How statistical learning interacts with the socioeconomic environment to shape children's language development.

Language is acquired in part through statistical learning abilities that encode environmental regularities. Language development is also heavily influenced by social environmental factors such as socioeconomic status. However, it is unknown to what extent statistical learning interacts with SES to affect language outcomes.

Distinct neural networks for detecting violations of adjacent versus nonadjacent sequential dependencies: An fMRI study.

The ability to learn and process sequential dependencies is essential for language acquisition and other cognitive domains. Recent studies suggest that the learning of adjacent (e.g.

Concurrent Learning of Adjacent and Nonadjacent Dependencies in Visuo-Spatial and Visuo-Verbal Sequences.

Both adjacent and non-adjacent dependencies (AD and NAD) are present in natural language and other domains, yet the learning of non-adjacent sequential dependencies generally only occurs under favorable circumstances. It is currently unknown to what extent adults can learn AD and NAD, presented concurrently in spatial and verbal sequences during a single session, and whether a second session improves performance. In addition, the relationship between AD and NAD learning and other theoretically related cognitive and language processes has not yet been fully established.

Visual sequential processing and language ability in children who are deaf or hard of hearing.

This study investigated the role of sequential processing in spoken language outcomes for children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH), ages 5;3-11;4, by comparing them to children with typical hearing (TH), ages 6;3-9;7, on sequential learning and memory tasks involving easily nameable and difficult-to-name visual stimuli. Children who are DHH performed more poorly on easily nameable sequencing tasks, which positively predicted receptive vocabulary scores. Results suggest sequential learning and memory may underlie delayed language skills of many children who are DHH.

The Role of Statistical Learning in Understanding and Treating Spoken Language Outcomes in Deaf Children With Cochlear Implants.

Purpose: Statistical learning-the ability to learn patterns in environmental input-is increasingly recognized as a foundational mechanism necessary for the successful acquisition of spoken language. Spoken language is a complex, serially presented signal that contains embedded statistical relations among linguistic units, such as phonemes, morphemes, and words, which represent the phonotactic and syntactic rules of language. In this review article, we first review recent work that demonstrates that, in typical language development, individuals who display better nonlinguistic statistical learning abilities also show better performance on different measures of language.

Deaf children with cochlear implants do not appear to use sentence context to help recognize spoken words.

Purpose: The authors investigated the ability of deaf children with cochlear implants (CIs) to use sentence context to facilitate the perception of spoken words.

Method: Deaf children with CIs (n = 24) and an age-matched group of children with normal hearing (n = 31) were presented with lexically controlled sentences and were asked to repeat each sentence in its entirety. Performance was analyzed at each of 3 word positions of each sentence (first, second, and third key word).

Cognition assessment using the NIH Toolbox.

Cognition is 1 of 4 domains measured by the NIH Toolbox for the Assessment of Neurological and Behavioral Function (NIH-TB), and complements modules testing motor function, sensation, and emotion. On the basis of expert panels, the cognition subdomains identified as most important for health, success in school and work, and independence in daily functioning were Executive Function, Episodic Memory, Language, Processing Speed, Working Memory, and Attention. Seven measures were designed to tap constructs within these subdomains.

Reinstatement of 2-year-olds' event memory using photographs.

This experiment examined 24- and 30-month-olds' understanding of photographs as reminders using a deferred imitation paradigm. The 24- and 30-month-olds visited a laboratory playroom and observed an experimenter demonstrating novel activities. Upon returning after a retention interval, half of the children viewed photographs depicting the activities they had viewed during their first visits as reminders of the event, as well as photographs of activities they had never seen.