Auditory and visual category learning in children and adults.

Roark, Casey L.; Lescht, Erica; Wray, Amanda Hampton; Chandrasekaran, Bharath

doi:10.1037/dev0001525

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 105 publications

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“…Nevertheless, adults learned the categories far more rapidly. This finding builds on and extends past findings in the developmental category learning literature demonstrating that category rules that have a simple formalization may still be quite difficult for children and that rule-based category learning undergoes significant developmental change (Huang-Pollock et al, 2011;Mathy et al, 2015;Rabi et al, 2015;Roark et al, 2023).…”

Section: Why Do Children Show Weaker Effects Than Adults?supporting

confidence: 83%

Nameability supports rule‐based category learning in children and adults

Zettersten,

Bredemann,

Kaul

et al. 2023

Child Development

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The present study tested the hypothesis that verbal labels support category induction by providing compact hypotheses. Ninety‐seven 4‐ to 6‐year‐old children (M = 63.2 months; 46 female, 51 male; 77% White, 8% more than one race, 4% Asian, and 3% Black; tested 2018) and 90 adults (M = 20.1 years; 70 female, 20 male) in the Midwestern United States learned novel categories with features that were easy (e.g., “red”) or difficult (e.g., “mauve”) to name. Adults (d = 1.06) and—to a lesser extent—children (d = 0.57; final training block) learned categories composed of more nameable features better. Children's knowledge of difficult‐to‐name color words predicted their learning for categories with difficult‐to‐name features. Rule‐based category learning may be supported by the emerging ability to form verbal hypotheses.

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Section: Why Do Children Show Weaker Effects Than Adults?supporting

confidence: 83%

Nameability supports rule‐based category learning in children and adults

Zettersten,

Bredemann,

Kaul

et al. 2023

Child Development

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“…The tasks were similar to those used in prior research examining category learning in typically developed children (Roark et al, 2023).…”

Section: Category Learning Tasksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Procedural auditory category learning is selectively disrupted in developmental language disorder

Derawi,

Roark,

Gabay

2023

Psychon Bull Rev

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Speech communication depends on accurate perception and identification of speech sounds, which vary across talkers and word or sentence contexts. The ability to map this variable input onto discrete speech sound representations relies on categorization. Recent research and theoretical models implicate the procedural learning system in the ability to learn novel speech and non-speech categories. This connection is particularly intriguing because several language disorders that demonstrate linguistic impairments are proposed to stem from procedural learning and memory dysfunction. One such disorder, Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), affects 7.5% of children and persists into adulthood. While DLD is associated with general linguistic impairments, it is not yet clear how fundamental perceptual and cognitive processes supporting language are impacted, such as the ability to learn novel auditory categories. We examined auditory category learning in children with DLD and typically developed (TD) children using two well-matched nonspeech auditory category learning challenges to draw upon presumed procedural (information-integration) versus declarative (rule-based) learning systems. We observed impaired information-integration category learning and intact rule-based category learning in the DLD group. Quantitative model-based analyses revealed reduced use of, and slower shifting to, optimal procedural-based strategies in DLD and slower shifting to but similarly efficient use of optimal hypothesis-testing strategies. The dissociation is consistent with the Procedural Deficit Hypothesis of language disorders and supports the theoretical distinction of multiple category learning systems. These findings demonstrate that highly controlled experimental tasks assessing perceptual and cognitive abilities can relate to real-world challenges facing individuals with DLD in forming stable linguistic representations.

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Auditory and visual category learning in children and adults.

Roark¹,

Lescht²,

Wray³

et al. 2023

Developmental Psychology

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Categories are fundamental to everyday life and the ability to learn new categories is relevant across the lifespan. Categories are ubiquitous across modalities, supporting complex processes such as object recognition and speech perception. Prior work has proposed that different categories may engage learning systems with unique developmental trajectories. There is a limited understanding of how perceptual and cognitive development influences learning as prior studies have examined separate participants in a single modality. The current study presents a comprehensive assessment of category learning in 8–12-year-old children (12 female; 34 white, 1 Asian, 1 more than one race; M household income $85–$100 K) and 18–61-year-old adults (13 female; 32 white, 10 Black or African American, 4 Asian, 2 more than one race, 1 other; M household income $40–55 K) in a broad sample collected online from the United States. Across multiple sessions, participants learned categories across modalities (auditory, visual) that engage different learning systems (explicit, procedural). Unsurprisingly, adults outperformed children across all tasks. However, this enhanced performance was asymmetrical across categories and modalities. Adults far outperformed children in learning visual explicit categories and auditory procedural categories, with fewer differences across development for other types of categories. Adults’ general benefit over children was due to enhanced information processing, while their superior performance for visual explicit and auditory procedural categories was associated with less cautious correct responses. These results demonstrate an interaction between perceptual and cognitive development that influences learning of categories that may correspond to the development of real-world skills such as speech perception and reading.

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Auditory and visual category learning in children and adults.

Cited by 7 publications

References 105 publications

Nameability supports rule‐based category learning in children and adults

Nameability supports rule‐based category learning in children and adults

Procedural auditory category learning is selectively disrupted in developmental language disorder

Auditory and visual category learning in children and adults.

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