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A method for studying the generalized slowing hypothesis in children with specific language impairment
1Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907.
Journal of Speech and Hearing Research
|April 1, 1994
Summary
Children with specific language impairment (SLI) respond more slowly than unimpaired children. This processing speed difference is consistent across tasks, suggesting a general cognitive processing deficit in SLI.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Speech and Language Pathology
Background:
- Children with specific language impairment (SLI) may exhibit slower response times (RTs) compared to their unimpaired peers.
- Previous research suggests potential differences in cognitive processing speed between these groups, but a standardized assessment method is needed.
Purpose of the Study:
- To present a method for evaluating the hypothesis that children with SLI have slower RTs than unimpaired children.
- To determine if RT differences are consistent across various tasks, indicating a general processing speed deficit.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a dataset of 22 pairs of mean RTs from published studies.
- Each pair compared RTs of children with SLI to age-matched control children without SLI for specific experimental conditions.
Main Results:
- A linear relationship was observed between the RTs of children with SLI and their unimpaired peers.
- This finding supports the hypothesis that children with SLI consistently respond more slowly across different tasks.
Conclusions:
- The observed linear relationship suggests that slower processing speed in children with SLI is a general cognitive characteristic, not task-specific.
- The developed method can be applied in future research to further investigate cognitive processing in SLI.