Effects of bilingualism on statistical learning in preschoolers

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josje Verhagen ◽  
Elise de Bree
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Learning ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Reaction Time Task ◽  
Nonword Repetition ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Mixed Effect ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Memory Skill ◽  
Post Hoc

Abstract Earlier work indicates that bilingualism may positively affect statistical learning, but leaves open whether a bilingual benefit is (1) found during learning rather than in a post-hoc test following a learning phase and (2) explained by enhanced verbal short-term memory skill in the bilinguals. Forty-one bilingual and 56 monolingual preschoolers completed a serial reaction time task and a nonword repetition task (NWR). Linear mixed-effect regressions indicated that the bilinguals showed a stronger decrease in reaction times over the regular blocks of the task than the monolinguals. No group differences in accuracy-based measures were found. NWR performance, which did not differ between the groups, did not account for the attested effect of bilingualism. These results provide partial support for effects of bilingualism on statistical learning, which appear during learning and are not due to enhanced verbal short-term memory. Taken together, these findings add to a growing body of research on effects of bilingualism on statistical learning, and constitute a first step towards investigating the factors which may underlie such effects.

The Link Between Verbal Short-Term Memory and Anomia Treatment Gains

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 1039-1052
Author(s):  
Reva M. Zimmerman ◽  
JoAnn P. Silkes ◽  
Diane L. Kendall ◽  
Irene Minkina
Keyword(s):  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Treatment Success ◽  
Linear Regression Models ◽  
Language Performance ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Treatment Gains ◽  
Post Hoc

Purpose A significant relationship between verbal short-term memory (STM) and language performance in people with aphasia has been found across studies. However, very few studies have examined the predictive value of verbal STM in treatment outcomes. This study aims to determine if verbal STM can be used as a predictor of treatment success. Method Retrospective data from 25 people with aphasia in a larger randomized controlled trial of phonomotor treatment were analyzed. Digit and word spans from immediately pretreatment were run in multiple linear regression models to determine whether they predict magnitude of change from pre- to posttreatment and follow-up naming accuracy. Pretreatment, immediately posttreatment, and 3 months posttreatment digit and word span scores were compared to determine if they changed following a novel treatment approach. Results Verbal STM, as measured by digit and word spans, did not predict magnitude of change in naming accuracy from pre- to posttreatment nor from pretreatment to 3 months posttreatment. Furthermore, digit and word spans did not change from pre- to posttreatment or from pretreatment to 3 months posttreatment in the overall analysis. A post hoc analysis revealed that only the less impaired group showed significant changes in word span scores from pretreatment to 3 months posttreatment. Discussion The results suggest that digit and word spans do not predict treatment gains. In a less severe subsample of participants, digit and word span scores can change following phonomotor treatment; however, the overall results suggest that span scores may not change significantly. The implications of these findings are discussed within the broader purview of theoretical and empirical associations between aphasic language and verbal STM processing.

scholarly journals Dissociating sensory and cognitive theories of harmony perception through computational modeling

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Harrison ◽  
Marcus Thomas Pearce
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Learning ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Memory Models ◽  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Probabilistic Prediction ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Term Memory

Two approaches exist for explaining harmonic expectation. The sensory approach claims that harmonic expectation is a low-level process driven by sensory responses to acoustic properties of musical sounds. Conversely, the cognitive approach describes harmonic expectation as a high-level cognitive process driven by the recognition of syntactic structure learned through experience. Many previous studies have sought to distinguish these two hypotheses, largely yielding support for the cognitive hypothesis. However, subsequent re-analysis has shown that most of these results can parsimoniously be explained by a computational model from the sensory tradition, namely Leman’s (2000) model of auditory short- term memory (Bigand, Delbé, Poulin-Charronnat, Leman, & Tillmann, 2014). In this research we re-examine the explanatory power of auditory short-term memory models, and compare them to a new model in the Information Dynamics Of Music (IDyOM) tradition, which simulates a cognitive theory of harmony perception based on statistical learning and probabilistic prediction. We test the ability of these models to predict the surprisingness of chords within chord sequences (N = 300), as reported by a sample group of university undergraduates (N = 50). In contrast to previous studies, which typically use artificial stimuli composed in a classical idiom, we use naturalistic chord sequences sampled from a large dataset of popular music. Our results show that the auditory short-term memory models have remarkably low explanatory power in this context. In contrast, the new statistical learning model predicts surprisingness ratings relatively effectively. We conclude that auditory short-term memory is insufficient to explain harmonic expectation, and that cognitive processes of statistical learning and probabilistic prediction provide a viable alternative.

The Effects of Nicotine on Attention, Information Processing, and Short-Term Memory in Patients with Dementia of the Alzheimer Type

1989 ◽  
Vol 154 (6) ◽  
pp. 797-800 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Sahakian ◽  
Gemma Jones ◽  
Raymond Levy ◽  
Jeffrey Gray ◽  
David Warburton
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Marked Improvement ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Critical Flicker Fusion ◽  
Alzheimer Type ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Flickering Light ◽  
Flicker Fusion

Nicotine in patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) producted a significant and marked improvement in discriminative sensitivity and reaction times on a computerised test of attention and information processing. Nicotine also improved the ability of DAT patients to detect a flickering light in a critical flicker fusion test. These results suggest that nicotine may be acting on cortical mechanisms involved in visual perception and attention, and support the hypothesis that acetylcholine transmission modulates vigilance and discrimination. Nicotine may therefore be of some value in treating deficits in attention and information processing in DAT patients.

scholarly journals Syllable frequency effects on phonological short-term memory tasks

2002 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 643-659 ◽  
Author(s):  
LISA M. NIMMO ◽  
STEVEN ROODENRYS
Keyword(s):  
Serial Recall ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Nonword Repetition ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Recall Accuracy ◽  
Syllable Frequency ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Frequency Effects

Recent evidence suggests that phonological short-term memory (STM) tasks are influenced by both lexical and sublexical factors inherent in the selection and construction of the stimuli to be recalled. This study examined whether long-term memory (LTM) influences STM at a sublexical level by investigating whether the frequency with which one-syllable nonwords occur in polysyllabic words influences recall accuracy on two phonological STM tasks, nonword repetition and serial recall. The results showed that recall accuracy increases when the stimuli to be recalled consist of one-syllable nonwords that occur often in polysyllabic English words. This result is consistent with the notion that LTM facilitates phonological STM at both a lexical and sublexical level. Implications for models of verbal STM are discussed.

scholarly journals Consonant Age-of-Acquisition Effects in Nonword Repetition Are Not Articulatory in Nature

2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (11) ◽  
pp. 3198-3212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle W. Moore ◽  
Julie A. Fiez ◽  
Connie A. Tompkins
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Access ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Age Of Acquisition ◽  
Speech Development ◽  
Nonword Repetition ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Phonological Knowledge

Purpose Most research examining long-term-memory effects on nonword repetition (NWR) has focused on lexical-level variables. Phoneme-level variables have received little attention, although there are reasons to expect significant sublexical effects in NWR. To further understand the underlying processes of NWR, this study examined effects of sublexical long-term phonological knowledge by testing whether performance differs when the stimuli comprise consonants acquired later versus earlier in speech development. Method Thirty (Experiment 1) and 20 (Experiment 2) college students completed tasks that investigated whether an experimental phoneme-level variable (consonant age of acquisition) similarly affects NWR and lexical-access tasks designed to vary in articulatory, auditory-perceptual, and phonological short-term-memory demands. The lexical-access tasks were performed in silence or with concurrent articulation to explore whether consonant age-of-acquisition effects arise before or after articulatory planning. Results NWR accuracy decreased on items comprising later- versus earlier-acquired phonemes. Similar consonant age-of-acquisition effects were observed in accuracy measures of nonword reading and lexical decision performed in silence or with concurrent articulation. Conclusion Results indicate that NWR performance is sensitive to phoneme-level phonological knowledge in long-term memory. NWR, accordingly, should not be regarded as a diagnostic tool for pure impairment of phonological short-term memory. Supplemental Materials https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.5435137

scholarly journals The diffusion model of reaction time for recent negative probes

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-50
Author(s):  
B.B. Velichkovsky ◽  
F.R. Sultanova ◽  
D.V. Tatarinov ◽  
A.A. Kachina
Keyword(s):  
Diffusion Model ◽  
Drift Rate ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Memory Scanning ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Cognitive Representations ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Scanning Task

The study investigates the problem of information displacement from short-term memory. In two experiments, reaction times for recent negative probes were analyzed in the Sternberg’s memory scanning task. The diffusion model of reaction times was used with parameters estimated with the fast-dm software. It was found (experiment 1) that recent negative probes are characterized by a reduction in the speed of information accumulation (drift rate). This suggests residual activation of irrelevant cognitive representation in memory after they have been displaced from short-term memory. It was also found (experiment 2) that negative probes semantically related to items in a preceding target set (semantic recent negative probes) are characterized by a similar decrease in the drift rate. This suggests activation spreading from irrelevant cognitive representations displaced from short-term memory along semantic connections and identifies activated long-term memory as the target of information displacement from short-term memory. Additional mechanisms of short-term memory scanning (negative priming and dynamic decision thresholds) are discussed.

scholarly journals THE ROLES OF PHONOLOGICAL SHORT-TERM MEMORY AND WORKING MEMORY IN L2 GRAMMAR AND VOCABULARY LEARNING

2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 379-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine I. Martin ◽  
Nick C. Ellis
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Vocabulary Learning ◽  
Nonword Repetition ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Grammar Learning ◽  
Independent Effects ◽  
L2 Vocabulary

This study analyzed phonological short-term memory (PSTM) and working memory (WM) and their relationship with vocabulary and grammar learning in an artificial foreign language. Nonword repetition, nonword recognition, and listening span were used as memory measures. Participants learned the singular forms of vocabulary for an artificial foreign language before being exposed to plural forms in sentence contexts. Participants were tested on their ability to induce the grammatical forms and to generalize the forms to novel utterances. Individual differences in final abilities in vocabulary and grammar correlated between 0.44 and 0.76, depending on the measure. Despite these strong associations, the results demonstrated significant independent effects of PSTM and WM on L2 vocabulary learning and on L2 grammar learning, some of which were mediated by vocabulary and some of which were direct effects.

The developmental trajectory of nonword repetition

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 552-556 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shula Chiat
Keyword(s):  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Developmental Trajectory ◽  
Nonword Repetition ◽  
Limited Capacity ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Phonological Representations ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Temporary Storage ◽  
Original Presentation

In line with the original presentation of nonword repetition as a measure of phonological short-term memory (Gathercole & Baddeley, 1989), the theoretical account Gathercole (2006) puts forward in her Keynote Article focuses on phonological storage as the key capacity common to nonword repetition and vocabulary acquisition. However, evidence that nonword repetition is influenced by a variety of factors other than item length has led Gathercole to qualify this account. In line with arguments put forward by Snowling, Chiat, and Hulme (1991), one of Gathercole's current claims is that nonword repetition and word learning are constrained by “the quality of temporary storage of phonological representations, and this quality is multiply determined.” Phonological storage is not just a quantity-limited capacity.

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