The linguistic constraints of precision of verbal working memory.

Working memory (WM) precision has received little interest in the verbal WM domain, contrary to the visual WM domain. The aim of this study was to assess the precision with which words can be maintained in verbal WM. A probe-recognition task was used, in which the amount of phonological overlap between target and probe items was varied (25-75%).

Early bilingual immersion school program and cognitive development in French-speaking children: Effect of the second language learned (English vs. Dutch) and exposition duration (2 vs. 5 years).

The results of studies targeting cognitive and academic advantages in children frequenting early bilingual immersion school programs (CLIL) have been contradictory. While the impact of the amount of CLIL experience has already been studied, the role of the second language learned has been little studied to account for differences among study findings. The link between executive skills (EF) and scholar abilities (e.

Exploration of Attentional and Executive Abilities in French-Speaking Children Immersed in Dutch Since 1, 2, 3, and 6 Years.

Advantages in diverse aspects of cognitive functioning have been reported in early bilinguals (Bialystok, 2011) as well as in children frequenting an early bilingual immersion school program (Nicolay and Poncelet, 2015). However, during the last decade, some studies failed to replicate these advantages. Currently, the presence of cognitive benefits in children frequenting an immersion program remains debated.

Do serial order short-term memory and long-term learning abilities predict spelling skills in school-age children?

Compared to most human language abilities, the cognitive mechanisms underlying spelling have not been as intensively investigated as reading and therefore remain to this day less well understood. The current study aims to address this shortcoming by investigating the contribution of serial order short-term memory (STM) and long-term learning (LTL) abilities to emerging spelling skills. Indeed, although there are several reasons to assume associations between serial order memory and spelling abilities, this relationship has hardly been investigated empirically.

Investigating the Effects of Language-Switching Frequency on Attentional and Executive Functioning in Proficient Bilinguals.

Recent studies have proposed that the executive advantages associated with bilingualism may stem from language-switching frequency rather than from bilingualism (see, for example, Prior and Gollan, 2011). Barbu et al. (2018) showed that high-frequency switchers (HFLSs) outperformed low-frequency switchers (LFLSs) on a mental flexibility task but not on alertness or response inhibition tasks.

The contribution of serial order short-term memory and long-term learning to reading acquisition: A longitudinal study.

There is increasing evidence for an association between both serial order short-term memory (STM) and the long-term learning (LTL) of serial order information and reading abilities. In this developmental study, we examined the hypothesis that STM for serial order supports online grapheme-to-phoneme conversion processes during the initial stages of reading acquisition, whereas the LTL of serial order serves reading abilities at later stages, when reading starts to rely on more stable, long-term orthographic representations. We followed a sample of 116 French-speaking children from first (Time 1 [T1]) grade of primary school through second (Time 2 [T2]) and third (Time 3 [T3]) grade.

Correction: Cognitive Advantage in Children Enrolled in a Second-Language Immersion Elementary School Program for One Year.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.5334/pb.469.

Cognitive Advantage in Children Enrolled in a Second-Language Immersion Elementary School Program for One Year.

Early bilingualism has been shown to improve attentional and executive functioning. Nicolay and Poncelet (2013a, 2015) have shown that an early immersion program in school of 3 years improves the completion of tasks assessing these skills. This study aimed to determine whether similar benefits might be present after only 1 year of immersion education.

The Impact of Language Switching Frequency on Attentional and Executive Functioning in Proficient Bilingual Adults.

Bilingual advantages in executive functions are well documented (see Bialystok, 2009; Dong & Li, 2015, for a review), but the specific aspects of bilingualism that underlie these advantages are unclear. The few studies conducted up until now on this subject (e.g.

Functional Alterations in Order Short-Term Memory Networks in Adults With Dyslexia.

Dyslexia is characterized not only by reading impairment but also by short-term memory (STM) deficits, and this particularly for the retention of serial order information. Here, we explored the functional neural correlates associated with serial order STM performance of adults with dyslexia for verbal and visual STM tasks. Relative to a group of age-matched controls, the dyslexic group showed abnormal activation in a network associated with order STM encompassing the right intraparietal and superior frontal sulcus, and this for both verbal and visual order STM conditions.

The Effects of Aging on the Components of Auditory - Verbal Short-Term Memory.

This study aimed at exploring the effects of aging on the multiple components of the auditory-verbal short-term memory (STM). Participants of 45-54, 55-64, 65-74 and 75-84 years of age were presented STM tasks assessing short-term retention of order and item information, and of phonological and lexical-semantic information separately. Because older participants often present reduced hearing levels, we sought to control for an effect of hearing status on performance on STM tasks.

The development of the abilities to acquire novel detailed orthographic representations and maintain them in long-term memory.

Previous studies have clearly demonstrated that the development of orthographic representations relies on phonological recoding. However, substantial questions persist about the remaining unexplained variance in the acquisition of word-specific orthographic knowledge that is still underspecified. The main aim of this study was to explore whether two cognitive factors-sensitivity to orthographic regularities and short-term memory (STM) for serial order-make independent contributions to the acquisition of novel orthographic representations beyond that of the phonological core component and the level of preexisting word-specific orthographic knowledge.

Relative Ease in Creating Detailed Orthographic Representations Contrasted with Severe Difficulties to Maintain Them in Long-term Memory Among Dyslexic Children.

Most research into orthographic learning abilities has been conducted in English with typically developing children using reading-based tasks. In the present study, we examined the abilities of French-speaking children with dyslexia to create novel orthographic representations for subsequent use in spelling and to maintain them in long-term memory. Their performance was compared with that of chronological age (CA)-matched and reading age (RA)-matched control children.

Dissociable components of phonological and lexical-semantic short-term memory and their relation to impaired word production in aphasia.

This study assesses the dissociability of phonological and lexical-semantic short-term memory (STM) in two aphasic patients, B.N. and T.

Cognitive abilities underlying second-language vocabulary acquisition in an early second-language immersion education context: a longitudinal study.

First-language (L1) and second-language (L2) lexical development has been found to be strongly associated with phonological processing abilities such as phonological short-term memory (STM), phonological awareness, and speech perception. Lexical development also seems to be linked to attentional and executive skills such as auditory attention, flexibility, and response inhibition. The aim of this four-wave longitudinal study was to determine to what extent L2 vocabulary acquired through the particular school context of early L2 immersion education is linked to the same cognitive abilities.

Impaired short-term memory for order in adults with dyslexia.

Verbal short-term memory (STM) deficits are consistently associated with dyslexia, but the nature of these deficits remains poorly understood. This study used the distinction between item and order retention processes to achieve a better understanding of STM deficits in adults with dyslexia. STM for item information has been shown to depend on the quality of underlying phonological representations, and hence should be impaired in dyslexia, which is characterized by poorly developed phonological representations.

Changes in naming and semantic abilities with aging from 50 to 90 years.

The aim of this study was to determine whether naming difficulties arise in individuals as young as their 50s. Participants of 25-35, 50-59, 60-69, and above 70 years of age were given a picture naming task. To uncover subtle naming difficulties, latencies were analyzed in addition to accuracy.

Evidence for a specific impairment of serial order short-term memory in dyslexic children.

In order to better understand the nature of verbal short-term memory (STM) deficits in dyslexic children, the present study used the distinction between item and serial order retention capacities in STM tasks. According to recent STM models, storage of verbal item information depends very directly upon the richness of underlying phonological and semantic representations. On the other hand, storage of serial order information appears to reflect a language-independent system.

The contribution of short-term memory for serial order to early reading acquisition: evidence from a longitudinal study.

Early reading acquisition skills have been linked to verbal short-term memory (STM) capacity. However, the nature of this relationship remains controversial because verbal STM, like reading acquisition, depends on the complexity of underlying phonological processing skills. This longitudinal study addressed the relation between STM and reading decoding acquisition by distinguishing between STM for item information and STM for order information based on recent studies showing that STM for item information, but not STM for order information, recruits underlying phonological representations.

Reading disabilities in SLI and dyslexia result from distinct phonological impairments.

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) who show impaired phonological processing are at risk of developing reading disabilities, which raises the question of phonological impairment commonality between developmental dyslexia (DD) and SLI. In order to distinguish the failing phonological processes in SLI and DD, we investigated the different steps involved in speech processing going from perceptual discrimination through various aspects of phonological memory. Our results show that whereas the memory for sequence is likewise impaired in either disorder, children with SLI have to face additional impairment in phonological discrimination and short-term memory, which may account for even poorer phonological awareness than dyslexics'.

Serial order short-term memory capacities and specific language impairment: no evidence for a causal association.

This study re-explored the nature of verbal short-term memory (STM) deficits in children with specific language impairment (SLI), by distinguishing item and serial order STM processes. Recent studies have shown serial order STM capacity to be a critical determinant of language development, relative to item STM. In Experiment 1, 12 children with SLI, 12 age-matched children and 12 language-matched children were administered serial order recognition and reconstruction tasks.

Impact of auditory selective attention on verbal short-term memory and vocabulary development.

This study investigated the role of auditory selective attention capacities as a possible mediator of the well-established association between verbal short-term memory (STM) and vocabulary development. A total of 47 6- and 7-year-olds were administered verbal immediate serial recall and auditory attention tasks. Both task types probed processing of item and serial order information because recent studies have shown this distinction to be critical when exploring relations between STM and lexical development.

Lexical learning in bilingual adults: the relative importance of short-term memory for serial order and phonological knowledge.

Studies of monolingual speakers have shown a strong association between lexical learning and short-term memory (STM) capacity, especially STM for serial order information. At the same time, studies of bilingual speakers suggest that phonological knowledge is the main factor that drives lexical learning. This study tested these two hypotheses simultaneously in participants with variable levels of English-French bilingual proficiency.

Relations between vocabulary development and verbal short-term memory: The relative importance of short-term memory for serial order and item information.

Although many studies have shown an association between verbal short-term memory (STM) and vocabulary development, the precise nature of this association is not yet clear. The current study reexamined this relation in 4- to 6-year-olds by designing verbal STM tasks that maximized memory for either item or serial order information. Although empirical data suggest that distinct STM processes determine item and serial order recall, these were generally confounded in previous developmental studies.