Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Short Term Memory Performance in 7- and 8-year-old Children: The Relationship Between Phonological and Pitch Processing
Abstract
Purpose: The relationship between short term memory for phonology and pitch was explored by examining accuracy scores for typically developing children for five experimental tasks: immediate nonword repetition (NWR), nonword repetition with an eight second silent interference (NWRS), pitch discrimination (PD), pitch discrimination with an eight second silent interference (PDS), and pitch matching (PM).
Method: Thirty-six 7- and 8-year old children (21 females, 15 males) with normal hearing, language, and cognition were asked to listen to and repeat nonsense words (NWR, NWRS), make a same vs. different decision between two tones (PD, PDS), and listen to and then vocally reproduce a tone (PM).
Results: Results showed no significant correlations between tasks of phonological memory and tests of pitch memory, that participants scored significantly better on nonword repetition tasks than pitch discrimination and matching tasks, and that participants performed significantly better on tasks with no silent interference.
Discussion: These findings suggest that, for typically developing children, pitch may be stored and rehearsed in a separate location than phonological information. Due to fundamental task differences, further research is needed to corroborate this data and determine the presence of developmental effects and neuroanatomical locations where a potential language/music overlap is occurring in children.
Publication Date
2016
Recommended Citation
Flagge, A.G., Estis, J.M., & Moore, R. (2016). Short Term Memory Performance in 7- and 8- year- old Children: The Relationship Between Phonological and Pitch Processing. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 59, 1208-1217. doi: 10.1044/2016_JSLHR-H-14-0317.
Included in
Reading and Language Commons, Speech and Hearing Science Commons, Speech Pathology and Audiology Commons
Comments
This is the peer-reviewed version of the following article: Flagge, A.G., Estis, J.M., & Moore, R. (2016). Short Term Memory Performance in 7- and 8- year-old Children: The Relationship Between Phonological and Pitch Processing. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 59, 1208-1217, which is published in its final form at https://doi.org/10.1044/2016_JSLHR-H-14-0317. This article may not be used commercially or be enhanced, enriched, or transformed in any way without permission from the authors and publishers.