Sentence Span Task Research Articles

Estradiol Therapy After Menopause Mitigates Effects of Stress on Cortisol and Working Memory.

Postmenopausal estradiol therapy (ET) can reduce the stress response. However, it remains unclear whether such reductions can mitigate effects of stress on cognition. Investigate effects of ET on cortisol response to a physical stressor, cold pressor test (CPT), and whether ET attenuates stress effects on working memory. Women completed the CPT or control condition across two sessions and subsequently completed a sentence span task. General community: Participants were recruited from the Early vs Late Intervention Trial with Estradiol (ELITE). ELITE participants (mean age = 66, standard deviation age = 6.8) in this study did not suffer from any major chronic illness or use medications known to affect the stress response or cognition. Participants had received a median of randomized 4.7 years of estradiol (n = 21) or placebo (n = 21) treatment at time of participation in this study. Salivary cortisol and sentence span task performance. Women assigned to estradiol exhibited blunted cortisol responses to CPT compared with placebo (P = 0.017) and lesser negative effects of stress on working memory (P = 0.048). We present evidence suggesting ET may protect certain types of cognition in the presence of stress. Such estrogenic protection against stress hormone exposure may prove beneficial to both cognition and the neural circuitry that maintains and propagates cognitive faculties.

Implicit and explicit learning in individuals with agrammatic aphasia.

Implicit learning is a process of acquiring knowledge that occurs without conscious awareness of learning, whereas explicit learning involves the use of overt strategies. To date, research related to implicit learning following stroke has been largely restricted to the motor domain and has rarely addressed implications for language. The present study investigated implicit and explicit learning of an auditory word sequence in 10 individuals with stroke-induced agrammatic aphasia and 18 healthy age-matched participants using an adaptation of the Serial Reaction Time task. Individuals with aphasia showed significant learning under implicit, but not explicit, conditions, whereas age-matched participants learned under both conditions. These results suggest significant implicit learning ability in agrammatic aphasia. Furthermore, results of an auditory sentence span task indicated working memory deficits in individuals with agrammatic aphasia, which are discussed in relation to explicit and implicit learning processes.

Beyond Capacity Limitations II: Effects of Lexical Processes on Word Recall in Verbal Working Memory Tasks in Children With and Without Specific Language Impairment

This study investigated the impact of lexical processes on target word recall in sentence span tasks in children with and without specific language impairment (SLI). Participants were 42 children (ages 8;2-12;3 [years;months]): 21 with SLI and 21 typically developing peers matched on age and nonverbal IQ. Children completed a sentence span task in which target words to be recalled varied in word frequency and neighborhood density. Two measures of lexical processes were examined: the number of nontarget competitor words activated during a gating task (lexical cohort competition) and word definitions. Neighborhood density had no effect on word recall for either group. However, both groups recalled significantly more high- than low-frequency words. Lexical cohort competition and specificity of semantic representations accounted for unique variance in the number of target word recalled in the SLI and chronological age-matched (CA) groups combined. Performance on verbal working memory span tasks for both SLI and CA children is influenced by word frequency, lexical cohorts, and semantic representations. Future studies need to examine the extent to which verbal working memory capacity is a cognitive construct independent of extant language knowledge representations.

Verbal working memory and its relationship to sentence‐level reading and listening comprehension in persons with aphasia

Background: Working memory (WM) has gained recent attention as a cognitive construct that may account for language comprehension deficits in persons with aphasia (PWA) (Caspari, Parkinson, LaPointe, & Katz, 1998; Martin, Kohen, & Kalinyak‐Fliszar, 2008; Wright, Downey, Gravier, Love, & Shapiro, 2007). However, few studies have investigated individual differences in performance on sentence comprehension tasks as a function of WM capacity in PWA when WM demands are manipulated. Aims: The purposes of the current study were: (1) to examine the relationships among verbal WM, sentence comprehension, and severity of impairment in PWA and (2) to investigate the differential performance of high versus low verbal WM groups on sentence comprehension tasks in which task demands were manipulated by the length of the sentence stimuli, complexity of syntactic structure, and by presentation method which varied the time over which the linguistic material was available for computation. Methods & Procedures: A total of 20 PWA were divided into high and low WM groups based on a listening version of a WM sentence span task. Each participant completed a listening version (CRTT) and three reading versions (CRTT‐R) of the Computerised Revised Token Test as the sentence comprehension tasks. Outcomes & Results: The WM task significantly predicted performance on the CRTT conditions in which information was only temporarily available, thereby imposing greater WM demands on sentence comprehension. The verbal WM task was significantly correlated with aphasia severity and a principal components analysis revealed that the WM task, overall aphasia severity, and overall reading impairment level loaded on a single factor with 76% of shared variance. The low WM group's performance was significantly lower than the high WM group on the CRTT subtests with syntactically more complex structures and on the CRTT conditions with temporally restricted presentation methods. Conclusions: This verbal WM task was significantly and moderately correlated with the overall severity of aphasia as well as with both listening and reading sentence comprehension. The WM group differences emerged only in sentence comprehension tasks with greater WM demands. These results are consistent with the notion that WM effects are most evident when WM capacity is sufficiently taxed by the task demands (e.g., Caplan & Waters, 1999; Just & Carpenter, 1992).

Comparing the contribution of two tests of working memory to reading in relation to phonological awareness and rapid naming speed

The purpose of this study was to compare the contribution of two different versions of working memory to word reading and reading comprehension in relation to phonological awareness and rapid naming speed. Fifty children were administered two measures of working memory, namely an adaptation of the Daneman and Carpenter sentence span task and Sentence Question, tests of phonological awareness, rapid naming speed, word reading and reading comprehension. The results indicated that Sentence Question accounted for unique variance over and beyond the effects of Daneman and Carpenter's sentence span task, whereas the latter did not when the effects of Sentence Question were partialled out. In addition, both phonological awareness and rapid naming were accounting for unique variance beyond the effects of working memory in predicting reading. The role of working memory on reading is discussed, and future directions for research are suggested.

Older adult’s identification and memory of synthetic and natural speech in noise

This research tested older adult’s performance on identification and recall when presented sentences taken from the Speech Perception in Noise Test [Bilger et al., J. Speech Hear. Res. 27, 32–48 (1984)] synthesized using AT&T Natural Voices speech synthesizer. Performance on synthesized speech was compared to identification and recall of natural speech in noise. In experiment 1, participants were instructed to identify the final word of high- and low- predictability natural and synthesized sentences presented at three signal-to-noise ratios. The results showed that natural speech was easier to identify than synthesized speech at every speech-to-noise ratio for high and low predictability sentences. In addition, replicating Pichora-Fuller et al. [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 97, 593–608 (1995)], pure tone thresholds were significantly correlated with identification performance for both natural and synthetic speech. In experiment 2, participants were given a sentence span task in which they were presented two to five natural and synthesized sentences and asked to recall the final words. These experiments show that, even with high context, synthetic speech is more difficult to understand and remember than natural speech. These results highlight concerns about the use of synthesized speech in assistive devices, particularly for elderly listeners. [Work supported by NIH.]

The Influence of List Format and Category Headers on Age Differences in Understanding Medication Instructions

We examined whether instructions are better understood and remembered when they contain organizational cues. Our previous research found that older and younger adults organize medication information in similar ways, suggesting that they have a schema for taking medication. In the present study, list formats (vs.paragraphs) emphasized the order of information and category headers emphasized the grouping of information specified by this schema. Experiment 1 examined whether list and header cues improve comprehension (answer time and accuracy) and recall for adults varying in age and working memory capacity (measured by a sentence span task). List instructions were better understood and recalled than paragraphs, and reduced age differences in answer time and span differences in accuracy. Headers reduced paragraph comprehension for participants with lower levels of working memory capacity, presumably because they were not salient cues in the paragraphs. Experiment 2 investigated if headers were more effective when more saliently placed in paragraphs and lists, and if list and header cues helped readers draw inferences from the instructions. List formats again reduced age differences in comprehension, especially reducing the time needed to draw inferences about the medication. While headers did not impair comprehension, these cues did impair recall. The present study suggests that list - organized instructions provide an environmental support that improves both older and younger adult comprehension and recall of medication information.

The measurement of verbal working memory capacity and its relation to reading comprehension.

Ninety-four subjects were tested on the Daneman and Carpenter (1980) reading span task, four versions of a related sentence span task in which reaction times and accuracy on sentence processing were measured along with sentence-final word recall, two number generation tasks designed to test working memory, digit span, and two shape-generation tasks designed to measure visual-spatial working memory. Forty-four subjects were retested on a subset of these measures at a 3-month interval. All subjects were tested on standard vocabulary and reading tests. Correlational analyses showed better internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the sentence span tasks than of the Daneman-Carpenter reading span task. Factor analysis showed no factor that could be related to a central verbal working memory; rotated factors suggested groupings of tests into factors that correspond to digit-related tasks, spatial tasks, sentence processing in sentence span tasks, and recall in sentence span tasks. Correlational analyses and regression analyses showed that the sentence processing component of the sentence span tasks was the best predictor of performance on the reading test, with a small independent contribution of the recall component. The results suggest that sentence span tasks are unreliable unless measurements are made of both their sentence processing and recall components, and that the predictive value of these tasks for reading comprehension abilities lies in the overlap of operations rather than in limitations in verbal working memory that apply to both.

Naturalistic memory in learning-disabled and skilled readers

Three experiments compared learning-disabled and skilled readers' performance on naturalistic memory measures, as well as investigated the relationship between memory performance on everyday and laboratory tasks. In Experiment 1, the laboratory task (sentence span task) and everyday memory measures were correlated moderately for both ability groups. Compared to skilled readers, disabled readers performed poorly on the sentence span task, and were less likely than skilled readers to remember information related to common objects and consequential events. Disabled readers were also less likely to rely on external prompts to help them recall everyday information. Experiment 2 extended the previous findings to older subjects and found that the majority of significant correlations between the laboratory (word span task) and everyday memory tasks were isolated to disabled readers. When compared to chronological-age-matched subjects, disabled readers were inferior in recency performance on the laboratory (word span) and natural serial recall (e.g., recall of U.S. presidents) tasks. Experiment 3 showed that under conditions that facilitate item accessibility, ability group differences in recall were comparable. Taken together, the findings indicate that disabled readers' memory deficits are pervasive across naturalistic and laboratory measures at the younger age, but these deficits diminish for older students. Further, the deficits that occur at the older age are due to problems in accessing knowledge.

That's the way it was: Age differences in the structure and quality of adults' personal narratives

It has been suggested that late adulthood represents a period particularly specialized for the transmission of information to younger generations (Mergler, Faust, & Goldstein, 1985). The present research was designed to explore this idea cross‐sectionally by studying the structure and quality of personal narratives produced by adults of varying ages. Personal narratives were obtained from 20 participants in each of three age ranges: 18–25, 26–55, and 60–87. The WAIS‐R vocabulary and a sentence span task were also administered. These narratives were then rated for quality by an age‐diverse sample of 26 adults. The narratives were also categorized by the episodic structure system of Stein and Glenn (1978) and the high‐point system of Labov and Waletzsky (1967). Results showed that the narratives of the oldest group were judged by the raters to be of better quality than those of the youngest adults. Raters also preferred narratives from those with higher WAIS‐R vocabulary scores. Consistent relationships between story quality ratings and the structural categorization systems of high‐point and episodic analysis were found, with structurally “better” narratives rated higher overall. Results of analyses of the relationship between age and story structure revealed that the older adults produced more narratives with a clear high‐point structure than other age groups, whereas there were no age differences in use of the various types of episodic structures described by Stein and Glenn.

How much do working memory deficits contribute to age differences in discourse memory?

Abstract Younger and older adults listened to and recalled a series of expository passages that were systematically varied in terms of propositional density and prose length. The working memory processing efficiency of these subjects was also estimated using a sentence span task that estimated their ability to hold verbal items in memory during language processing, and a word span task that estimated their ability to simply hold items in working memory without a simultaneous processing load. Older adults demonstrated lower levels of recall than younger adults. Additionally, age differences in recall were slightly exaggerated by increased propositional density, but not by increased passage length. In a correlational analysis, age was found to be a strong predictor of recall performance. For simpler texts, these age effects could be accounted for in terms of individual differences in working memory storage capacity. For more difficult passages, however, age effects could not be completely explained in terms...