Executive function predicts artificial language learning

Trait-level predictors of human performance outcomes in personnel engaged in stressful laboratory and field tasks

Introduction

Personnel performance under stress hinges on various factors, including individual traits, training, context, mental and physiological states, and task demands. This study explored the link between the traits of military personnel and their performance outcomes in five domains: move, shoot, communicate, navigate, and sustain.

Methods

A total of 387 U.S. Army soldiers participated in this study, undergoing trait assessments covering physical, cognitive, social-emotional, demographic/lifestyle, and health domains. Performance was measured through lab and field events assessing a broad range of individual and team-level skills under conditions demanding resilience to acute cognitive and physical stress exposure. Analysis used feature selection and elastic net regression.

Results

Analyses revealed complex associations between traits and performance, with physical, cognitive, health-related, social-emotional, and lifestyle traits playing roles in guiding and constraining performance. Measures of resilience, emotion regulation, grit, and mindfulness were identified as relevant predictors of several performance-related outcomes.

Discussion

Results carry implications for the selection, training, and operational effectiveness of personnel in high-stakes occupations including military and first response. Further research is necessary to explore the mechanisms underlying these associations and inform targeted interventions to boost personnel effectiveness.

The relationship of speech perception and speech production: It's complicated

A widely held belief is that speech perception and speech production are tightly linked, with each modality available to help with learning in the other modality. This positive relationship is often summarized as perception and production being "two sides of the same coin." There are, indeed, many situations that have shown this mutually supportive relationship. However, there is a growing body of research showing very different results, with the modalities operating independently, or even in opposition to each other. We review the now-sizeable literature demonstrating the negative effect that speech production can have on perceptual learning of speech, at multiple levels (particularly at the lexical and sublexical levels). By comparing the situations that show this pattern with ones in which more positive interactions occur, we provide an initial account of why the different outcomes are found, identifying factors that lead to either positive or negative effects of production on perception. The review clarifies the complex relationship that exists between the two modalities: They are indeed linked, but their relationship is more complicated than is suggested by the notion that they are two sides of the same coin.

ENIGMA: A Web Application for Running Online Artificial Grammar Learning Experiments

Artificial grammar learning (AGL) is an experimental paradigm frequently adopted to investigate the unconscious and conscious learning and application of linguistic knowledge. This paper will introduce ENIGMA ( https://enigma-lang.org ) as a free, flexible, and lightweight Web-based tool for running online AGL experiments. The application is optimized for desktop and mobile devices with a user-friendly interface, which can present visual and aural stimuli and elicit judgment responses with RT measures. Without limits in time and space, ENIGMA could help collect more data from participants with diverse personal and language backgrounds and variable cognitive skills. Such data are essential to explain complex factors influencing learners' performance in AGL experiments and answer various research questions regarding L1/L2 acquisition. The introduction of the core features in ENIGMA is followed by an example study that partially replicated Chen (Lang Acquis 27(3):331-361, 2020) to illustrate possible experimental designs and examine the quality of the collected data.

Individual variation in bilingual vocabulary in preschoolers with developmental language disorder

BACKGROUND

It is unclear how speech production, selective attention, and phonological working memory are related to first- (L1) and second-language (L2) vocabularies in bilingual preschoolers with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD).

AIMS

To study individual variation in vocabularies in DLD bilingual preschoolers by (1) comparing them to typically developing (TD) bilingual, and TD and DLD monolingual peers; (2) differentially predicting L2 vocabulary; and (3) identifying and characterizing bilinguals' L1/L2 vocabulary profiles.

METHODS

We measured the selective attention, working memory, and L1 Turkish/Polish (where applicable) and L1/L2 Dutch speech and vocabulary abilities of 31 DLD bilingual, 37 TD bilingual, and 61 DLD and 54 TD Dutch monolingual three-to-five year-olds.

RESULTS

DLD bilinguals scored lower than TD bilinguals and TD/DLD monolinguals on all measures, except L2 vocabulary, where all bilinguals underperformed all monolinguals. Selective attention predicted Dutch vocabulary across groups. Three bilingual vocabulary profiles emerged: DLD bilinguals were less likely to be L1 dominant, TD/DLD bilinguals with better attention more often had a Balanced high L1/L2 profile, while those with poorer selective attention and L1 speech tended to be L2 dominant.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings highlight the roles of L1 speech and selective attention, rather than L2 speech and working memory, in understanding bilingual vocabulary variation among DLD preschoolers.

From terrible twos to sassy sixes: The development of vocabulary and executive functioning across early childhood

Across the early childhood period of development, young children exhibit considerable growth in their executive functioning (EF) and vocabulary abilities. Understanding the developmental trajectory of these seemingly interrelated processes is important as both early vocabulary and EF have been shown to predict critical academic and socio-emotional outcomes later in childhood. Although previous research suggests that EF and vocabulary are correlated in early childhood, much of the existing longitudinal research has focused on unidirectional relations among preschool child samples. The current large-scale study, therefore, sought to examine whether children's vocabulary and EF abilities are bidirectionally related over time across four measurement waves in early childhood (i.e., at ages 2, 3, 4, and 6). At each timepoint, children's vocabulary skills were positively correlated with their concurrent EF abilities. After controlling for child sex and maternal education status, the best-fitting, cross-lagged panel model was a unidirectional model whereby children's early vocabulary scores predicted their later EF performance at each timepoint. Although age 2 EF significantly predicted age 3 vocabulary size, this association was no longer significant after accounting for maternal education status. Our results illustrate that vocabulary size plays an important role in predicting children's later EF performance across various timepoints in early childhood, even after controlling for children's initial EF scores. These findings have important implications for intervention research as fostering early vocabulary acquisition may serve as a possible avenue for improving EF outcomes in young children. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Children's vocabulary size is positively correlated with their concurrent executive functioning skill at ages 2, 3, 4, and 6 Young children's early vocabulary scores predict their later EF performance across measurement waves, even after controlling for initial EF skill There is stability in children's relative vocabulary size and executive functioning performance over time in early childhood.

Non-adjacent dependency learning from variable input: investigating the effects of bilingualism, phonological memory, and cognitive control

Introduction

One proposed advantage of bilingualism concerns the ability to extract regularities based on frequency information (statistical learning). Specifically, it has been proposed that bilinguals have an advantage in statistical learning that particularly holds in situations of variable input. Empirical evidence on this matter is scarce. An additional question is whether a potential bilingual advantage in statistical learning can be attributed to enhancements in phonological memory and cognitive control. Previous findings on effects of bilingualism on phonological memory and cognitive control are not consistent.

Method

In the present study, we compared statistical learning from consistent and variable input in monolingual and bilingual children (Study 1) and adults (Study 2). We also explored whether phonological memory and cognitive control might account for any potential group differences found.

Results

The findings suggest that there might be some advantage of bilinguals in statistical learning, but that this advantage is not robust: It largely surfaced only in t-tests against chance for the groups separately, did not surface in the same way for children and adults, and was modulated by experiment order. Furthermore, our results provide no evidence that any enhancement in bilinguals' statistical learning was related to improved phonological memory and cognitive control: bilinguals did not outperform monolinguals on these cognitive measures and performance on these measures did not consistently relate to statistical learning outcomes.

Discussion

Taken together, these findings suggest that any potential effects of bilingualism on statistical learning probably do not involve enhanced cognitive abilities associated with bilingualism.

Executive function skills account for a bilingual advantage in English novel word learning among low-income preschoolers

The current study compared economically disadvantaged bilingual and monolingual preschoolers' performance on an English novel word learning task and examined whether children's executive function (EF) skills account for differences in novel word learning performance across groups. In total, 39 English monolinguals and 35 Spanish-English bilingual preschoolers from low-income homes completed a battery of EF measures and the Quick Interactive Language Screener to gauge English novel word learning ability. Within a poverty context, bilingual preschoolers performed significantly better on measures of English novel word learning as compared with their monolingual peers. This bilingual advantage in novel word learning ability was mediated by short-term memory, but not inhibition or attention shifting, which indicates that gains in short-term memory may facilitate word learning in English for bilingual preschoolers from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. These findings have important practical implications for interventions designed to promote English vocabulary growth for low-income bilingual children.

Piecewise Structural Equation Modeling of the Quantity Implicature in Child Language

We review an array of experimental methodological factors that either contribute to or detract from the measurement of pragmatic implicatures in child language. We carry out a truth value judgment task to measure children's interpretations of the Spanish existential quantifier algunos in implicature-consistent and implicature-inconsistent contexts. Independently, we take measures of children's inhibition, working memory, attention, approximate number ability, phrasal syntax, and lexicon. We model the interplay of these variables using a piecewise structural equation model (SEM), common in the life sciences, but not in the social and behavioral sciences. By 6 years of age, the children in our sample were not statistically different from adults in their interpretations. Syntax, lexicon, and inhibition significantly predict implicature generation, each accounting for unique variance. The approximate number system and inhibition significantly predict lexical development. The statistical power of the piecewise SEM components, with a sample of 64 children, is high, in comparison to a traditional, globally estimated SEM of the same data.

Cognitive and contextual factors modulating grammar learning at older ages

Second language learning has been shown more difficult for older than younger adults, however, the research trying to identify the sources of difficulty and possible modulating factors is scarce. Extrinsic (learning condition and complexity) and intrinsic factors (executive control) have been related to L2-grammar learning in younger adults. In the present study, we aim to assess whether extrinsic and intrinsic factors are also modulating grammar learning in older adults. We compared the learning performance of younger and older adults in a L2 learning task. 162 Spanish native-speakers (81 young) learnt Japañol (Japanese syntaxis and Spanish lexicon) in either an intentional (metalinguistic explanation) or an incidental (comprehension of sentences) context. The complexity of the sentences was also manipulated by introducing (or not) a subordinate clause. Individual differences in proactivity were measured with the AX-CPT task. After the learning phase, participants performed a Grammatical Judgment Task where they answered if the presented sentences were grammatically correct. No differences between older and younger adults were found. Overall, better results were found for the intentional-condition than for the incidental-condition. A significant interaction between learning context and the proactivity index in the AX-CPT task showed that more proactive participants were better when learning in the incidental-condition. These results suggest that both extrinsic and intrinsic factors are important during language learning and that they equally affect younger and older adults.

The Directionality of the Relationship Between Executive Functions and Language Skills: A Literature Review

It has been demonstrated that executive functions play a significant role in different aspects of the development of children. Development of language is also one of the most important accomplishments of the preschool years, and it has been linked to many outcomes in life. Despite substantial research demonstrating the association between executive function and language development in childhood, only a handful of studies have examined the direction of the developmental pathways between EF skills and language skills, therefore little is known about how these two constructs are connected. In this review paper, we discuss three possible directional relationships between EFs and language development throughout childhood. First, we discuss how EF might affect language functioning. Next, we discuss how language functioning might affect EF. Lastly, we consider other possible relationships between EF and language. Given that children with better EF and language skills are more likely to succeed in educational settings and demonstrate greater social–emotional competencies, investigating the relationship between EF and language in the preschool period provides insight into mechanisms that have not been extensively studied. Furthermore, it could create new opportunities for designing effective and efficient interventions aimed at addressing EF and language deficits during the preschool period which could in turn influence later development.

Which Cognitive Factors Predict L2 Grammar Learning: Cognitive Control, Statistical Learning, Working Memory, or Attention?

Individual variability of cognitive factors in second language (L2) grammar learning has long been the focus in the field of L2 acquisition. Most explored the issue by focusing on one factor like cognitive control, working memory, statistical learning (SL), or attention. Few investigated the topic by taking all these factors into consideration. However, different factors might interact and collaboratively contribute to the learning process. Examining the issue by considering all the factors might yield different results and facilitate our understanding of the mechanism subserving L2 grammar learning. Therefore, this study explored whether and how these factors predicted L2 grammar learning. A total of 34 college students completed a set of cognitive measurements on these cognitive factors, after which they were trained with artificial grammar over 5 consecutive days. Using multiple regression analysis and machine learning algorithms, we found that in the initial phase, SL was the more significant predictor, whereas in the intermediate and the last phases, cognitive control served as the more significant predictor. In other words, in the initial phase of L2 grammar learning, SL might play an important role, whereas in the intermediate and proficient phase, the updating component of cognitive control might play a more significant role. The findings provided empirical evidence to the neurocognitive account of grammar learning, shedding light on the mechanism of L2 grammar learning.

Study protocol: a comprehensive multi-method neuroimaging approach to disentangle developmental effects and individual differences in second language learning

BACKGROUND

While it is well established that second language (L2) learning success changes with age and across individuals, the underlying neural mechanisms responsible for this developmental shift and these individual differences are largely unknown. We will study the behavioral and neural factors that subserve new grammar and word learning in a large cross-sectional developmental sample. This study falls under the NWO (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek [Dutch Research Council]) Language in Interaction consortium (website: https://www.languageininteraction.nl/ ).

METHODS

We will sample 360 healthy individuals across a broad age range between 8 and 25 years. In this paper, we describe the study design and protocol, which involves multiple study visits covering a comprehensive behavioral battery and extensive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocols. On the basis of these measures, we will create behavioral and neural fingerprints that capture age-based and individual variability in new language learning. The behavioral fingerprint will be based on first and second language proficiency, memory systems, and executive functioning. We will map the neural fingerprint for each participant using the following MRI modalities: T1-weighted, diffusion-weighted, resting-state functional MRI, and multiple functional-MRI paradigms. With respect to the functional MRI measures, half of the sample will learn grammatical features and half will learn words of a new language. Combining all individual fingerprints allows us to explore the neural maturation effects on grammar and word learning.

DISCUSSION

This will be one of the largest neuroimaging studies to date that investigates the developmental shift in L2 learning covering preadolescence to adulthood. Our comprehensive approach of combining behavioral and neuroimaging data will contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms influencing this developmental shift and individual differences in new language learning. We aim to answer: (I) do these fingerprints differ according to age and can these explain the age-related differences observed in new language learning? And (II) which aspects of the behavioral and neural fingerprints explain individual differences (across and within ages) in grammar and word learning? The results of this study provide a unique opportunity to understand how the development of brain structure and function influence new language learning success.

Cross-Language Transfer and Attentional Control in Early Bilingual Speech

PURPOSE

This study investigated the roles of cross-language transfer of first language (L1) and attentional control in second-language (L2) speech perception and production of sequential bilinguals, taking phonological overlap into account.

METHOD

Twenty-five monolingual Dutch-speaking and 25 sequential bilingual Turkish-Dutch-speaking 3- and 4-year-olds were tested using picture identification tasks for speech perception in L1 Turkish and L2 Dutch, single-word tasks for speech production in L1 and L2, and a visual search task for attentional control. Phonological overlap was manipulated by dividing the speech tasks into subsets of phonemes that were either shared or unshared between languages.

RESULTS

In Dutch speech perception and production, monolingual children obtained higher accuracies than bilingual peers. Bilinguals showed equal performance in L1 and L2 perception but scored higher on L1 than on L2 production. For speech perception of shared phonemes, linear regression analyses revealed no direct effects of attention and L1 on L2. For speech production of shared phonemes, attention and L1 directly affected L2. When exploring unshared phonemes, direct effects of attentional control on L2 were demonstrated not only for speech production but also for speech perception.

CONCLUSIONS

The roles of attentional control and cross-language transfer on L2 speech are different for shared and unshared phonemes. Whereas L2 speech production of shared phonemes is also supported by cross-language transfer of L1, L2 speech perception and production of unshared phonemes benefit from attentional control only. This underscores the clinical importance of considering phonological overlap and supporting attentional control when assisting young sequential bilinguals' L2 development.

Majority language skill, not measures of bilingualism, predicts executive attention in bilingual children

Evidence is mixed regarding whether and why bilingual children might be advantaged in the development of executive functions. Five preregistered hypotheses regarding sources of a bilingual advantage were tested with data from 102 Spanish-English bilingual children and 25 English monolingual children who were administered a test of executive attention, the flanker task, at 7, 8, and 9 years of age. Measures of the children's early and concurrent bilingual exposure and their concurrent English and Spanish skill were available from a larger longitudinal study in which these children participated. Tests of the preregistered hypotheses yielded null findings: The bilingual children's executive attention abilities were unrelated to their amount of early exposure to mixed input, to balance in their early dual language exposure, to balance in their concurrent exposure, to their degree of bilingualism, or to their combined Spanish + English vocabulary score. English vocabulary score was a positive significant correlate of executive attention among the bilingual children, but those bilingual children above the group median in English vocabulary did not outperform the monolingual children when the comparison was adjusted for nonverbal IQ. These findings suggest that a language learning ability may explain the association between bilingualism and executive function. Because the best statistical approach to testing for effects on differences is a matter of dispute, all analyses were conducted with both a difference score and a residual gain score as the outcome variable. The central findings, but not all findings, were the same with both approaches.

The interplay between domain-general and domain-specific mechanisms during the time-course of verbal associative learning: An event-related potential study

Humans continuously learn new information. Here, we examined the temporal brain dynamics of explicit verbal associative learning between unfamiliar items. In the first experiment, 25 adults learned object-pseudoword associations during a 5-day training program allowing us to track the N400 dynamics across learning blocks within and across days. Successful learning was accompanied by an initial frontal N400 that decreased in amplitude across blocks during the first day and shifted to parietal sites during the last training day. In Experiment 2, we replicated our findings with 38 new participants randomly assigned to a consistent learning or an inconsistent learning group. The N400 amplitude modulations that we found, both within and between learning sessions, are taken to reflect the emergence of novel lexical traces even when learning concerns items for which no semantic information is provided. The shift in N400 topography suggests that different N400 neural generators may contribute to specific word learning steps through a balance between domain-general and language-specific mechanisms.

Switching between newly learned languages impacts executive control

Previous research has explored the relationship between language control and executive control based on performance in bilinguals' skilled languages. However, this relationship between bilingualism and executive control has not been examined at the very initial stage of language learning. In the present study, we trained Chinese speakers to learn words in German and Japanese, two languages with which they had no prior experience. In pre- and post-training, we measured participants' electrophysiological data to investigate how switching between these two newly learned languages affected executive control. We observed that, while lacking the language switching effect in the behavioral data, a flanker task elicited larger N2 and P3 amplitudes in the post-training session when participants were required to switch between German and Japanese compared to when they responded to only German or Japanese. These results provided evidence of language control of newly learned languages on domain-general executive control, specifically at the (very) initial period of language learning. Our findings support the adaptive nature of the relationship between bilingual language control and executive control.

Attentional shifting in children with developmental language disorder: A meta-analysis

PURPOSE

A meta-analysis investigating attentional shifting in children with developmental language disorder (DLD) was conducted. Task type, participant age, and dependent variable metric were examined as significant moderators.

METHOD

A systematic literature review identified 20 studies that met the following inclusionary criteria:(a) were published between 1994-2018; (b) included children with DLD aged 3;00 to 17;11 years; and (c) used behavioral performance-based measures of attentional shifting.

RESULTS

Children with DLD performed poorer than age-matched peers with typically developing language (TL) by 0.42 SD across attentional shifting studies. Moderator analyses showed an effect of task type, as children with DLD performed comparatively poorer on set-shifting (g = -.52) but not alternating tasks (g = -.18). Neither age nor dependent variable used to measure attentional shifting were significant moderators.

DISCUSSION

Children with DLD exhibit deficits in attentional shifting relative to same-age peers. Results of moderator analyses reveal that deficits were found on set-shifting but not alternating tasks and that these deficits remained consistent whether researchers measure accuracy or response time switch costs to ascertain attentional shifting ability. In addition, moderator analysis results suggest that attentional shifting deficits are consistent in preschool-age and school-age children with DLD.

Associations between stuttering, comorbid conditions and executive function in children: a population-based study

Background

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between executive function (EF), stuttering, and comorbidity by examining children who stutter (CWS) and children who do not stutter (CWNS) with and without comorbid conditions. Data from the National Health Interview Survey were used to examine behavioral manifestations of EF, such as inattention and self-regulation, in CWS and CWNS.

Methods

The sample included 2258 CWS (girls = 638, boys = 1620), and 117,725 CWNS (girls = 57,512; boys = 60,213). EF, and the presence of stuttering and comorbid conditions were based on parent report. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the distribution of stuttering and comorbidity across group and sex. Regression analyses were to determine the effects of stuttering and comorbidity on EF, and the relationship between EF and socioemotional competence.

Results

Results point to weaker EF in CWS compared to CWNS. Also, having comorbid conditions was also associated with weaker EF. CWS with comorbidity showed the weakest EF compared to CWNS with and without comorbidity, and CWS without comorbidity. Children with stronger EF showed higher socioemotional competence. A majority (60.32%) of CWS had at least one other comorbid condition in addition to stuttering. Boys who stutter were more likely to have comorbid conditions compared to girls who stutter.

Conclusion

Present findings suggest that comorbidity is a common feature in CWS. Stuttering and comorbid conditions negatively impact EF.

Word learning from context in school-age children: relations with language ability and executive function

Purpose: Although school-age children learn most new word meanings from surrounding context, the joint roles of language ability and executive function (EF) in the word learning process remain unclear. This study examined children's acquisition of word meanings from context in relation to oral language ability and three EF skills (working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility). Method: Typically developing school-age children completed measures of language and EF, then read and listened to short stories containing unfamiliar target words. A multiple-choice pretest-posttest measure assessed children's target word knowledge gains. Results: Regression analyses showed that language and cognitive flexibility were both related to word knowledge gains; each skill assumed greater importance among children with relative weakness in the other skill. Conclusion: Language ability and cognitive flexibility may each play a direct role in contextual word learning among school-age children, with children naturally relying on one skill if the other is weaker.

The Relationship Between Word Learning and Executive Function in Preschoolers With and Without Developmental Language Disorder

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.

The Effect of Semantic Similarity on Learning Ambiguous Words in a Second Language: An Event-Related Potential Study

Ambiguous words have multiple meanings. How these multiple meanings interact with each other during ambiguous word learning remains unclear. The current study adopted an event-related potentials (ERPs) technique to explore whether there is an interaction between two meanings when learning second language (L2) ambiguous words and how semantic similarity affects ambiguous word learning. In order to explore this issue, Chinese-English bilinguals were asked to learn pseudowords, which were paired with either two related new meanings (polysemes), two unrelated new meanings (homonyms), or one single new meaning (monosomies) over 2 consecutive days. ERP results revealed that learning the second meaning of a homonym induced a more negative N400 than the first meaning; learning the second meaning of a polyseme tended to produce a more positive late component (LPC) than the first meaning. These results indicate that the first meaning of homonyms may interfere with learning their second meaning. However, the first meaning of polysemous words may facilitate learning their second meaning. The current findings suggest that different mechanisms might be involved in learning L2 homonyms and polysemes.

From Klingon to Colbertian: Using Artificial Languages to Study Word Learning

Vocabulary acquisition is a critical part of learning a new language. Yet, due to structural, historical, and individual variability associated with natural languages, isolating the impact of specific factors on word learning can be challenging. Artificial languages are versatile tools for addressing this problem, allowing researchers to systematically manipulate properties of the language and control for learners' past experiences. Here, we review how artificial languages have been used to study bilingual word learning, with a particular focus on the influences of language input (e.g., word properties) and language experience (e.g., bilingualism). We additionally discuss the advantages and limitations of artificial languages for bilingual research and suggest resources for researchers considering the use of artificial languages. Used and interpreted properly, artificial language studies can inform our understanding of a wide range of factors relevant to word learning.

Attention in Bilingual Children With Developmental Language Disorder

Purpose Attention and language are hypothesized to interact in bilingual children and in children with developmental language disorder (DLD). In children who are bilingual, attentional control may be enhanced by repeated experience regulating 2 languages. In children with DLD, subtle weaknesses in sustained attention may relate to impaired language processing. This study measured attentional control and sustained attention in monolingual and bilingual children with and without DLD in order to examine the potential influences of bilingualism and DLD, as well as their intersection, on attention. Method Monolingual English-only and bilingual Spanish-English children aged 6-8 years were categorized into participant groups based on eligibility testing and parent interviews. Parent interviews included standardized assessment of language environment and parent concern regarding language. Participants completed 2 nonlinguistic computerized assessments: a flanker task to measure attentional control and a continuous performance task to measure sustained attention. Results One hundred nine children met all eligibility criteria for inclusion in a participant group. Regression models predicting performance on the attention tasks were similar for both sustained attention and attentional control. For both tasks, DLD was a significant predictor, and bilingualism was not. Measuring bilingualism continuously using parent-reported exposure did not alter results. Conclusions This study found no evidence of a "bilingual cognitive advantage" on 2 types of attention among sequential Spanish-English bilingual children but also found a negative effect of DLD that was consistent across both types of attention and both bilingual and monolingual children. Results are consistent with the broader literature on subtle nonlinguistic deficits in children with DLD and suggest these deficits are minimally affected by diverse linguistic experience.

Learning a Foreign Language: A New Path to Enhancement of Cognitive Functions

The complicated cognitive processes involved in natural (primary) bilingualism lead to significant cognitive development. Executive functions as a fundamental component of human cognition are deemed to be affected by language learning. To date, a large number of studies have investigated how natural (primary) bilingualism influences executive functions; however, the way acquired (secondary) bilingualism manipulates executive functions is poorly understood. To fill this gap, controlling for age, gender, IQ, and socio-economic status, the researchers compared 60 advanced learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) to 60 beginners on measures of executive functions involving Stroop, Wisconsin Card Sorting Task (WCST) and Wechsler's digit span tasks. The results suggested that mastering English as a foreign language causes considerable enhancement in two components of executive functions, namely cognitive flexibility and working memory. However, no significant difference was observed in inhibitory control between the advanced EFL learners and beginners.

White noise enhances new-word learning in healthy adults

Research suggests that listening to white noise may improve some aspects of cognitive performance in individuals with lower attention. This study investigated the impact of white noise on new word learning in healthy young adults, and whether this effect was mediated by executive attention skills. Eighty participants completed a single training session to learn the names of twenty novel objects. The session comprised 5 learning phases, each followed by a recall test. A final recognition test was also administered. Half the participants listened to white noise during the learning phases, and half completed the learning in silence. The noise group demonstrated superior recall accuracy over time, which was not impacted by participant attentional capacity. Recognition accuracy was near ceiling for both groups. These findings suggest that white noise has the capacity to enhance lexical acquisition.

Language Proficiency and Sustained Attention in Monolingual and Bilingual Children with and without Language Impairment

Background: The language profiles of children with language impairment (LI) and bilingual children can show partial, and possibly temporary, overlap. The current study examined the persistence of this overlap over time. Furthermore, we aimed to better understand why the language profiles of these two groups show resemblance, testing the hypothesis that the language difficulties of children with LI reflect a weakened ability to maintain attention to the stream of linguistic information. Consequent incomplete processing of language input may lead to delays that are similar to those originating from reductions in input frequency. Methods: Monolingual and bilingual children with and without LI (N = 128), aged 5-8 years old, participated in this study. Dutch receptive vocabulary and grammatical morphology were assessed at three waves. In addition, auditory and visual sustained attention were tested at wave 1. Mediation analyses were performed to examine relationships between LI, sustained attention, and language skills. Results: Children with LI and bilingual children were outperformed by their typically developing (TD) and monolingual peers, respectively, on vocabulary and morphology at all three waves. The vocabulary difference between monolinguals and bilinguals decreased over time. In addition, children with LI had weaker auditory and visual sustained attention skills relative to TD children, while no differences between monolinguals and bilinguals emerged. Auditory sustained attention mediated the effect of LI on vocabulary and morphology in both the monolingual and bilingual groups of children. Visual sustained attention only acted as a mediator in the bilingual group. Conclusion: The findings from the present study indicate that the overlap between the language profiles of children with LI and bilingual children is particularly large for vocabulary in early (pre)school years and reduces over time. Results furthermore suggest that the overlap may be explained by the weakened ability of children with LI to sustain their attention to auditory stimuli, interfering with how well incoming language is processed.

Second language processing and revision of garden-path sentences: a visual word study

We asked whether children's well-known difficulties revising initial sentence processing commitments characterize the immature or the learning parser. Adult L2 speakers of English acted out temporarily ambiguous and unambiguous instructions. While online processing patterns indicate that L2 adults experienced garden-paths and were sensitive to referential information to a similar degree as native adults, their act-out patterns indicate increased difficulties revising initial interpretations, at rates similar to those observed for 5-year-old native children (e.g., Trueswell, Sekerina, Hill & Logrip, 1999). We propose that L2 learners' difficulties with revision stem from increased recruitment of cognitive control networks during processing of a not fully proficient language, resulting in the reduced availability of cognitive control for parsing revisions.

Executive Function in SLI: Recent Advances and Future Directions

This paper provides a review of recent research on executive function abilities in children with specific language impairment (SLI). Across several studies, children with SLI are reported to perform worse than typically developing peers on measures of sustained attention, working memory, inhibition, and attention shifting. However, few studies have considered multiple executive function components simultaneously and even fewer have examined the underlying relationship between executive function deficits and impaired language acquisition. We argue that in order to fully understand the nature of executive function deficits in SLI, the field must move past simply identifying weaknesses to instead test models of executive function development and explore the nature of the relationship between executive function and language. Future research directions are recommended in order to achieve these goals.

Revise and resubmit: how real-time parsing limitations influence grammar acquisition

We present the results from a three-day artificial language learning study on adults. The study examined whether sentence-parsing limitations, in particular, difficulties revising initial syntactic/semantic commitments during comprehension, shape learners' ability to acquire a language. Findings show that both comprehension and production of morphology pertaining to sentence argument structure are delayed when this morphology consistently appears at the end, rather than at the beginning, of sentences in otherwise identical grammatical systems. This suggests that real-time processing constraints impact acquisition; morphological cues that tend to guide linguistic analyses are easier to learn than cues that revise these analyses. Parallel performance in production and comprehension indicates that parsing constraints affect grammatical acquisition, not just real-time commitments. Properties of the linguistic system (e.g., ordering of cues within a sentence) interact with the properties of the cognitive system (cognitive control and conflict-resolution abilities) and together affect language acquisition.

Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience

Several recent studies have suggested that deaf children perform more poorly on working memory tasks compared to hearing children, but these studies have not been able to determine whether this poorer performance arises directly from deafness itself or from deaf children's reduced language exposure. The issue remains unresolved because findings come mostly from (1) tasks that are verbal as opposed to non-verbal, and (2) involve deaf children who use spoken communication and therefore may have experienced impoverished input and delayed language acquisition. This is in contrast to deaf children who have been exposed to a sign language since birth from Deaf parents (and who therefore have native language-learning opportunities within a normal developmental timeframe for language acquisition). A more direct, and therefore stronger, test of the hypothesis that the type and quality of language exposure impact working memory is to use measures of non-verbal working memory (NVWM) and to compare hearing children with two groups of deaf signing children: those who have had native exposure to a sign language, and those who have experienced delayed acquisition and reduced quality of language input compared to their native-signing peers. In this study we investigated the relationship between NVWM and language in three groups aged 6-11 years: hearing children (n = 28), deaf children who were native users of British Sign Language (BSL; n = 8), and deaf children who used BSL but who were not native signers (n = 19). We administered a battery of non-verbal reasoning, NVWM, and language tasks. We examined whether the groups differed on NVWM scores, and whether scores on language tasks predicted scores on NVWM tasks. For the two executive-loaded NVWM tasks included in our battery, the non-native signers performed less accurately than the native signer and hearing groups (who did not differ from one another). Multiple regression analysis revealed that scores on the vocabulary measure predicted scores on those two executive-loaded NVWM tasks (with age and non-verbal reasoning partialled out). Our results suggest that whatever the language modality-spoken or signed-rich language experience from birth, and the good language skills that result from this early age of acquisition, play a critical role in the development of NVWM and in performance on NVWM tasks.