Abstract
The contribution of two working memory mechanisms to school-age children's comprehension of spoken directions was examined. Sixty typically developing school-age children completed the CELF-4 (Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-4, Semel, Wiig, & Secord, 2003) concepts and following oral directions subtest and four predictor measures. Predictors included global measures of lexical and syntactic knowledge, verbal short-term memory (STM) capacity, and the updating mechanism in WM. Correlation and regression analyses were conducted. Regression analysis indicated that lexical knowledge, STM capacity, and updating accuracy jointly accounted for 27% variance in the comprehension of spoken directions as measured by the CELF-4, with receptive vocabulary contributing the most. STM capacity and updating accuracy were comparably robust in their contribution and shared mechanisms that accounted for significant variance in the criterion. The importance of understanding the relation between cognitive and language processes is highlighted. The limitations of the study and methodological considerations for research in children with developmental language impairment are discussed.
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