Lower Verbal Ability Research Articles

Verbal self-correction behaviors of fluent and nonfluent aphasic subjects

This investigation examined the use of six explicitly defined verbal self-correction behaviors by fluent and nonfluent aphasic subjects of high and low verbal ability, and by subjects further classified into six groups according to type of aphasia (Broca's, Anomic, Wernicke's etc.). Aphasic groups, on the average, generated some type of verbal self-correction effort on more than half of their initially erroneous responses, and the proportions of these efforts did not differ between aphasic patient groups. Significant differences in self-correction success were found, however, between groups classified according to fluency and severity, as well as among the six groups based on type of aphasia. In the former case, distinctions in self-correction skill favored high-verbal-ability groups regardless of fluency classification. In the latter instance, the subgroups typically formed by less severely impaired patients (Anomic and Broca's) had significantly higher proportions of successful self-correction behaviors than those comprised of individuals with more severe involvement (Wernicke's and Broca's plus severely limiting apraxia of speech). Between-group differences for specific types of self-correction behaviors occurred rarely, but those which were found could be related to characteristics of the particular aphasic groups under consideration. Verbal self-correction behavior is discussed as a behavioral reaction to an erroneous response or dissatisfaction with the quality of an intended response. These behaviors are viewed as indicators of the intactness of an aphasic individual's self-monitoring system, and of his tolerance for responses that are qualitatively limited by his verbal deficits.

Sex differences in hemispheric specialization: Hypothesis for the excess of dyslexia in boys

Sex differences exist in the prevalence of dyslexia as well as in overall verbal ability. These sex differences may reflect sex differences in hemispheric specialization: males show strong left hemisphere specialization for verbal processing and strong right hemisphere specialization for spatial processing whereas females show greater bihemispheric participation in both verbal and spatial processing. The greater hemispheric specialization observed in males may have implications including: (1) lower verbal ability than in females, (2) higher spatial ability than in females, (3) reduced potential for shifting language to the right hemisphere after early life left hemisphere injury, and (4) diminished capacity to compensate for unfavorable left-right anatomic asymmetries of the posterior language zone. Lower overall verbal ability as well as an inability to spare certain language skills effectively in the face of either unfavorable cerebral asymmetries or early life left hemisphere insults may partially explain the excess of developmental language disorders (and dyslexia in particular) in boys.

Cognitive Style and Visual Analysis in First Graders of High and Low Verbal Ability

100 first graders were screened for verbal ability and subdivided into high and low quartiles with 25 children in each group. Field independence, visual analysis, and spatial visualization of these groups was investigated and their social communication skills were assessed. Since small age differences were observed on a number of the tasks, age was controlled as a covariate. As predicted, those of high verbal ability modified response latency under task uncertainty, performed better in spatial analysis, and showed greater social resourcefulness. They were more accurate in discrimination of similarities but did not differ from those of low verbal ability in accuracy on the Children's Embedded Figures test or in discrimination of differences. Intertask relationships and the influence of sex and age on performance were discussed.

Offences against discipline in a Borstal

A study of persistent offenders against discipline in a borstal showed that compared with a control group who did not offend against discipline during training, they were younger, had lower verbal ability and more previous experience in institutions. A follow‐up study 12 months after discharge from the borstal showed a significant association between offending in the borstal and subsequent conviction.

Individual Differences in Verbal and Imagery Abilities: Paired-Associate Recall as a Function of Stimulus and Response Concreteness

Individual differences in verbal ability measured by Verbal Scholastic Aptitude Test score and imagery ability measured by Betts' Questionnaire Upon Mental Imagery and Marks' Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire were determined. The latter two were positively correlated, and neither correlated with the Scholastic Aptitude Test. Subjects high in verbal ability and high in imagery independently increased paired-associate recall over those low in verbal ability and imagery when the Marks scale was used as the measure of imagery. Paivio's dual-coding hypothesis was generally supported, and the conceptual-peg function of concrete stimuli was especially beneficial to subjects of low verbal ability and high imagery. The Marks scale was superior to the shortened Betts scale for predicting the effects of ability to image on recall for these 4 groups of 20 subjects each.

Word-Recognition Thresholds as a Function of Verbal Ability in Two Experimental Paradigms

The subjects, of high and low verbal ability on the SAT, were trained with nonsense words that occurred 1, 5, 10, or 25 times, and then their tachistoscopic recognition thresholds were obtained for English words of low, medium, or high frequency in the written language as well as for the nonsense words. Both groups of subjects showed an inverse relation between word frequency and recognition threshold for both the English and the nonsense words. There was a significant interaction of word frequency and verbal aptitude for the English words, but not for the nonsense words. The word-frequency effect was first reported by Howes and Solomon (1951), but most research on it has focused on the paradigm introduced by Solomon and Postman (1952). Several differences between these two experimental paradigms should be noted. First, Howes and Solomon were concerned with words occurring naturally in the English language. Their subjects had thus had a great deal of experience with the stimulus materials outside the experimental situation, having frequently seen, heard, and used the words, in some cases thousands of times. Solomon and Postman, on the other hand, created an artificial language in the experimental situation, a language with which their subjects could be assumed to have had no experience until they experienced the words between 1 and 25 times during a training session and were asked to learn the words in several ways during a brief time span. They not only had to learn to perceive the words but also to encode them and to give an integrated response to them. Further, the training phase of Solomon and Postman's study altered the nature of the subsequent perceptual task. Howes and Solomon's subjects had faced an identification task: the set of potential responses was unlimited by experimental manipulation and the words presented tachistoscopically could come from an extremely large range. Solomon and Postman's subjects, however, faced a recognition task: the set of possible responses was well defined during training and some of the words presented

The role of active questions in learning and retention of prose material

Questions may be (i) active i.e. asked by subjects or (ii) passive i.e. offered to subjects as problems for solution. It was hypothesized that active questions would be effective in facilitating the learning and retention of prose material when subjects were faced with a challenge to their competence. 47 subjects, boys and girls aged 13–14 years were exposed to an “easy” 300-word passage of biographical prose. 30 subjects were then exposed to a “difficult” 450-word passage. Treatments were: (1) Questions, active-Subjects read a summary, then wrote questions; (2) Questions, passive-Subjects read the summary and the experimenter's questions; (3) Questions, active and passive-Subjects both wrote questions and read the experimenter's questions; (4) Reading, double-Subjects read the summary and the complete passage; (5) Reading, single-Subjects read the complete passage only. With “easy” prose, girls and low verbal ability subjects gained from questioning, particularly passive questions. With “difficult” prose, all subjects gained from questioning. Boys and low verbal ability subjects gained most from active questions, high verbal ability subjects from passive questions. Results are discussed in the light of work regarding cognitive structures, and the hypothesized challenge to competence.

Effects of Context, Thorndike-Lorge Frequency, and Race of Subjects on Continuous Word Association

46 Caucasian and 80 Negro Ss were given an unlimited amount of time in which to record continuous associations to target words embedded in two types of contexts, grammatically meaningful versus an equal number of unrelated words. Results showed that meaningless contexts functioned as sources of multiple input (cf. Howes & Osgood, 1954) and evoked significantly greater numbers of associations as well as increased response variability (cf. Wilcox, 1966) than did meaningful contexts. Both types of contexts evoked significantly more associations than did target words presented in isolation. Further, high frequency words evoked significantly larger numbers of associations than did low, irrespective of context. Also, white Ss generated significantly larger numbers of associations over all conditions than did Negro Ss. This was seen to be primarily due to the fact that Negro Ss often exhibit lower verbal abilities. Over-all results were interpreted to mean that: meaningful context provides a mechanism whereby S can chunk or unitize the target word plus context and more readily complete the associative task, meaningless contexts increase response variability via multiple input capability, in contrast to previous research (Pollio, Wilcox, & Sundland, 1966) associative hierarchies did not differ as a result of havng been collected within differing contexts except that greater percentages of unique associations were observed than when target words occur in isolation, and context seems best viewed as a constraint capable of determining both type and number of associations available to S, depending, of course, upon the nature of the context.

Relationship of association structures to verbal ability.

No relationship between verbal ability and idiodynamic associative sets was found in two samples of college freshmen. An earlier finding which related an Object-referent associative set to lower verbal ability was rejected. In the light of Entwistle's recently published results, it was concluded that antecedent conditions related to idiodynamic sets might best be studied in pre-school children or mental retardates.

MEANINGFULNESS AND VISUAL RECOGNITION THRESHOLD.

High and low Verbal Ability Ss responded to 12 trigrams presented in a Gerbrands tachistoscope. The trigrams varied in meaningfulness (low, medium, high) as defined by Noble's a' scale and were homogeneous in pronounceability. All Ss received the trigrams in the same order with meaningfulness counterbalanced over the first and second half of the series. Contrary to expectation recognition thresholds tended to vary directly with meaningfulness, but only for words in the second half of the list. These findings were discussed in terms of their implications for previously observed relationships between frequency of usage, meaningfulness, and recognition thresholds for words and nonsense material.

Comparisons of Verbal-Motor Performance and Learning in Serial Memory Tasks

Abstract Two groups of thirty male university students, equated on the basis of scores achieved when learning a series of nonsense syllables, were blindfolded and given 10 massed trials in two large maze tasks. No significant differences were found in the motor tasks between those of high and low verbal ability. No significant correlations were found between verbal and motor ability as measured by the experimental tasks.

Effect of intralist item similarity on paired-associate learning by learners of high and low verbal ability.

Effect of intralist item similarity on paired-associate learning by learners of high and low verbal ability.