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Journal of Speech, Language, and... Jul 2020Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between executive functioning and word learning among preschoolers with and without developmental...
Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between executive functioning and word learning among preschoolers with and without developmental language disorder (DLD). Method Forty-one preschool-age children with DLD were matched to typically developing children on age and sex. Participants were exposed to 10 novel pseudowords, half of which referred to familiar objects and half of which referred to unfamiliar objects. Their ability to produce, recognize, and comprehend the novel words was tested, and they completed executive function tasks measuring sustained selective attention, short-term memory, working memory, inhibition, and shifting. Results Preschoolers with DLD performed worse compared to typically developing peers on all measures of executive function and novel word learning. Both groups showed a relative weakness in producing pseudowords that corresponded with familiar objects versus pseudowords for unknown objects. Executive function accounted for statistically significant variance in word learning beyond group membership, with inhibition as a significant predictor of all word learning outcomes and short-term memory as a significant predictor of novel word comprehension. Executive function explained significant variance in novel word production and recognition even after accounting for variance explained by group differences in IQ and receptive vocabulary. Conclusion Findings replicate previous research reporting deficits in word learning and executive function in children with DLD, indicate that preschoolers are disadvantaged in learning new words for familiar objects, and support a relationship between executive function and word learning for children with and without DLD. Future research should examine the directionality of the relationship between these variables.
Topics: Child; Child, Preschool; Executive Function; Humans; Language Development Disorders; Memory, Short-Term; Verbal Learning; Vocabulary
PubMed: 32546080
DOI: 10.1044/2020_JSLHR-19-00342 -
Experimental Brain Research Apr 2024Psychomotor slowing has consistently been observed in schizophrenia, however research on motor learning in schizophrenia is limited. Additionally, motor learning in...
Psychomotor slowing has consistently been observed in schizophrenia, however research on motor learning in schizophrenia is limited. Additionally, motor learning in schizophrenia has never been compared with the waning of motor learning abilities in the elderly. Therefore, in an extensive study, 30 individuals with schizophrenia, 30 healthy age-matched controls and 30 elderly participants were compared on sensorimotor learning tasks including sequence learning and adaptation (both explicit and implicit), as well as tracking and aiming. This paper presents new findings on an explicit motor sequence learning task, an explicit verbal learning task and a simple aiming task and summarizes all previously published findings of this large investigation. Individuals with schizophrenia and elderly had slower Movement Time (MT)s compared with controls in all tasks, however both groups improved over time. Elderly participants learned slower on tracking and explicit sequence learning while individuals with schizophrenia adapted slower and to a lesser extent to movement perturbations in adaptation tasks and performed less well on cognitive tests including the verbal learning task. Results suggest that motor slowing is present in schizophrenia and the elderly, however both groups show significant but different motor skill learning. Cognitive deficits seem to interfere with motor learning and performance in schizophrenia while task complexity and decreased movement precision interferes with motor learning in the elderly, reflecting different underlying patterns of decline in these conditions. In addition, evidence for motor slowing together with impaired implicit adaptation supports the influence of cerebellum and the cerebello-thalamo-cortical-cerebellar (CTCC) circuits in schizophrenia, important for further understanding the pathophysiology of the disorder.
Topics: Humans; Aged; Psychomotor Performance; Schizophrenia; Learning; Aging; Verbal Learning
PubMed: 38459999
DOI: 10.1007/s00221-024-06797-9 -
Adicciones Mar 2024Brain damage related to alcohol consumption is associated with impairments in cognitive functions, among which memory and verbal learning stand out. The main objective...
Brain damage related to alcohol consumption is associated with impairments in cognitive functions, among which memory and verbal learning stand out. The main objective is to evaluate memory and verbal learning in a sample of 111 patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD) versus 78 with major depressive disorder (MDD) and 100 healthy controls. The evaluation included sociodemographic and clinical variables, the Hamilton Depression Scale (HDRS) and the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT). One-way ANOVA was used for comparisons between the 3 groups and two-way ANCOVAS including different covariates. The one-way ANOVA shows that patients with AUD and MDD had scores similar to each other and lower than those of the control group (p < 0.001), with the exception of the Cued CVLT (worse scores in MDD vs AUD, p < 0.001). After including age, sex and years of completed studies as covariates, the differences between the AUD and MDD groups persisted compared to the control group (p ≤ 0.003) in all indices except for the Immediate Free CVLT and the Cued CVLT (worse performance in MDD vs AUD, p = 0.022 and p = 0.035, respectively). In the second ANCOVA, after controlling for depression severity, differences were only detected between AUD patients and healthy controls (p ≤ 0.007). Patients with AUD present a significant impairment in learning and verbal memory when compared with patients with MDD and with healthy people.
Topics: Humans; Depressive Disorder, Major; Alcoholism; Alcohol Drinking; Verbal Learning
PubMed: 34882245
DOI: 10.20882/adicciones.1696 -
Behavior Research Methods Apr 2021There is increasing interest in the assessment of learning and memory in typically developing children as well as in children with neurodevelopmental disorders. However,...
There is increasing interest in the assessment of learning and memory in typically developing children as well as in children with neurodevelopmental disorders. However, neuropsychological assessments have been hampered by the dearth of standardised tests that enable direct comparison between distinct memory processes or between types of stimulus materials. We developed a tablet-based paired-associate learning paradigm, the Pair Test, based on neurocognitive models of learning and memory. The aims are to (i) establish the utility of this novel memory tool for use with children across a wide age range, and (ii) examine test validity, reliability and reproducibility of the construct. The convergent validity of the test was found to be adequate, and higher test reliability was shown for the Pair Test compared to standardised measures. Moderate test-retest reproducibility was shown, despite a long time interval between sessions (14 months). Moreover, the Pair Test is able to capture developmental changes in memory, and can therefore chart the developmental trajectory of memory and learning functions across childhood and adolescence. Finally, we used this novel instrument to acquire normative data from 130 typically developing children, aged 8-18 years. Age-stratified normative data are provided for learning, delayed recall and delayed recognition, for measures of verbal and non-verbal memory. The Pair Test thus provides measures of learning and memory accounting for encoding, consolidation and retrieval processes. As such, the standardised test results can be used to determine the status of learning and memory in healthy children, and also to identify deficits in paediatric patients at risk of damage to the neural network underlying mnemonic functions.
Topics: Adolescent; Child; Humans; Memory; Mental Recall; Neuropsychological Tests; Reproducibility of Results; Verbal Learning
PubMed: 32909110
DOI: 10.3758/s13428-020-01470-9 -
Human Brain Mapping Nov 2021The relationship between hippocampal subfield volumetry and verbal list-learning test outcomes have mostly been studied in clinical and elderly populations, and remain...
The relationship between hippocampal subfield volumetry and verbal list-learning test outcomes have mostly been studied in clinical and elderly populations, and remain controversial. For the first time, we characterized a relationship between verbal list-learning test outcomes and hippocampal subfield volumetry on two large separate datasets of 447 and 1,442 healthy young and middle-aged adults, and explored the processes that could explain this relationship. We observed a replicable positive linear correlation between verbal list-learning test free recall scores and CA1 volume, specific to verbal list learning as demonstrated by the hippocampal subfield volumetry independence from verbal intelligence. Learning meaningless items was also positively correlated with CA1 volume, pointing to the role of the test design rather than word meaning. Accordingly, we found that association-based mnemonics mediated the relationship between verbal list-learning test outcomes and CA1 volume. This mediation suggests that integrating items into associative representations during verbal list-learning tests explains CA1 volume variations: this new explanation is consistent with the associative functions of the human CA1.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; CA1 Region, Hippocampal; Female; Hippocampus; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Middle Aged; Verbal Learning; Young Adult
PubMed: 34453474
DOI: 10.1002/hbm.25614 -
International Journal of Geriatric... Apr 2015The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between verbal learning and memory performance and hippocampal volume in subjects with co-morbid type 2...
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between verbal learning and memory performance and hippocampal volume in subjects with co-morbid type 2 diabetes and major depression compared with healthy control subjects and subjects with type 2 diabetes alone.
METHODS
Twenty four subjects with type 2 diabetes and 20 subjects with type 2 diabetes and major depression were recruited from endocrinology clinics and were compared with 32 healthy control subjects recruited from the community. Subjects were scanned on a 1.5 T GE scanner, and hippocampal volumes were measured using Freesurfer. The California Verbal Learning Test assessed learning and memory. Significant predictors of verbal learning performance (e.g., age, gender, education, blood pressure, stroke risk, hemoglobin A1c, and hippocampal volume) were determined using a stepwise linear regression.
RESULTS
Subjects with diabetes and depression had significantly worse performance on verbal list learning compared with healthy control subjects. Hippocampal volume was a strong predictor of performance in healthy control subjects, and age and hippocampal volume were strong predictors in subjects with type 2 diabetes alone. Age alone was a significant predictor of verbal learning performance in subjects with diabetes and depression.
CONCLUSIONS
The relationship between hippocampal volume and performance on the California Verbal Learning Test is decoupled in subjects with type 2 diabetes and major depression and this decoupling may contribute to poor verbal learning and memory performance in this study population.
Topics: Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Analysis of Variance; Case-Control Studies; Comorbidity; Depressive Disorder, Major; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2; Female; Hippocampus; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Memory Disorders; Middle Aged; Neuropsychological Tests; Predictive Value of Tests; Verbal Learning
PubMed: 24920010
DOI: 10.1002/gps.4149 -
Journal of the International... Jul 2021Preclinical and clinical studies suggest that males and females may be differentially affected by cannabis use. This study evaluated the interaction of cannabis use and...
OBJECTIVES
Preclinical and clinical studies suggest that males and females may be differentially affected by cannabis use. This study evaluated the interaction of cannabis use and biological sex on cognition, and the association between observed cognitive deficits and features of cannabis use.
METHODS
Cognitive measures were assessed in those with regular, ongoing, cannabis use (N = 40; 22 female) and non-using peers (N = 40; 23 female). Intelligence, psychomotor speed, and verbal working memory were measured with the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, Digit Symbol Test, and Digit Span and Hopkins Verbal Learning Test, respectively. Associations between cognitive measures and cannabis use features (e.g., lifetime cannabis use, age of initiation, time since last use of cannabis, recent high-concentration tetrahydrocannabinoid exposure) were also evaluated.
RESULTS
No main effects of group were observed across measures. Significant interactions between group and biological sex were observed on measures of intelligence, psychomotor speed, and verbal learning, with greatest group differences observed between males with and without regular cannabis use. Psychomotor performance was negatively correlated with lifetime cannabis exposure. Female and male cannabis use groups did not differ in features of cannabis use.
CONCLUSIONS
Findings suggest that biological sex influences the relationship between cannabis and cognition, with males potentially being more vulnerable to the neurocognitive deficits related to cannabis use.
Topics: Cannabis; Cognition; Cognition Disorders; Humans; Memory, Short-Term; Neuropsychological Tests; Verbal Learning
PubMed: 34261548
DOI: 10.1017/S1355617721000606 -
Journal of Speech, Language, and... Jul 2021Purpose Word learning difficulties have been documented in multiple studies involving children with dyslexia and developmental language disorder (DLD; see also specific...
Purpose Word learning difficulties have been documented in multiple studies involving children with dyslexia and developmental language disorder (DLD; see also specific language impairment). However, no previous studies have directly contrasted word learning in these two frequently co-occurring disorders. We examined word learning in second-grade students with DLD-only and dyslexia-only as compared to each other, peers with both disorders (DLD + dyslexia), and peers with typical development. We hypothesized that children with dyslexia-only and DLD-only would show differences in word learning due to differences in their core language strengths and weaknesses. Method Children ( = 244) were taught eight novel pseudowords paired with unfamiliar objects. The teaching script included multiple exposures to the phonological form, the pictured object, a verbal semantic description of the object, and spaced retrieval practice opportunities. Word learning was assessed immediately after instruction with tasks requiring recall or recognition of the phonological and semantic information. Results Children with dyslexia-only performed significantly better on existing vocabulary measures than their peers with DLD-only. On experimental word learning measures, children in the dyslexia-only and DLD + dyslexia groups showed significantly poorer performance than typically developing children on all word learning tasks. Children with DLD-only differed significantly from the TD group on a single word learning task assessing verbal semantic recall. Conclusions Overall, results indicated that children with dyslexia display broad word learning difficulties extending beyond the phonological domain; however, this contrasted with their relatively strong performance on measures of existing vocabulary knowledge. More research is needed to understand relations between word learning abilities and overall vocabulary knowledge and how to close vocabulary gaps for children with both disorders. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.14832717.
Topics: Child; Dyslexia; Humans; Language Development Disorders; Language Tests; Verbal Learning; Vocabulary
PubMed: 34185581
DOI: 10.1044/2021_JSLHR-20-00217 -
Cognitive Science Apr 2017Computational models have shown that purely statistical knowledge about words' linguistic contexts is sufficient to learn many properties of words, including syntactic...
Computational models have shown that purely statistical knowledge about words' linguistic contexts is sufficient to learn many properties of words, including syntactic and semantic category. For example, models can infer that "postman" and "mailman" are semantically similar because they have quantitatively similar patterns of association with other words (e.g., they both tend to occur with words like "deliver," "truck," "package"). In contrast to these computational results, artificial language learning experiments suggest that distributional statistics alone do not facilitate learning of linguistic categories. However, experiments in this paradigm expose participants to entirely novel words, whereas real language learners encounter input that contains some known words that are semantically organized. In three experiments, we show that (a) the presence of familiar semantic reference points facilitates distributional learning and (b) this effect crucially depends both on the presence of known words and the adherence of these known words to some semantic organization.
Topics: Cues; Humans; Language; Language Development; Learning; Verbal Learning; Vocabulary
PubMed: 26988338
DOI: 10.1111/cogs.12360 -
Developmental Science Mar 2023Code-switching occurs regularly in the input to bilingual children. Yet, the effect of code-switched input on language development is unclear. To test whether word...
Code-switching occurs regularly in the input to bilingual children. Yet, the effect of code-switched input on language development is unclear. To test whether word learning would be affected by code-switching, Spanish-English bilingual children (N = 45, 19 boys, Mean = 5.05 years; ethnicity: 37 Hispanic/Latino, six Non-Hispanic/Latino, two unreported) were taught English-like novel words in two conditions. In the English-only condition, definitions for novel words were provided entirely in English. In the code-switch condition, definitions for novel words were provided in English and Spanish, incorporating code-switches. Children required fewer exposures to retain novel words in the code-switch than the English-only condition and this effect was not moderated by children's language ability or exposure to code-switching, suggesting that code-switched input does not pose word-learning risks to bilingual children, including children with lower levels of language ability.
Topics: Male; Child; Humans; Child, Preschool; Multilingualism; Language; Language Development; Verbal Learning; Aptitude
PubMed: 35639763
DOI: 10.1111/desc.13292