The impact of inhibitory control, working memory and updating on definitional skills of learners with and without Developmental Language Disorder

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of executive functions (EF) (inhibition, working memory and updating) on definitional skills of learners with and without Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). A good/formal definition elicits the highest number of inferences at the lowest cost. Many theories about mental lexicon organization suggest that specific words are activated and/or suppressed. Nevertheless, very limited studies have attempted to examine whether similar procedures occur in the development of definitional skills. Previous studies indicated that learners with DLD have lower EF and definitional skills, which, however, do not correlate. In contrast, a link between EF and definitional skills arise in non-impaired learners. In this study, thirty-six learners divided into three groups (a DLD and two age-and vocabulary-matched control groups; CG) were tested through a definitional and three EF tasks.The two CGs produced better definitions than the DLD group. Moreover, age-matched CG scored higher than the other groups in EF tasks, while the vocabulary-matched CG outperformed the DLD only in updating. Correlations between definitions and EF emerged only in the age-matched CG. Concluding, EF and definitional skills of the DLD group seem to be deviant; while the link between EF and definitional skills may require more time to emerge in DLD learners, since it was also not found in the vocabulary-matched CG. Nevertheless, it was found in the other CG, suggesting that forming a good definition irrelevant words should be suppressed, appropriate words and form should be recalled, and useless information should be discarded.

Definitional Skills of Learners with and without Developmental Language Disorder

“…However, in respect of form all three groups performed similarly (cf. Dosi & Gavriilidou, 2020;Dosi, 2021); in contrast with other studies (Marinellie & Johnson, 2002).…”

“…Mohammadi et al (2011) noted that the definitional skills of Persian-speaking learners with DLD were weaker due to their language difficulties which prevent the full meaning representation. Adding to the work of previous studies, Dosi (2021) and Dosi and Gavriilidou (2020) have found differences between learners with and without DLD definitional abilities, albeit only in content and not in form. Moreover, they did not find correlations between executive functions (i.e., inhibition, updating, and working memory), vocabulary and definitions in the DLD, while the link was only observed in the TD group.…”

“…Learners with DLD used more informal definitions (cf. Marinellie & Johnson, 2002;Dosi, 2021) than both control groups in terms of the content of definitions (cf. Briscoe et al, 2001).…”

“…This study built on the research of Dosi and Gavriilidou (2020) and Dosi (2021), by delving into the definitional skills of school-aged learners with and without DLD by adding an extra vocabulary-matched control group (CG). Three interrelated questions were addressed: RQ1: Do overall definitional skills differ, in terms of content and form, between learners with and without DLD?…”

“…Apart from the baseline tasks, all participants were tested by means of an elicited production task investigating definitional skills. In order to achieve comparability of the results, the definition task and the methodology adopted were similar to those used in the study of Marinellie & Johnson (2002, 2004 adapted in Greek by Gavriilidou (2015) and applied in Dourou (2019), Dourou et al (2020), Dosi and Gavriilidou (2020) and Dosi (2021). The task included 16 items: eight nouns (concrete vs. abstract, simple vs. compound), four adjectives (simple vs. compound) and four verbs (simple vs. compound), as depicted in Table 2.…”