Individual Differences In Language Ability Research Articles

Introducing the Intra-Individual Variability Hypothesis in Explaining Individual Differences in Language Development.

Response times (RTs) are commonly used in studying language acquisition. However, previous research utilizing RT in the context of language has largely overlooked the intra-individual variability (IIV) of RTs, which could hold significant information about the processes underlying language acquisition. We explored the association between language abilities and RT variability in visuomotor tasks using two data sets from previously published studies. The participants were 7- to 10-year-old children (n = 77). Our results suggest that increased variability in RTs is associated with weaker language abilities. Specifically, this within-participant variability in visuomotor RTs, especially the proportion of unusually slow responses, predicted language abilities better than mean RTs, a factor often linked to language skills in past research. Based on our findings, we introduce the IIV hypothesis in explaining individual differences in language development. According to our hypothesis, inconsistency in the timing of cognitive processes, reflected by increased IIV in RTs, degrades learning different aspects of language, and results in individual differences in language abilities. Future studies should further examine the relationship between IIV and language abilities, and test the extent to which the possible relationship is causal.

Building connections through play: Influences on children's connected talk with peers.

Effective reciprocal communication is a vital component in forming and maintaining social relationships. Peer social play may provide a particularly important context for communicative skill development, as sophisticated negotiation and exchange are required to coordinate play. We focus on connectedness, a property of conversation referring to the topical relation between speakers' turns, to understand how partners coordinate ideas to build a shared play experience. The present study uses a longitudinal secondary analysis approach to drive forward our understanding of the individual and shared influences that contribute to connectedness during peer social play. Using data from a three-wave, longitudinal study of children's play and social relationships during the first 3 years of school in the United Kingdom (https://osf.io/3p4q8/), we coded connectedness from transcripts of video observations of 148 children playing in pairs at wave three (mean age 6.79 years) and model individual differences in language ability, theory of mind, and emotion comprehension from all three waves as potential predictors of connectedness. Our results show substantial dyadic effects on connectedness, but individual differences in socio-cognitive measures were not significant predictors of connectedness. These findings indicate the importance of dyadic and partner effects in children's social interactions and implicate the dyad as an essential focus for future research.

Developmental Language Disorder Is Associated With Slower Processing Across Domains: A Meta-Analysis of Time-Based Tasks.

Individuals with developmental language disorder (DLD) often exhibit slower processing on time-based tasks in comparison with age-matched peers. Processing speed has been linked to various linguistic skills and might serve as a global indicator of individual differences in language abilities. Despite an extensive literature on processing speed in DLD, it remains unclear whether slower processing is domain general or restricted to linguistic and/or auditory tasks. This meta-analysis used robust variance estimation to compare response/reaction times (RTs) of DLD and age-matched groups (N = 812 DLD, 870 neurotypical; M age [DLD] = 8.9 years, range: 4.3-22.7 years). Moderators included task (simple RT, choice RT, naming, congruent/baseline conditions of interference control tasks), stimulus type (linguistic/nonlinguistic), stimulus modality (auditory/nonauditory), and response modality (verbal/nonverbal). Age and publication year were covariates. The overall effect based on 46 studies and 144 estimates indicated longer mean RTs in DLD groups (g = .47, p < .001, 95% CI [.38, .55]). Moderator analyses indicated larger effects when tasks required verbal as opposed to nonverbal responses. No other moderators approached significance. All subgroup analyses were significant, indicating longer mean RTs in DLD groups across tasks, stimulus types, stimulus modalities, and response modalities. Individuals with DLD exhibit longer RTs across verbal and nonverbal tasks, which may contribute to observed difficulties in language, motor skills, and executive functioning. Simple processing speed measures should be included in screening for language delays but may not be suitable for differential diagnosis, given that slower processing may occur across multiple disorders. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.21809355.

Processing of Code-Switched Sentences in Noise by Bilingual Children

Purpose The purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of code-switching on bilingual children's online processing and offline comprehension of sentences in the presence of noise. In addition, the study examined individual differences in language ability and cognitive control skills as moderators of children's ability to process code-switched sentences in noise. Method The participants were 50 Spanish-English bilingual children, ages 7;0-11;8 (years;months). Children completed an auditory moving window task to examine whether they processed sentences with code-switching more slowly and less accurately than single-language sentences in the presence of noise. They completed the Dimensional Change Card Sort task to index cognitive control and standardized language measures in English and Spanish to index relative language dominance and overall language ability. Results Children were significantly less accurate in answering offline comprehension questions about code-switched sentences presented in noise compared to single-language sentences, especially for their dominant language. They also tended to exhibit slower processing speed, but costs did not reach significance. Language ability had an overall effect on offline comprehension but did not moderate the effects of code-switching. Cognitive control moderated the extent to which offline comprehension costs were affected by language dominance. Conclusions The findings of the current study suggest that code-switching, especially in the presence of background noise, may place additional demands on children's ability to comprehend sentences. However, it may be the processing of the nondominant language, rather than code-switching per se, that is especially difficult in the presence of noise.

Individual differences in the perceptual span during reading: evidence from the moving window technique.

We report the results of an eye tracking experiment that used the gaze-contingent moving window technique to examine individual differences in the size of readers' perceptual span. Participants read paragraphs while the size of the rightward window of visible text was systematically manipulated across trials. In addition, participants completed a large battery of individual-difference measures representing two cognitive constructs: language ability and oculomotor processing speed. Results showed that higher scores on language ability measures and faster oculomotor processing speed were associated with faster reading times and shorter fixation durations. More interestingly, the size of readers' perceptual span was modulated by individual differences in language ability but not by individual differences in oculomotor processing speed, suggesting that readers with greater language proficiency are more likely to have efficient mechanisms to extract linguistic information beyond the fixated word.

Individual differences in language ability are related to variation in word recognition, not speech perception: evidence from eye movements.

The authors examined speech perception deficits associated with individual differences in language ability, contrasting auditory, phonological, or lexical accounts by asking whether lexical competition is differentially sensitive to fine-grained acoustic variation. Adolescents with a range of language abilities (N = 74, including 35 impaired) participated in an experiment based on McMurray, Tanenhaus, and Aslin (2002). Participants heard tokens from six 9-step voice onset time (VOT) continua spanning 2 words (beach/peach, beak/peak, etc.) while viewing a screen containing pictures of those words and 2 unrelated objects. Participants selected the referent while eye movements to each picture were monitored as a measure of lexical activation. Fixations were examined as a function of both VOT and language ability. Eye movements were sensitive to within-category VOT differences: As VOT approached the boundary, listeners made more fixations to the competing word. This did not interact with language ability, suggesting that language impairment is not associated with differential auditory sensitivity or phonetic categorization. Listeners with poorer language skills showed heightened competitors fixations overall, suggesting a deficit in lexical processes. Language impairment may be better characterized by a deficit in lexical competition (inability to suppress competing words), rather than differences in phonological categorization or auditory abilities.

Talking theory of mind talk: young school-aged children's everyday conversation and understanding of mind and emotion

Links between young children's everyday use of mindful conversational skills and their success on laboratory tests of theory of mind understanding (ToM) were evaluated. Using published scales, teachers rated the conversational behavior and shyness of 129 children aged 60 to 101 months (M = 78·8 months) who were in their first years of primary school. The children also took batteries of first- and second-order false-belief tests along with tests of emotion understanding and general language ability. Correlational and regression analyses showed that performance on false-belief tests of ToM significantly predicted children's competence at reading others' minds in their everyday conversational interactions. Furthermore, these links transcended individual differences in language ability, shy personality, emotion understanding, and age. These findings augment and extend a growing body of evidence linking performance on laboratory ToM tests to socially competent real-world behavior.

Investigating sentence processing and language segmentation in explaining children's performance on a sentence‐span task

Children with poor language abilities tend to perform poorly on verbal working memory tasks. This result has been interpreted as evidence that limitations in working memory capacity may interfere with the development of a mature linguistic system. However, it is possible that language abilities, such as the efficiency of sentence processing and the ability to segment language, directly influence performance on common working memory tasks. This study investigated the possible roles of sentence-processing efficiency and the ability to segment language in children's performance on a verbal working memory task. Participants were 37 children (aged 6;2-13;7) with varying oral language and reading abilities. Children completed a sentence-span task to assess working memory: the Competing Language Processing Task (CLPT). In the CLPT, children determine the truth value of sentences while maintaining sentence final words in memory. Sentence-processing efficiency was evaluated by measuring response latencies to CLPT sentence veracity judgments outside the context of the CLPT. The Elision and Blending Words subtests of the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing were used to measure the ability to segment and combine units of language. Children's ability to segment words into smaller units (Elision) was a significant predictor of word recall on the CLPT, which is commonly assumed to reflect working memory capacity. Sentence processing latency did not reach significance as a unique predictor. Individual differences on the sentence-span task are partly explained by the ability to segment language into smaller units. Future studies should further consider the metalinguistic and metacognitive demands of tasks used to measure working memory. If metalinguistic abilities directly impact performance on working memory tasks, the utility of working memory theories in explaining individual differences in language abilities is reduced. Inferences that link 'working memory capacity' to language ability become circular. One clinical implication of such a result would be that appropriate intervention strategies may not involve focusing on working memory capacity, but rather on building language skills, including metalinguistic knowledge, which in turn should directly improve children's processing capacities.

The relationship between peer conflict resolution knowledge and peer victimization in school-age children across the language continuum

Peer victimization, or bullying, has been identified as a significant child health priority and children with language impairment (LI) are among those who are vulnerable. Given the mandate of educators to provide support for all students who are bullied regardless of language status, research is needed that integrates the study of risk factors for peer victimization among children who are developing typically and children who have LI. Accordingly, this preliminary study explored the degree to which one potential risk factor, peer conflict resolution knowledge, was related to peer victimization in children across the language continuum, and considered whether or not individual differences in language ability influenced that relationship. Participants included 17 girls and 15 boys aged 9–12 years with a wide range of language abilities, six meeting criteria for LI. Participants completed a hypothetical peer conflict resolution task and a measure of peer victimization. Correlational analyses revealed very different patterns of relationships for boys and girls. Whereas boys’ reports of peer victimization were meaningfully related to how they responded to hypothetical peer conflicts, girls’ reports were most strongly associated with language ability. These preliminary findings suggest that it is important to consider gender when conceptualizing how factors such as peer conflict resolution knowledge might influence children's risk of being bullied. Learning outcomes: Readers will be able to: (1) provide a definition of peer victimization and give examples of different forms of peer victimization; (2) recognize that inadequate peer conflict resolution knowledge may be a risk factor for peer victimization; (3) describe the relationships between peer conflict resolution knowledge, language ability, and peer victimization in this study, and explain how these relationships differed for boys and girls; and (4) identify at least three opportunities for future research that would help to clarify risk factors for peer victimization in boys and girls.

On-line individual differences in statistical learning predict language processing

Considerable individual differences in language ability exist among normally developing children and adults. Whereas past research have attributed such differences to variations in verbal working memory or experience with language, we test the hypothesis that individual differences in statistical learning may be associated with differential language performance. We employ a novel paradigm for studying statistical learning on-line, combining a serial-reaction time task with artificial grammar learning. This task offers insights into both the timecourse of and individual differences in statistical learning. Experiment 1 charts the micro-level trajectory for statistical learning of nonadjacent dependencies and provides an on-line index of individual differences therein. In Experiment 2, these differences are then shown to predict variations in participants’ on-line processing of long-distance dependencies involving center-embedded relative clauses. The findings suggest that individual differences in the ability to learn from experience through statistical learning may contribute to variations in linguistic performance.

Neurocognitive correlates of socioeconomic status in kindergarten children

Socioeconomic status (SES) is strongly associated with cognitive ability and achievement during childhood and beyond. Little is known about the developmental relationships between SES and specific brain systems or their associated cognitive functions. In this study we assessed neurocognitive functioning of kindergarteners from different socioeconomic backgrounds, using tasks drawn from the cognitive neuroscience literature in order to determine how childhood SES predicts the normal variance in performance across different neurocognitive systems. Five neurocognitive systems were examined: the occipitotemporal/visual cognition system, the parietal/spatial cognition system, the medial temporal/memory system, the left perisylvian/language system, and the prefrontal/executive system. SES was disproportionately associated with the last two, with low SES children performing worse than middle SES children on most measures of these systems. Relations among language, executive function, SES and specific aspects of early childhood experience were explored, revealing intercorrelations and a seemingly predominant role of individual differences in language ability involved in SES associations with executive function.

Modellen en Metingen Van Taalvaardigheid

This article contains a concise discussion of models and measurement of language ability. A general definition of the concept language ability is given, Subsequendy, psycholinguistic models of oral and written language production and comprehension are discussed. The nature and extent of individual differences in language ability are illustrated by means of a discussion of LI reading. Models of language ability are reviewed and areas in need of further research are identified. In conclusion, some tentative answers to pertinent questions on components, development and transfer of language ability are presented.

Asking "Good" Questions: Perspectives from Qualitative Research on Practice, Knowledge, and Understanding in Teacher Education

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Linguistic Variation in Time, Space, and Society: Dialectology . J. K. Chambers, Peter Trudgill. ; Locating Language in Time and Space . William Labov. ; Language Diversity and Language Contact . Stanley Lieberson. ; Language and Social Networks . Lesley Milroy. ; Sociolinguistic Patterns in British English . Peter Trudgill.

American AnthropologistVolume 84, Issue 4 p. 853-861 Free Access Linguistic Variation in Time, Space, and Society Susan Gal, Susan Gal Rutgers UniversitySearch for more papers by this author Susan Gal, Susan Gal Rutgers UniversitySearch for more papers by this author First published: December 1982 https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1982.84.4.02a00090AboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat References Cited Peter Cole, ed. 1981 Radical Pragmatics. New York: Academic Press. Gal, S. 1979 Language Shift. New York: Academic Press. Gavronetter, M. 1973 The Strength of Weak Ties. American Journal of Sociology 78: 1360– 1380. Givon, T. 1979 On Understanding Grammar. New York: Academic Press. Gumperz, J. J. 1976 Social Networks and Language Shift. Working Paper #46 Language Behavior Research Laboratory. Berkeley: University of California Press. Kay, P. 1978 Variable Rules, Community Grammar and Linguistic Change. In Linguistic Variation: Models and Methods. D. Sankoff, ed. pp. 71– 82.New York: Academic Press. Kay, P., and C. McDaniel 1979 On the Logic of Variable Rules. Language in Society 8: 151– 189. Keesing, R. 1979 Linguistic Knowledge and Cultural Knowledge: Some Doubts and Speculations. American Anthropologist 81: 14– 36. Labov, W. 1981 Resolving the Neogrammarian Controversy. Language 57: 267– 308. Lakoff, G. 1978 Some Remarks on AI and Linguistics. Cognitive Science 2: 267– 275. E. A. Moravcsik, and J. R. Worth, eds. 1980 Current Approaches to Syntax. New York: Academic Press. Romaine, S. 1981 The Status of Variable Rules in Sociolinguistic Theory. Journal of Linguistics 17: 93– 119. Ross, J. 1979 Where's English. In Individual Differences in Language Ability and Language Behavior. C. Fillmore, D. Kempler, and W. Wang, eds. pp. 127– 163.New York: Academic Press. Ross, J.. Schelling, T. 1978 Micromotives and Macrobehavior. New York: Norton. Silverstein, M. 1976 Shifters, Linguistic Categories and Cultural Descriptions. In Meaning in Anthropology. K. H. Basso and H. A. Selby, eds. pp. 11– 56.Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. Weinreich, U., W. Labov, and M. Herzog 1968 Empirical Foundations for a Theory of Language Change. In Proceedings of the Texas Conference on Historical Linguistics. W. Lehmann, ed. pp. 97– 195.Austin: University of Texas Press. Volume84, Issue4December 1982Pages 853-861 ReferencesRelatedInformation

: Individual Differences in Language Ability and Language Behavior . Charles Fillmore, Daniel Kempler, William Wang.

American AnthropologistVolume 82, Issue 4 p. 860-861 Free Access Linguistics: Individual Differences in Language Ability and Language Behavior. Charles Fillmore, Daniel Kempler, and William Wang, eds John G. Bordie, John G. Bordie University of Texas at AustinSearch for more papers by this author John G. Bordie, John G. Bordie University of Texas at AustinSearch for more papers by this author First published: December 1980 https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1980.82.4.02a00150AboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume82, Issue4December 1980Pages 860-861 RelatedInformation