AI relative to controls. FES participants did not differ from controls on the AI. FES and LTLE groups produced fewer semantic subcategories (clusters), however, only the LTLE group produced fewer words per subcategory compared to controls (cluster size). FES participants produced a higher rate of perseverative responses compared to the other groups. Finally, correlation analyses showed that for FES participants both executive and language tests significantly correlated with ANWLG total responses, while the correlation between ANWLG and only 1 language test was significant for LTLE participants. Taken together, the results suggest that reduced ANWLG output in FES participants may be best conceptualized as a deficit in the executive component of word list generation (i.e., semantic search/access, response monitoring) or global cognitive impairment.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Categorization and recognition performance of a memory-impaired group: evidence for single-system models.

Previous research has demonstrated dissociations between categorization and recognition performance in amnesic patients, supporting the idea that separate memory systems govern these tasks. However, previous research has also demonstrated that these dissociations are predicted by a single-system model that allows for reasonable parameter differences across groups. Generally, previous studies have employed categorization tasks that are less demanding than the recognition tasks. In this study, we distinguish between single-system and multiple-system accounts by testing memory-impaired individuals in a more demanding categorization task. These patients, just like previous amnesic participants, show a dissociation between categorization and recognition when tested in previously employed paradigms. However, they display a categorization deficit when tested in the more challenging categorization task. The results are interpreted as support for a single-system framework in which categorization and recognition depend on one representational system.

Aged↗
PubMed2003

Cognitive consequences of early phase of literacy.

The effect of the degree of illiteracy (complete or incomplete) on phonological skills, verbal and visual memory and visuospatial skills is examined in 97 normal Brazilian adults who considered themselves illiterate, and 41 Brazilian school children aged 7 to 8 years, either nonreaders or beginning readers. Similar literacy effects were observed in children and in adults. Tasks involving phonological awareness and visual recognition memory of nonsense figures distinguish the best nonreaders and beginning readers. Children performed better than adults at oral repetition of short items and figure recall, and adults better than children at semantic verbal fluency, digit span, and word list recall. A principal component analysis of the correlations between tasks showed that phonological awareness/reading, phonological memory/oral repetition, and semantic verbal memory/fluency tasks, generated different components. The respective role of culturally based preschool activities and literacy on the cognitive functions that are explored in this study is discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

The effects of normal aging on humor appreciation.

The importance of humor in healthy aging is being recognized. We compared elderly and young participants on their comprehension and appreciation of, and reaction to, verbal and nonverbal humor tests. Cognitive processes-working memory, cognitive flexibility, verbal abstraction, and visual scanning-were studied in relation to humor. Results indicated a relative deficit in the elderly in the cognitive comprehension of humor-selecting punch lines to jokes and in a cartoon array test. Measures of cognitive function correlated with humor comprehension. In contrast to this deficit in comprehension, the elderly showed intact affective appreciation and emotional reactiveness. Because of the hypothesis of frontal lobe degeneration as a basis for changes with aging, we compared the elderly to patients with focal frontal lesions. In this comparison, the elderly were significantly better than the patients in their comprehension of humor. They also displayed intact appreciation of humor compared to patients with frontal lesions. This preliminary study suggests that preserved affective responsiveness may underlie the success in using humor as a coping mechanism in the elderly.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Verbal fluency deficits in Parkinson's disease: a meta-analysis.

A meta-analysis of 68 studies with a total of 4644 participants was conducted to investigate the sensitivity of tests of verbal fluency to the presence of Parkinson's disease (PD) relative to healthy controls. Both phonemic and semantic fluency were moderately impaired but neither deficit qualified as a differential deficit relative to verbal intelligence or psychomotor speed. However, PD patients were significantly more impaired on semantic relative to phonemic fluency (rs =.37 vs.33, respectively), and confrontation naming, a test of semantic memory that imposes only minimal demands upon cognitive speed and effortful retrieval, was associated with a deficit that was of a comparable magnitude to the deficits upon each of these types of fluency. Thus, the disorder appears to be associated with particular problems with semantic memory. Tests that impose heavy demands upon switching may also be disproportionately affected. Demented and non-demented PD patients differ quantitatively but not qualitatively in terms of the relative prominence of deficits on tests of phonemic and semantic fluency. However, patients with dementia of the Alzheimer's type and demented PD patients can be differentiated from one another by the relative magnitude of deficits upon these two measures.

Aged↗
PubMed2005

Verbal memory in first-episode schizophrenia: heterogeneity in performance?

It is unclear if the commonly observed "subcortical" verbal memory profile in schizophrenic patients is present at the onset of the disease. Therefore, the performance of 43 first-episode patients with schizophrenia or schizophreniform disorder on the Dutch version of the California Verbal Learning Test (VLGT) was compared to that of 43 normal comparison participants. We hypothesized that the first-episode patients would exhibit a "subcortical" memory profile, that is, they would show a primary retrieval deficit. This hypothesis was not confirmed: the patients displayed a profile suggestive of a prominent storage deficit, that is, a "cortical" memory profile. Subsequently, patients' VLGT performance was cluster analyzed to determine whether subgroups could be identified exhibiting a cortical, subcortical, and normal profile, respectively. Two subgroups (N=22; N=13) exhibited memory impairments, while one subgroup (N=8) was unimpaired. The memory profiles of the two impaired subgroups differed both qualitatively and quantitatively, but did not conform neatly to a cortical and a subcortical profile. Demographic and verbal fluency data provided limited validation of the subgroup classification. Our results may suggest that combining the verbal memory performance of first-episode patients obscures meaningful heterogeneity. Alternatively, the cluster solution could merely reflect a continuum of severity.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

Verbal association for simple common words in high-functioning autism.

We investigated conceptual relationships in semantic memory using an indirect priming technique in high-functioning autistic adolescents and their controls who were matched for age, verbal IQ, performance IQ, and nonverbal reasoning ability. The prime was a single word and the target task was completing a word fragment that was semantically related or unrelated to the prime word. The autistic subjects and controls showed similar semantic priming effects, indicating intact conceptual relationships for simple common words in those with autism. Only in the autistic group was a significant correlation found between performance for the related items and two nonverbal cognitive measures, which suggests a possibility that semantic processing in individuals with autism might be qualitatively different from that in controls.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Timing of social gaze behavior in children with a pervasive developmental disorder.

The aim of the study was to compare social initiatives and gaze behavior in low-functioning children with a pervasive developmental disorder (PDD), high-functioning children with a PDD, children with a language disorder, and normally developing children. Behavior of the children was observed while they watched television and performed a playful task with a parent. Compared to the high-functioning children, the low-functioning children with a PDD showed fewer social initiatives. The high-functioning children with a PDD did not differ from the non-PDD control children in the number of social initiatives and gazes. However, in children with PDD, timing of social gaze proved to be different in that they had lower levels of visual checking before but not after a declarative pointing gesture. Furthermore, they had lower levels of returning gaze.

Attention↗
PubMed2004

Verbal abilities in low and highly proficient bilinguals.

The study investigated native language verbal skills among low and highly proficient bilinguals, using the WISC III verbal subtests. Highly proficient bilinguals showed a superiority for almost all verbal subtests. This finding lends support to Threshold Theory which maintains that bilinguals need to achieve high levels of linguistic proficiency before bilingualism can promote cognitive development. Our study also shows that verbal ability underlying proficiency in the native language can be generalized to a foreign language, revealing a causal connection between native and foreign language learning.

Adolescent↗