Disentangling the relationship between working memory and language: The roles of short-term storage and cognitive control (original) (raw)
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Review of Kemper (2009) Role of Working Memory in Language Development Over the Lifespan
Monograph Review: Kemper, S. (2009). The Role of Working Memory in Language Development over the Lifespan. New York, NY: Routledge. Reviewed by: RD HOBBS [dr.rdhobbs@gmail.com] Working memory contributes to language acquisition and processing. Kemper divides discussion into four main sections, then a conclusion. WORKING MEMORY AS CONCEPT Working memory is essential for information retention. Separation of function components are derived by studying healthy and impaired individuals. Tests include: verbal fluency, inhibition, switching, time-sharing, updating, and others. Span tests present series of digits to recall. Counting span tests include shapes and colors and are useful for small children. Researchers developed Reading Span and Listening Span tests. The reading span tests predict later reading skills. Operational span tests use computational math. Researchers disagree on whether or not verbal and visual-spatial are two different memory operations or the same memory operation. Some researchers believe there is a correlation between verbal and visual-spacial memory operations. Executive function is measured various ways. Sorting cards is one type of Executive Function test. Verbal fluency tests measure Executive Function. Other types of Executive Function tests include: switching, inhibition, updating, and time-sharing. Distraction tests are a type of inhibition testing. Kemper gives examples of each type of test. Kemper notes the debate as to whether these tests assess a unitary construct or separate abilities. Researchers have different definitions for executive function. Kemper seems to prefer the three-factor explanation of executive function. WORKING MEMORY & LIFESPAN Researchers agree that working memory increases in childhood, but that is the end of agreement. The driving force of working memory is under debate. Decline in the aging process is viewed differently. It seems there is a variation in declining abilities. Abilities decrease at different rates. The decrease is not uniform across abilities. Various mechanisms account for decline. Reduction of processing speed seems to cause decline. Reduced speed of processing increases forgetting. One consensus is that working memory is critical for cognitive abilities. LANGUAGE ACQUISITION & WORKING MEMORY Distinguishing phonological cues is necessary for developing comprehension skills. Phonological acuity is related to speed of vocabulary learning. LANGUAGE PROCESSING & WORKING MEMORY Reduced working memory increases difficulty in understanding of syntactically complex and ambiguous sentences. Limitations of working memory have an impact on post-interpretive processes. Kemper offers grammatical testing explanations to illuminate different testing outcomes of subjects. Researchers compared younger and older participants. Eye-tracking research contradicted previous interpretation of outcomes. Younger and older participants were similar in some ways but different in other ways. CONCLUSION Kemper (2009) summarizes the impact of technology on working memory research. Kemper then offers questions to further the understanding of working memory. The reviewer simplifies the questions and breaks them down further.
Working memory in multilingual children: Is there a bilingual effect?
Memory, 2011
This research investigates whether early childhood bilingualism affects working memory performance in 6- to 8-year-olds, followed over a longitudinal period of three years. The study tests the hypothesis that bilinguals might exhibit more efficient working memory abilities than monolinguals, potentially via the opportunity a bilingual environment provides to train cognitive control by combating interference and intrusions from the non-target language. Forty-four bilingual and monolingual children, matched on age, sex, and socioeconomic status, completed assessments of working memory (simple span and complex span tasks), fluid intelligence, and language (vocabulary and syntax). The data showed that the monolinguals performed significantly better on the language measures across the years whereas no language group effect emerged on the working memory and fluid intelligence tasks after verbal abilities were considered. The study suggests that the need to manage several language systems in the bilingual mind affects children’s language skills whilst having little impact on the development of working memory abilities.
Linguistic Stimulation Impact on Verbal Working Memory in the Early Stages of School Education
2015
When studying cognitive flexibility in young children in bilingual programmes, a positive correlation has been noted between working memory efficiency and bilingualism. Research results point to the advantage in early vs. late or more proficient vs. less proficient bilinguals. The goal of this exploratory research was to investigate the importance of intensive language stimulation for the development of phonological short-term and working memory in children at the beginning of their school education. The research was conducted in Northern Poland among 77 children attending two elementary schools: 42 children attended a Polish-language school (monolingual school group), and 35 children attended a school in which English was the language of instruction (bilingual school group). The children were tested twice: at the beginning and at the end of the first grade. Four tasks were administered: digit span, non-word repetition, pho neme discrimination and phoneme isolation. The analysis of ...
Working Memory Capacity and Language Processes in Children With Specific Language Impairment
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 2003
This study examined the interaction between working memory and language comprehension in children with specific language impairment (SLI), focusing on the function of the central executive component and its interaction with the phonological loop in complex working memory tasks. Thirteen children with SLI and 13 age-matched (age range = 7;0 [years;months] to 10;0) children with typical language development participated. The tasks combined traditional nonword repetition tests and sentence comprehension by using sentences that differed in length and syntactic complexity. The children with SLI exhibited larger processing and attentional capacity limitations than their agematched peers. Increased word length and syntactic complexity resulted in a large performance decrease in nonword repetition in both groups. There were some variations in the error pattern, which may indicate qualitative differences between the 2 groups. The performance of the children with SLI in nonword repetition, across the different tasks, indicated a limitation in simultaneous processing rather than difficulty in encoding and analyzing the phonological structure of the nonwords. Furthermore, syntactic complexity had a greater effect on performance accuracy than did sentence length.
Working memory and developmental language impairments
Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 2016
Children with developmental language impairments (DLI) are often reported to show difficulties with working memory. This review describes the four components of the well-established working memory model, and considers whether there is convincing evidence for difficulties within each component in children with DLI. The emphasis is on the most demanding form of working memory that draws on central executive (CE) resources, requiring concurrent processing and storage of information. An evaluation of recent research evidence suggests that, not only are children with DLI impaired on verbal CE measures, but they also show difficulties on non-verbal CE tasks that cannot be assumed to tap language. Therefore, it seems increasingly likely that children with DLI show domain-general CE impairments, along with their more established impairments in verbal short-term memory. Implications for potential working memory interventions and classroom learning are discussed.
Working Memory Functioning in Children with Specific Language Impairment
The Medical Journal of Cairo University, 2020
Background: Children with an unexplained severe delay in the development of language are described as having Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Both etiology of SLI and neurobiological contributions are not yet clearly understood. Researchers currently regards deficit in working memory functioning as one major characteristic for language impairment. Aim of Study: This study aims to assess working memory functions in children with specific language impairment to determine whether they exhibit associated working memory deficit or not. Patients and Methods: This study is conducted on 60 Arabic speaking children, their age range from 5 to 8 years and divided into 2 equal groups; cases and controls. Receptive expressive Arabic language scale (REAL scale) subtests were used to assess the working memory functions in all children. Results: Significant difference is seen between the study group and control group regarding the REAL scale subtests; understanding oral instructions and sentence repetition. Conclusion: Deficits in working memory functions coexist with language impairment in children diagnosed with SLI.
WORKING MEMORY (WM) generally refers to our human capacity to temporarily maintain and manipulate a limited amount of information (e.g. 7±2 in Miller 1956; or 4±1 in Cowan 2001) in our immediate consciousness for accomplishing higher-order cognitive tasks. Despite theoretical debates and controversies haunting the concept of WM since its inception in Baddeley & Hitch’s (1974) seminal model, most cognitive psychologists would agree to conceptualize it as a multiple-component system comprising domain-specific storage mechanisms and domain-general executive functions (Miyake & Shah 1999; Conway et al. 2007; Williams 2012). This fractionated view on the construct manifests itself clearly in strands of WM-language research where subsequently two contrasting paradigms have emerged (Wen 2012).
Working memory and language: an overview
Journal of Communication Disorders, 2003
Working memory involves the temporary storage and manipulation of information that is assumed to be necessary for a wide range of complex cognitive activities. In 1974, Baddeley and Hitch proposed that it could be divided into three subsystems, one concerned with verbal and acoustic information, the phonological loop, a second, the visuospatial sketchpad providing its visual equivalent, while both are dependent upon a third attentionally-limited control system, the central executive. A fourth subsystem, the episodic buffer, has recently been proposed. These are described in turn, with particular reference to implications for both the normal processing of language, and its potential disorders. Learning outcomes: The reader will be introduced to the concept of a multi-component working memory. Particular emphasis will be placed on the phonological loop component, and (a) its fractionation into a storage and processing component, (b) the neuropsychological evidence for this distinction, and (c) its implication for both native and second language learning. This will be followed by (d) a brief overview of the visuospatial sketchpad and its possible role in language, culminating in (e) discussion of the higher-level control functions of working memory which include (f) the central executive and its multidimensional storage system, the episodic buffer. An attempt throughout is made to link the model to its role in both normal and disordered language functions. #
Journal of Human Studies and Social , 2024
Objectives: The study aimed to carries out a narrative review to analyze and summarize the results of the evidence related to working memory in monolingual and bilingual children. Methods: An electronic database search on ScienceDirect, PubMed, Google Scholar, and Semantic Scholar was conducted to identify articles investigating working memory and bilingualism. To select research published in peer-reviewed journals until 2023; out of 30 studies, 10 met the selection criteria. Results: The evidence varied in terms of the positive and negative influence and interaction of working memory and bilingualism, but there is a correlation between verbal-visuospatial working memory and inhibition abilities that contribute to working memory processing capacity.
Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 2014
Purpose In this article, the authors examine the developmental continuity from prelinguistic communication to kindergarten age in language and working memory capacity. Method Following work outlining 6 groups of children with different trajectories of early communication development (ECD; Määttä, Laakso, Tolvanen, Ahonen, & Aro, 2012), the authors examined their later development by psychometric assessment. Ninety-one children first assessed at ages 12–21 months completed a battery of language and working memory tests at age 5;3 (years;months). Results Two of the ECD groups previously identified as being at risk for language difficulties continued to show weaker performance at follow-up. Seventy-nine percent of the children with compromised language skills at follow-up were identified on the basis of the ECD groups, but the number of false positives was high. The 2 at-risk groups also differed significantly from the typically developing groups in the measures tapping working memory ...