73 Examining the Associations Between Sentence Repetition and Other Cognitive Abilities in a Clinical Sample of School-Aged Children

Abstract

Objective:Sentence repetition (SR) task performance is related to various cognitive abilities and not just learning and memory, as is commonly considered (e.g., Baron, 2018). Bartlett (2018) was the first to examine the associations among SR performance and other cognitive abilities within a single study, using a normative sample. Bartlett (2018) found that SR performance was predicted by language, auditory verbal working memory, processing speed, and nonverbal cognitive ability of which only language abilities and auditory verbal memory significantly added to the prediction. However, no study to date has examined the associations between SR and other cognitive abilities in a clinical sample of school-aged children. The present study sought to determine the extent to which language, working memory, nonverbal abilities (visuospatial processing and fluid reasoning), and processing speed predict children’s SR in a clinical sample.Participants and Methods:Children 6 to 14 years of age (N = 191; 65% males) were included in the present study. Participants were drawn from two separate archival data populations of children referred for neuropsychological assessment in southwestern Ontario. SR scores were obtained from performance on Benton’s (1965) sentence repetition task. Language, working memory, fluid reasoning, visual perception, and processing speed were measured with Index scores from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (5th edition). The association of each of these cognitive domains with SR was determined by multiple linear regression. The effects of age and sex on SR were also examined (N = 226; 64% males).Results:A multiple linear regression model including the five independent variables significantly predicted SR performance, F(5, 185) = 30.306, p < .001., adj. R2 = .435. Only language and working memory added significantly to the prediction, p < .05. A mediation analysis demonstrated that processing speed indirectly predicted SR performance through working memory, b=.0241, [95% BCa [CI .0132, .0355]. A moderate positive correlation was found between age and SR performance, r(226) = .416, p < .001. Sex was unrelated to SR performance.Conclusions:The findings from this study are consistent with other studies indicating that SR taps multiple cognitive abilities. In a large and representative clinical sample of children referred for assessment due to academic or other learning difficulties, language plays as significant a role in SR performance as does auditory verbal attention and working memory. An advantage of the present study was the use of clinically relevant summary measures of cognitive domains associated with intelligence testing.