Magimairaj, B.M., Nagaraj, N.K., & Gillam, R.B. (2024). Measuring the effects of cognitive capacity on sentence comprehension: Evidence from elementary school-age children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 67(10), 3778-3793.
Sentence comprehension in children is a complex process involving various cognitive mechanisms beyond vocabulary and syntax. One critical aspect of this process is working memory (WM) capacity, which refers to the ability to hold and manipulate information in the mind over short periods. Additionally, retrieval from long-term memory (LTM) plays a significant role in how children understand sentences. This study aimed to explore these cognitive predictors of sentence comprehension in elementary school-age children, focusing on how WM and LTM interact during comprehension tasks.
In this study, children with typical development or Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) completed a sentence comprehension task by choosing a picture corresponding to a spoken sentence. Comprehension of adjectives included in the sentences either was or was not required to choose the right picture creating sentences of high or low cognitive load, respectively. Children also completed working memory tasks involving digit recall and a long-term memory task requiring categorizing or judgement of meaning relationships. The DLD group had lower comprehension accuracy, particularly when processing sentences requiring higher cognitive effort. As well, working memory was found to be a stronger predictor of comprehension accuracy than long-term memory.
The findings suggest that children with DLD may struggle more with the demands placed on their WM capacity when interpreting complex sentences.
