Inhibitory control and receptive vocabulary influence aspect comprehension in children

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-151
Author(s):  
Andrew Blank ◽  
Rachael Frush Holt ◽  
Laura Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Receptive Vocabulary ◽  
World Knowledge ◽  
Linguistic Processing ◽  
Control Task ◽  
Lexical Information ◽  
Classic Pattern ◽  
Linguistic Aspect ◽  
Specific Cognitive Abilities

AbstractAlthough many researchers appeal to performance limitations to account for children’s non-adult-like use of language, few studies have explicitly linked specific cognitive abilities to specific dimensions of language. This study investigated a well-studied underextension in children’s language involving linguistic aspect and tested participants in an aspectual comprehension task as well as a series of assessments evaluating neurocognitive and linguistic skills. Adults (N = 32) and 5-year-old children (N = 32) participated. The results for the children replicated the classic pattern of underextension, with children showing an uneven pattern of success even though all items were equally grammatical. In addition, children’s skill with items that involved overriding lexical information in favor of morphological information was predicted by their performance on an inhibitory control task while children’s skill with items that involved integrating contextual world knowledge was predicted by their performance on a receptive vocabulary task. These results demonstrate how specific dimensions of linguistic processing are supported differentially and sensibly by specific dimensions of cognition.

scholarly journals Sex differences in the cognitive abilities of a sex-changing fish species Labroides dimidiatus

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. 210239
Author(s):  
Zegni Triki ◽  
Redouan Bshary
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Control Task ◽  
Cognitive Domains ◽  
Labroides Dimidiatus ◽  
Assessment Task ◽  
Food Quantity ◽  
Learning Tasks ◽  
Relevant Task

Males and females of the same species are known to differ at least in some cognitive domains, but such differences are not systematic across species. As a consequence, it remains unclear whether reported differences generally reflect adaptive adjustments to diverging selective pressures, or whether differences are mere side products of physiological differences necessary for reproduction. Here, we show that sex differences in cognition occur even in a sex-changing species, a protogynous hermaphroditic species where all males have previously been females. We tested male and female cleaner fish Labroides dimidiatus in four cognitive tasks to evaluate their learning and inhibitory control abilities first in an abstract presentation of the tasks, then in more ecologically relevant contexts. The results showed that males were better learners than females in the two learning tasks (i.e. reversal learning as an abstract task and a food quantity assessment task as an ecologically relevant task). Conversely, females showed enhanced abilities compared with males in the abstract inhibitory control task (i.e. detour task); but both sexes performed equally in the ecologically relevant inhibitory control task (i.e. ‘audience effect’ task). Hence, sex-changing species may offer unique opportunities to study proximate and/or ultimate causes underlying sex differences in cognitive abilities.

The Validity of Specific Cognitive Abilities for the Prediction of Training Success in Germany

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 123-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wiebke Goertz ◽  
Ute R. Hülsheger ◽  
Günter W. Maier
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Personnel Selection ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Mental Ability ◽  
Occupational Category ◽  
General Mental Ability ◽  
Training Success ◽  
Specific Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Better Than

General mental ability (GMA) has long been considered one of the best predictors of training success and considerably better than specific cognitive abilities (SCAs). Recently, however, researchers have provided evidence that SCAs may be of similar importance for training success, a finding supporting personnel selection based on job-related requirements. The present meta-analysis therefore seeks to assess validities of SCAs for training success in various occupations in a sample of German primary studies. Our meta-analysis (k = 72) revealed operational validities between ρ = .18 and ρ = .26 for different SCAs. Furthermore, results varied by occupational category, supporting a job-specific benefit of SCAs.

Operating Characteristics of the neurobehavioral cognitive Status Exam Using Neuropsychological Assessment as the Criterion

Assessment ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Karzmark
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Dysfunction ◽  
Sensitivity And Specificity ◽  
Neuropsychological Assessment ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cognitive Status ◽  
Performance Characteristics ◽  
Operating Characteristics ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Specific Cognitive Abilities

This study examined the performance characteristics of the Neurobehavioral Cognitive Status Exam (NCSE) using comprehensive neuropsychological assessment as the criterion. Sensitivity and specificity were assessed for the NCSE as a whole and for the individual subtests as measures of discrete cognitive abilities. The sample consisted of 50 consecutive outpatient referrals to the neuropsychological assessment service of a general medical hospital. Most of the patients in the sample had mild or moderate cognitive dysfunction. The sensitivity and specificity of the NCSE as a whole were .74 and .86, respectively. The sensitivity of the individual NCSE subtests was lower, ranging from .20 to .48. Specificity of subtests was high (.64 to .97). The results suggest that the operating characteristics of the NCSE depend significantly on the severity and nature of the sample assessed and the criterion used. They also indicate the need for caution in using NCSE subtest performance as a basis for concluding that specific cognitive abilities are normal.

Mutualistic coupling of vocabulary and non-verbal reasoning in children with and without language disorder

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Louise Griffiths ◽  
Rogier Kievit ◽  
Courtenay Norbury
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
Verbal Ability ◽  
Change Score ◽  
Developmental Theory ◽  
Receptive Vocabulary ◽  
Verbal Reasoning ◽  
Coupling Parameters ◽  
Rates Of Growth

Mutualism is a developmental theory that posits positive reciprocal relationships between distinct cognitive abilities during development. It predicts that abilities such as language and reasoning will influence each other’s rates of growth. This may explain why children with Language Disorders also tend to have lower than average non-verbal cognitive abilities, as poor language would limit the rate of growth of other cognitive skills. The current study tests whether language and non-verbal reasoning show mutualistic coupling in children with and without language disorder using three waves of data from a longitudinal cohort study that over-sampled children with poor language at school entry (N = 501, 7-13 years). Bivariate Latent Change Score models were used to determine whether early receptive vocabulary predicted change in non-verbal reasoning and vice-versa. Models that included mutualistic coupling parameters between vocabulary and non-verbal reasoning showed superior fit to models without these parameters, replicating previous findings. Specifically, children with higher initial language abilities showed greater improvement in non-verbal ability and vice versa. Multi-group models suggested that coupling between language and non-verbal reasoning was equally strong in children with language disorder and those without. This indicates that language has downstream effects on other cognitive abilities, challenging the existence of selective language impairments. Future intervention studies should test whether improving language skills in children with language disorder has positive impacts on other cognitive abilities (and vice versa), and low non-verbal IQ should not be a barrier to accessing such intervention.

scholarly journals Effects of age on inhibitory control are affected by task-specific features

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (5) ◽  
pp. 1219-1233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela de Bruin ◽  
Sergio Della Sala
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Simon Task ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Age Effects ◽  
Control Task ◽  
Younger Adults

Older adults have been argued to have impoverished inhibitory control compared to younger adults. However, these effects of age may depend on processing speed and their manifestation may furthermore depend on the type of inhibitory control task that is used. We present two experiments that examine age effects on inhibition across three tasks: a Simon arrow, static flanker and motion flanker task. The results showed overall slower reaction times (RTs) for older adults on all three tasks. However, effects of age on inhibition costs were only found for the Simon task, but not for the two flanker tasks. The motion flanker task furthermore showed an effect of baseline processing speed on the relation between age and inhibition costs. Older adults with slower baseline responses showed smaller inhibition costs, suggesting they were affected less by the flanker items than faster older adults. These findings suggest that effects of age on inhibition are task dependent and can be modulated by task-specific features such as the type of interference, type of stimuli and processing speed.

The effect of experience and olfactory cue in an inhibitory control task in guppies, Poecilia reticulata

2019 ◽  
Vol 151 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Santacà ◽  
Melania Busatta ◽  
Beste Başak Savaşçı ◽  
Tyrone Lucon-Xiccato ◽  
Angelo Bisazza
Keyword(s):  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Poecilia Reticulata ◽  
Control Task ◽  
Olfactory Cue

16. APOE polymorphism affects specific cognitive abilities among non demented elderly subjects

2009 ◽  
Vol 44 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 130-131
Author(s):  
A. Montesanto ◽  
S. De Blasi ◽  
C. Martino ◽  
A.C. Bruni ◽  
G. Passarino
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Elderly Subjects ◽  
Apoe Polymorphism ◽  
Specific Cognitive Abilities

On the Role of Cognitive Abilities in Second Language Vowel Learning

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 260-280
Author(s):  
Payam Ghaffarvand Mokari ◽  
Stefan Werner
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Attention Control ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Phonological Learning ◽  
Before And After

This study investigated the role of different cognitive abilities—inhibitory control, attention control, phonological short-term memory (PSTM), and acoustic short-term memory (AM)—in second language (L2) vowel learning. The participants were 40 Azerbaijani learners of Standard Southern British English. Their perception of L2 vowels was tested through a perceptual discrimination task before and after five sessions of high-variability phonetic training. Inhibitory control was significantly correlated with gains from training in the discrimination of L2 vowel pairs. However, there were no significant correlations between attention control, AM, PSTM, and gains from training. These findings suggest the potential role of inhibitory control in L2 phonological learning. We suggest that inhibitory control facilitates the processing of L2 sounds by allowing learners to ignore the interfering information from L1 during training, leading to better L2 segmental learning.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document