Children’s comprehension of object relative sentences (Ahmad Rusli & Montgomery, 2017)

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine whether extant language (lexical) knowledge or domain-general working memory is the better predictor of comprehension of object relative sentences for children with typical development. We hypothesized that extant language knowledge, not domain-general working memory, is the better predictor.Method: Fifty-three children (ages 9–11 years) completed a word-level verbal working-memory task, indexing extant language (lexical) knowledge; an analog nonverbal working-memory task, representing domain-general working memory; and a hybrid sentence comprehension task incorporating elements of both agent selection and cross-modal picture-priming paradigms. Images of the agent and patient were displayed at the syntactic gap in the object relative sentences, and the children were asked to select the agent of the sentence.Results: Results of general linear modeling revealed that extant language knowledge accounted for a unique 21.3% of variance in the children’s object relative sentence comprehension over and above age (8.3%). Domain-general working memory accounted for a nonsignificant 1.6% of variance.Conclusions: We interpret the results to suggest that extant language knowledge and not domain-general working memory is a critically important contributor to children’s object relative sentence comprehension. Results support a connectionist view of the association between working memory and object relative sentence comprehension.Supplemental Material S1. Experimental sentences.Supplemental Material S2. Experimental nonverbal stimuli. Ahmad Rusli, Y., & Montgomery, J. W. (2017). Children’s comprehension of object relative sentences: It’s extant language knowledge that matters, not domain-general working memory. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1044/2017_JSLHR-L-16-0422

研究目的：本研究的目的是确定现有的语言（词汇）知识或领域通用的工作记忆哪一项更能预测典型发展儿童对物体相对句子的理解。我们假设现有的语言知识，而非领域通用的工作记忆，是更佳的预测指标。研究方法：五十三名儿童（9至11岁）完成了一个词汇水平的口头工作记忆任务，以衡量现有的语言（词汇）知识；一个模拟的非言语工作记忆任务，代表领域通用的工作记忆；以及一个融合了代理选择和跨模态图片启动范式元素的混合句子理解任务。在物体相对句子中的句法空缺处展示了代理人和患者的图像，并要求儿童选择句子的代理人。研究结果：广义线性模型的结果显示，现有的语言知识解释了儿童对物体相对句子理解中超过年龄（8.3%）的独特21.3%的方差，而领域通用的工作记忆仅解释了1.6%的无显著方差。研究结论：我们将结果解读为，现有的语言知识而非领域通用的工作记忆是儿童对物体相对句子理解的关键贡献因素。结果支持了工作记忆与物体相对句子理解之间关联的连接主义观点。补充材料S1：实验句子。补充材料S2：实验非言语刺激。Ahmad Rusli, Y., & Montgomery, J. W. (2017). 儿童对物体相对句子的理解：重要的是现有的语言知识，而非领域通用的工作记忆。语音、语言和听力研究杂志。在线预发表。https://doi.org/10.1044/2017_JSLHR-L-16-0422