WORD LEARNING & MEMORY FUNCTIONS IN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM

单词学习

• 批准号: 6071309
• 负责人: Inge-Marie Eigsti
• 金额: $ 2.29万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 1999
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1999-12-01 至 2000-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6071309
• 关键词: Downs syndrome; autism; behavioral /social science research tag; child psychology; clinical research; comprehension; cues; functional ability; human subject; language development; language disorders; learning disorders; memory disorders; middle childhood (6-11); neuropsychology; phonology; preschool child (1-5); semantics; short term memory; syntax; verbal learning; Downs syndrome; autism; behavioral /social science research tag; child psychology; clinical research; comprehension; cues; functional ability; human subject; language development; language disorders; learning disorders; memory disorders; middle childhood (6-11); neuropsychology; phonology; preschool child (1-5); semantics; short term memory; syntax; verbal learning

This dissertation examines how grammatical knowledge and referential salience guide early world learning in autism, a developmental disability characterized by significant language deficits. The process of word learning requires a child to match co-occurrences of words of parts of words (morphemes) and their meanings. This matching demands the integration of multiple, probabilistic cues from the linguistic, social, and real-world contexts, and thus may depend on working memory. Paradoxically, the limited short-term verbal memory characteristic of typically-developing children may improve this analysis of co- occurrences. Their limited memory for verbal strings may focus attention on smaller elements, which in language are the most important meaning- bearing units for grammatical information. In contrast, a pattern of efficient verbal short-term memory and limited working memory could impede rule-learning, leading to language delays. This pattern is thought to characterize children with autism, and thus may help explain their language deficits. The present study examines early language in autism using a word-learning task that varies both grammatical and referential cues to a novel word. This task, which examine sub-categorization into count and mass non classes, is highly relevant to word learning in normal development. The influence of social and non-social referential cues is also compared. Working and short-term phonological memory are tested in order to assess whether the hypothesized pattern of memory deficits is correlated with performance on the lexical task. Participants will be 20 children with autism, 20 verbal and chronological age-matched children with Down syndrome, and 20 verbal mental age-matched normal controls. Results will inform out understanding of language development in autism and thus have important implications for intervention. Results will also heighten our understanding of the roles that working and short-term phonological memory play in language development.

本文论文研究了语法知识和参考显着性指南早期世界学习的自闭症，这是一种以严重语言缺陷为特征的发育障碍。单词学习的过程要求孩子匹配单词一部分（词素）及其含义的单词的共同出现。这种匹配需要从语言，社会和现实世界中的多个概率提示集成，因此可能取决于工作记忆。矛盾的是，通常开发儿童的有限的短期言语记忆特征可能会改善这种共同事件的分析。他们对言语字符串的记忆力有限，可能会将注意力集中在较小的元素上，语言是最重要的含义 - 轴承单元的语法信息。相反，有效的口头短期记忆和有限的工作记忆模式可能会阻碍规则学习，从而导致语言延迟。这种模式被认为是自闭症儿童的特征，因此可能有助于解释他们的语言缺陷。本研究使用单词学习任务来检查自闭症中的早期语言，该任务将语法和参考线索变成了新单词。该任务将亚分类检查为计数和质量非类别，与正常发展中的单词学习高度相关。还比较了社会和非社会参考线索的影响。测试工作和短期语音记忆，以评估假设的记忆缺陷模式是否与词汇任务的性能相关。参与者将是20名自闭症儿童，20个口头和年龄匹配的唐氏综合症儿童以及20个口头精神年龄匹配的正常对照。结果将为自闭症中语言发展的理解提供信息，因此对干预具有重要意义。结果还将提高我们对工作和短期语音记忆在语言发展中的作用的理解。