SRCLD Presentation Details
  Title  
       
    Artificial Grammar Learning (AGL) in Two Modalities: How do children diagnosed with Developmental Language Disorders perform?  
Author(s)
Jasmine Urquhart Gillis - MGH Institute of Health Professions, Cognitive Neuroscience Group
Yael Arbel - MGH Institute of Health Professions, Cognitive Neuroscience Group

SRCLD Info
SRCLD Year: 2019
Presentation Type: Poster Presentation
Poster Number: PS3S36
Presentation Time: (na)
Categories
Abstract
The underlying impaired learning mechanism in children with developmental language disorder (DLD) is a matter of great debate. A leading hypothesis is that children with DLD exhibit an impairment in implicit learning. Tasks of artificial grammar learning (AGL) provide a measure of implicit learning, as successful learning relies on the ability to generalize the complex structure of the grammar. However, when implicit learning is evaluated in DLD, most studies employ verbal AGL tasks. It is yet to be determined whether the ability of children with DLD to learn artificial grammar is modality specific or modality general. The present study evaluated whether the ability to learn artificial grammar in 22 school-aged children (ages 8-12 years) with DLD is affected by the modality of exemplars. Children with DLD and those with typical language development (TD) completed two artificial learning (AGL) tasks that differ in their modality (visual vs verbal). Results indicate better performance in the visual modality than auditory for both groups, with results reflecting better accuracy in the TD group within the visual modality when compared to the DLD group.