This study examined the relationship between native phonological processing ability and the learning outcome of a trained nonnative (Hindi /ɖ/ - / d̪/) contrast. Participants were perceptually trained and assessed in the evening, and reassessed early the next morning. Native phonological processing ability did not predict the learning of the nonnative contrasts on Day 1. However, after a period of post-training sleep, Blending ability predicted nonnative Discrimination performance, and Nonword Repetition predicted nonnative Identification. These findings may point to similarities between processes involved in maintaining native phonological representations and that in the retention of nonnative acoustic-phonetic features in adulthood.

Individual differences in phonological processing abilities have often been attributed to perceptual factors, rather than to factors relating to learning and memory. Here, we consider the contribution of individual differences in declarative and procedural memory to phonological processing performance in adulthood. We examined the phonological processing, declarative memory, and procedural memory abilities of 79 native English-speaking young adults with typical language and reading abilities. Declarative memory was assessed with a recognition memory task of real and made-up objects. Procedural memory was assessed with a serial reaction time task. For both tasks, learning was assessed shortly after encoding, and again after a 12-h, overnight delay. We regressed phonological processing ability with memory performance on both days. We found that declarative memory, but not procedural memory, was highly predictive of phonological processing abilities. Specifically, declarative memory scores obtained shortly after learning were associated with non-word repetition performance, whereas declarative memory scores obtained after the overnight delay were associated with phonological awareness. Procedural memory was not associated with either of the phonological processing measures. We discuss these findings in the context of adult participants with mature phonological systems. We examine possible implications for the relationship between declarative memory and phonological processing in adulthood.

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Purpose Nonword repetition has been cited as a measure of phonological working memory and continues to gain status as a clinical tool used to identify language impairment in school-age children. Less is known about nonword repetition skills in the toddler population. Method The current study presents a detailed analysis of errors by segmenting nonwords into word, syllable, and phoneme levels. Errors were also analyzed for type (e.g., addition, substitution, deletion). The Test of Early Nonword Repetition was used to measure performance in a sample of 36 typically developing children, aged 24–48 months. Clinical assessments including parent report, language sampling procedures, and standardized assessments were also administered. Results As a group, participants produced significantly more syllable errors compared to word-level errors; however, most errors were made at the phoneme level. Errors of addition were the least common error type, and no differences between substitutions or deletions were present for the entire sample. Toddlers (aged 2 years) produced more syllable-level errors compared to older children (aged 3 years). Substitution errors were positively correlated with performance on clinical measures of language, whereas deletion errors were negatively correlated with performance. Conclusion Nonword repetition performance patterns in young children may be associated with language delay or language impairment and have both clinical and theoretical relevance.