Does language experience shape deaf children's memory?

How is working memory defined in the recent cognitive psychology literature?

Working memory is defined as the capacity to encode, store, manipulate, and recall information. In recent literature, it specifically refers to complex, executive-loaded elements requiring concurrent processing and maintenance of information.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

According to the theoretical framework of the phonological loop, how does working memory support vocabulary development?

The phonological loop acts as a temporary storage system for new word forms. This temporary representation allows the words to be held in mind before they are consolidated into phonological long-term memory.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

Why is the deaf population theoretically valuable for investigating the causal direction between language and working memory?

The deaf population is diverse in both the age of language access and the modality of language (signed or spoken). This variation allows researchers to study how differences in linguistic input impact working memory development.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

What is the "auditory scaffolding hypothesis" proposed by Conway et al.?

The auditory scaffolding hypothesis states that experience with sound provides a developmental scaffold for general cognitive abilities. Specifically, it supports the representation of temporal and sequential patterns.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

What evidence from hearing English-ASL bilinguals challenges the auditory scaffolding hypothesis?

Hearing English-ASL bilinguals display the same working memory disadvantage for sign span compared to spoken span as deaf signers. This challenges the hypothesis because these bilinguals have had full auditory experience since birth.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

What advantage do deaf adult signers demonstrate on the non-linguistic Corsi Block Test?

Deaf adult signers demonstrate longer forward spans compared to hearing non-signers on the Corsi Block Test. This is a non-verbal, visuo-spatial memory task.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

What did Capirci et al. (2010) discover about hearing children taught sign language at school?

Hearing children taught sign language performed better on non-verbal working memory tasks after one year than children taught a spoken language. This suggests that using sign language itself, rather than being deaf, drives the visuo-spatial working memory advantage.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

Why has the underlying cause of poor working memory in deaf children remained unresolved in previous literature?

Previous studies have relied on verbal tasks rather than non-verbal ones, and have primarily focused on deaf children using spoken language. These factors confound the effects of physical deafness with those of impoverished language input or delay.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

What are the competing predictions for deaf native signers if language experience, rather than deafness itself, impacts working memory?

If language experience is the primary factor, deaf native signers should perform similarly to hearing children. Furthermore, both groups should outperform deaf non-native signers on working memory tasks.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

Describe the demographic and hearing characteristics of the deaf participants recruited for this study.

The study recruited 27 deaf children aged 6 to 11 years (16 boys). All had profound and/or severe bilateral hearing loss from birth, with the vast majority being profoundly deaf.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

What specific criteria were used to classify a participant as a "native signer"?

Participants had to have at least one deaf parent and must have been exposed to British Sign Language (BSL) from birth. Additionally, parents had to report BSL as the child's preferred communication language.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

How was the non-native signing group characterized in terms of their language acquisition?

Non-native signers had a later mean age of acquisition of BSL (around 2 years, 11 months). The majority also used sign-supported English or spoken English alongside BSL when communicating with their hearing parents.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

How did the ages of the native signing group compare to the non-native signing and hearing groups?

The native signers were significantly younger than the non-native signers and marginally younger than the hearing group. There was no age difference between non-native signers and hearing participants.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

How did the non-verbal reasoning scores (WASI) compare between the native and non-native signers?

Within the deaf group, native signers had significantly higher non-verbal reasoning T-scores (Mean = 62.25) than the non-native signers (Mean = 48.16).

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

Why were the Spatial Span and the Odd One Out Span tasks selected for this study?

They were selected because they require minimal verbal instruction and rely entirely on non-verbal pointing responses. This design minimizes the verbal processing demands during testing.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

Briefly describe the stimuli and participant requirements of the Odd One Out Span Task.

Participants view sets of three shapes on slides and identify the "odd one out." They must then recall and point to the spatial locations of these odd shapes on an empty grid in the correct sequential order.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

Why did the researchers exclude 15 items from the Expressive One Word Picture Vocabulary Test (EOWPVT)?

They excluded 15 items because those specific lexical items (like 'cactus' or 'banjo') do not exist in British Sign Language (BSL). This ensured a fair assessment for children communicating in BSL.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

How does the British Sign Language (BSL) Narrative Production Test elicit language?

The child watches a short, silent video depicting two deaf children. They are then asked to retell the story spontaneously to an experimenter, which is videotaped and scored.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

Why were aspects of BSL grammar excluded when comparing narrative skills between the deaf and hearing groups?

They were excluded because English and BSL grammar systems are very different and cannot be directly compared. Therefore, only narrative content and narrative structure were scored.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

What does the Language Proficiency Profile-2 (LPP-2) measure, and who completes it?

The LPP-2 evaluates the overall linguistic and communicative skills of deaf children regardless of language modality. It is completed by a parent or sometimes a teacher who is highly familiar with the child's skills.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

Who tested the deaf participants in this study, and what special accommodations were made?

An adult hearing native user of BSL tested the deaf children. Testing rooms had optimal lighting, and children were positioned to clearly see the experimenter's lip movements.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

On which working memory measures did the hearing group perform significantly better than the overall deaf group?

The hearing group scored significantly higher on the Spatial Span Backward and the Odd One Out tasks. They did not differ significantly on the Spatial Span Forward task.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

On which language tasks did the hearing group outperform the overall deaf group?

The hearing group scored significantly higher on the Expressive One Word Picture Vocabulary Test (EOWPVT) and the Language Proficiency Profile (LPP-2). There were no group differences on BSL Narrative Content or Structure.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

Why did the researchers utilize ANCOVAs when comparing native signers, non-native signers, and hearing children?

They used ANCOVAs to control for age and non-verbal reasoning (WASI scores) because the subgroups differed significantly on these variables. This analysis isolated the true effect of language experience.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

What was the post hoc group difference result for Spatial Span Backward?

The only significant group difference was that non-native signers scored significantly lower than the hearing group. Native signers did not perform significantly differently from either group.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

Describe the pattern of group differences observed on the Expressive One Word Picture Vocabulary Test (EOWPVT) among the three subgroups.

All three groups differed significantly from one another in a linear hierarchy. Non-native signers scored lowest, native signers scored higher than non-native signers, and hearing children scored highest.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

What subgroup differences were found on the Language Proficiency Profile (LPP-2)?

Non-native signers scored significantly lower than both native signers and hearing children. There was no significant difference between native signers and hearing children.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

What happened to the unique predictive power of age and WASI score when language measures were added to predict Spatial Span Backward?

Both age and WASI scores lost their unique predictive power. This indicated that language measures accounted for the variance previously explained by age and non-verbal reasoning.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

Which language task was a significant unique predictor of both Spatial Span Backward and Odd One Out?

The Expressive One Word Picture Vocabulary Test (EOWPVT) score was a unique predictor. The parent/teacher-completed Language Proficiency Profile (LPP-2) was not.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

How much variance in complex span (Odd One Out task) was explained by the model when language measures were added?

The model showed an excellent fit and explained almost half of the total variance in complex span, reaching an adjusted R-squared of 0.469.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

What were the significant unique predictors of the Spatial Span Forward task in the regression analysis?

Age was the only significant unique predictor of Spatial Span Forward scores. Neither of the language measures uniquely predicted performance on this task.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

Do the study's overall results support the 'auditory scaffolding' or the 'language experience' explanation for working memory performance?

The findings support the language experience hypothesis. Deaf children who had early, rich language exposure (native signers) performed identically to hearing children, demonstrating that deafness per se does not impair working memory.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

What sample size limitation do the authors note regarding the native signer subgroup?

The native signer group was small, consisting of only 8 children. However, the authors note that this is a rare population and small sample sizes are highly prevalent in similar sign language research.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

What caveat do the authors mention regarding 'verbal mediation' in visual working memory tasks?

The authors chose tasks designed to minimize verbal mediation, but they acknowledge that the exact nature of verbal mediation in visual tasks is not yet fully understood in atypical developmental research.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified

What is the primary intervention implication for deaf children of hearing parents based on these findings?

Deaf children of hearing parents must be provided with accessible language exposure early in development. This exposure is critical to support the age-appropriate development of working memory and wider cognitive skills.

Source: Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience · DOI · quote verified