Cundy, K;
(2006)
Children with a specific language impairment respond differently than controls to increasing the demands of the multi-digit magnitude comparison task: implications for underlying processing methods.
Doctoral thesis , UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
Previous studies have found that although children with specific language impairments (SLI) perform at the level of typically-developing peers when reaction times are examined in the multi-digit magnitude comparison task (non verbal test of conceptual place-v alue know ledge) they perform below the control group when accuracy scores are compared. This study aims to examine accuracy responses in more detail. Analysis was carried out on accuracy data previously collected by Cowan et al. (2005) from children with SLI, a control group matched for chronological age and a younger control group matched for language ability. The demands of the task were varied by increasing the number length from 2-5 digits and reducing the transparency of the number pairs by including reversed digits (e.g. 24 vs. 42) or conflicting information due to the smaller number containing the largest digit (e.g. 77 vs. 69). It was found that groups responded significantly differently to variations in task demand, suggesting the processing strategies used may vary in type or efficiency. In particular, in response to transparent stimuli that differed by only one digit, increasing stimulus length had more affect on the accuracy scores of the language-control group than the SLI group and had no impact on the age-control group. It was also found that the SLI group performed above the level of language-controls and below that of age- controls when the stimuli were transparent or contained conflicting information, but at the lev el of the language-control group for stimuli that contained digits that had been reversed. This may suggest that although children with SLI have conceptual understanding in advance of their language ability, elements of their language impairment may be impacting on the use of place-value knowledge in certain circumstances.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Title: | Children with a specific language impairment respond differently than controls to increasing the demands of the multi-digit magnitude comparison task: implications for underlying processing methods |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Thesis digitised by ProQuest. |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Language and Cognition |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1567942 |
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