Evans Julia L, Saffran Jenny R, Robe-Torres Kathryn
School of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182-1518, USA.
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2009 Apr;52(2):321-35. doi: 10.1044/1092-4388(2009/07-0189).
In this study, the authors examined (a) whether children with specific language impairment (SLI) can implicitly compute the probabilities of adjacent sound sequences, (b) if this ability is related to degree of exposure, (c) if it is domain specific or domain general and, (d) if it is related to vocabulary.
Children with SLI and normal language controls (ages 6;5-14;4 [years;months]) listened to 21 min of a language in which transitional probabilities within words were higher than those between words. In a second study, children with SLI and Age-Nonverbal IQ matched controls (8;0-10;11) listened to the same language for 42 min and to a second 42 min "tone" language containing the identical statistical structure as the "speech" language.
After 21 min, the SLI group's performance was at chance, whereas performance for the control group was significantly greater than chance and significantly correlated with receptive and expressive vocabulary knowledge. In the 42-minute speech condition, the SLI group's performance was significantly greater than chance and correlated with receptive vocabulary but was no different from chance in the analogous 42-minute tone condition. Performance for the control group was again significantly greater than chance in 42-minute speech and tone conditions.
These findings suggest that poor implicit learning may underlie aspects of the language impairments in SLI.
在本研究中，作者考察了：（a）患有特定语言障碍（SLI）的儿童是否能够隐性计算相邻音素序列的概率；（b）这种能力是否与接触程度有关；（c）它是领域特定的还是领域通用的；以及（d）它是否与词汇量有关。
患有SLI的儿童和正常语言能力对照组（年龄6岁5个月至14岁4个月）听21分钟的一种语言，其中单词内的过渡概率高于单词间的过渡概率。在第二项研究中，患有SLI的儿童和年龄-非言语智商匹配的对照组（8岁至10岁11个月）听同一种语言42分钟，并听另一种42分钟的“音调”语言，该语言具有与“语音”语言相同的统计结构。
21分钟后，SLI组的表现处于随机水平，而对照组的表现显著高于随机水平，且与接受性和表达性词汇知识显著相关。在42分钟的语音条件下，SLI组的表现显著高于随机水平，并与接受性词汇相关，但在类似的42分钟音调条件下与随机水平无差异。对照组在42分钟的语音和音调条件下的表现再次显著高于随机水平。
这些发现表明，隐性学习能力差可能是SLI语言障碍的部分原因。
