What do children's errors tell us about the strategies used during a word inferencing task?

A vital and often overlooked aspect of word learning is the ability to establish deep semantic knowledge by adjusting and fine-tuning new word meanings as information becomes available. Here we studied differences in children's ability to update incorrect or incomplete word meanings by studying error types in a word inferencing task. The participants, 45 8- and 9-year-olds, read three sentences that all ended with the same nonsense word and were asked to identify the meaning of the last word.

Age and vocabulary knowledge differentially influence the N400 and theta responses during semantic retrieval.

Using electroencephalography (EEG) to study the neural oscillations supporting language development is increasingly common; however, a clear understanding of the relationship between neural oscillations and traditional Event Related Potentials (ERPs) is needed to disentangle how maturation of language-related neural networks supports semantic processing throughout grade school. Theta and the N400 are both thought to index semantic retrieval but, in adults, are only weakly correlated with one another indicating they may measure somewhat unique aspects of retrieval. Here, we studied the relationship between the N400 amplitude and theta power during semantic retrieval with key indicators of language abilities including age, vocabulary, reading comprehension and phonological memory in 226 children ages 8-15 years.

Developmental differences in EEG oscillations supporting the identification of novel word meaning from context.

Implicit learning about new words by picking up on associative information in the contexts they appear in is an important aspect of vocabulary growth. The current study investigated the neural correlates that underlie how school-aged children and adolescents identify the meaning of novel words embedded within sentence contexts. Importantly, we examine how differences in the brain response to novel words and their context differ as a function of 1) explicit learning success, i.

Neural oscillations reflect meaning identification for novel words in context.

During language processing, people make rapid use of contextual information to promote comprehension of upcoming words. When new words are learned implicitly, information contained in the surrounding context can provide constraints on their possible meaning. In the current study, EEG was recorded as participants listened to a series of three sentences, each containing an identical target pseudoword, with the aim of using contextual information in the surrounding language to identify a meaning representation for the novel word.

Temporal and topographical changes in theta power between middle childhood and adolescence during sentence comprehension.

Time frequency analysis of the EEG is increasingly used to study the neural oscillations supporting language comprehension. Although this method holds promise for developmental research, most existing work focuses on adults. Theta power (4-8 Hz) in particular often corresponds to semantic processing of words in isolation and in ongoing text.

Cross-Morpheme Generalization Using a Complexity Approach in School-Age Children.

Purpose This single-case study examines a complexity approach to target selection in grammatical intervention in three children with varying levels of mastery of tense and agreement. Specifically, we examine whether targeting a complex tense and agreement grammatical structure (auxiliary BE in questions) leads to generalization to other less complex and related tense and agreement markers (auxiliary BE in declaratives, copula BE, third-person singular -, and past tense -). Method Three children (all boys; aged 5;5-9;7 [years;months]) with deficits in morphosyntax were enrolled in a treatment program targeting a complex grammatical structure (auxiliary BE in questions) following collection of multiple baselines.

Investigating Implicit and Explicit Word Learning in School-age Children Using a Combined Behavioral-Event Related Potential (ERP) Approach.

One challenge in word learning research is how to operationalize learning. We combined behavioral measures with EEG to examine implicit and explicit recognition of words previously introduced with or without meaning in an incidental learning task. Participants (8-11-year-old children) were not able to recognize previously introduced nonsense words and better performance on the learning task resulted in poorer word recognition.

Using the N400 event-related potential to study word learning from context in children from low- and higher-socioeconomic status homes.

Children from low-socioeconomic status (SES) homes have significantly smaller vocabularies than their higher-SES peers, a gap that increases over the course of the school years. One reason for the increase in this vocabulary gap during the school years is that children from low-SES homes learn fewer words from context than their higher-SES peers. To better understand how the process of word learning from context might differ in children related to SES, we investigated changes in the N400 event-related potential (ERP) as children from low- and higher-SES homes learned new words using only the surrounding linguistic context.

Developmental differences in the neural oscillations underlying auditory sentence processing in children and adults.

Although very young children seem to process ongoing language quickly and effortlessly, neuroimaging and behavioral studies reveal that children continue to mature in their language skills through adolescence. During this prolonged development, children likely engage the same basic cognitive processes and neural mechanisms to perform language tasks as adults, but in somewhat different ways. In this study we used time frequency analysis of EEG to identify developmental differences in the engagement of neural oscillations between children (ages 10-12) and adults while listening to naturally-paced sentences.

Vocabulary knowledge mediates the link between socioeconomic status and word learning in grade school.

The relationship between children's slow vocabulary growth and the family's low socioeconomic status (SES) has been well documented. However, previous studies have often focused on infants or preschoolers and primarily used static measures of vocabulary at multiple time points. To date, there is no research investigating whether SES predicts a child's word learning abilities in grade school and, if so, what mediates this relationship.

Developmental differences in beta and theta power during sentence processing.

Although very young children process ongoing language quickly and effortlessly, research indicates that they continue to improve and mature in their language skills through adolescence. This prolonged development may be related to differing engagement of semantic and syntactic processes. This study used event related potentials and time frequency analysis of EEG to identify developmental differences in neural engagement as children (ages 10-12) and adults performed an auditory verb agreement grammaticality judgment task.

Effects of verb familiarity on finiteness marking in children with specific language impairment.

Purpose: Children with specific language impairment (SLI) have known deficits in the verb lexicon and finiteness marking. This study investigated a potential relationship between these 2 variables in children with SLI and 2 control groups considering predictions from 2 different theoretical perspectives, morphosyntactic versus morphophonological.

Method: Children with SLI, age-equivalent, and language-equivalent (LE) control children (n=59) completed an experimental sentence imitation task that generated estimates of children's finiteness accuracy under 2 levels of verb familiarity--familiar real verbs versus unfamiliar real verbs--in clausal sites marked for finiteness.

Lexical Retrieval of Nouns and Verbs in a Sentence Completion Task.

This study explored noun and verb retrieval using a sentence completion task to expand upon previous findings from picture naming tasks. Participants completed sentences missing either a target noun or verb in the final position. Non-target responses were coded for substitution type, imageability and frequency.

What changes in neural oscillations can reveal about developmental cognitive neuroscience: language development as a case in point.

EEG is a primary method for studying temporally precise neuronal processes across the lifespan. Most of this work focuses on event related potentials (ERPs); however, using time-locked time frequency analysis to decompose the EEG signal can identify and distinguish multiple changes in brain oscillations underlying cognition (Bastiaansen et al., 2010).

The influence of two cognitive-linguistic variables on incidental word learning in 5-year-olds.

The relation between incidental word learning and two cognitive-linguistic variables--phonological memory and phonological awareness--is not fully understood. Thirty-five typically developing, 5-year-old, preschool children participated in a study examining the association between phonological memory, phonological awareness, and incidental word learning. Children were exposed to target words in a read-aloud story that accompanied a wordless picture book.

The recruitment of knowledge regarding plurality and compound formation during language comprehension.

Compound formation has been a major focus of research and debate in mental lexicon research. In particular, it has been widely observed that compounds with a regular plural non-head are dispreferred, and a long line of research has examined the nature of this constraint, including which morphological, semantic or phonological properties of the non-head underlie this dispreference. While it is typically assumed that this constraint in fact leads to the barring of a compound analysis to a noun-noun string which would otherwise violate the constraint, its implementation during sentence comprehension has not been thoroughly examined.