Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, MGH Institute of Health Professions, Boston, MA.
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2022 Jun 8;65(6):2272-2287. doi: 10.1044/2022_JSLHR-21-00612. Epub 2022 May 5.
The purpose of this study was to examine feedback processing within the context of probabilistic learning in children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD).
The probabilistic category learning task required 28 children ages 8-13 years old to classify novel cartoon animals that differed in five binary features into one of two categories. Performance feedback guided incremental learning of the stimuli classifications. Feedback processing was compared between children with DLD and age-matched children with typical development (TD) by measuring the magnitude of feedback-related event-related potentials. Additionally, the likelihood of each group to repeat a classification of a stimulus following positive feedback ("stay" behavior) and change a classification following negative feedback ("switch" behavior) served as a measure of the consequence of feedback processing.
Children with DLD achieved lower classification accuracy on all learning outcomes compared to their peers with TD. Children with DLD were less likely than those with TD to demonstrate "stay" behavior or to repeat a correct response following positive feedback. "Switch" behavior or changing an incorrect response following negative feedback was found to be at chance level in both groups. Electrophysiological data indicated that children with DLD had a smaller feedback-related negativity effect (i.e., smaller differential processing of positive and negative feedback) when compared to children with TD. Although no differences were found between the two groups in the amplitude of the P3a, strong positive correlations were found between "stay/switch" behavior and the P3a for children in the TD group only.
Children with DLD do not appear to benefit from incremental corrective feedback to the same extent as their peers with TD. Processing differences are captured in the initial stages of feedback evaluation and in translating information carried by the feedback to inform future actions.
本研究旨在考察有无语言发育障碍(DLD)的儿童在概率学习背景下的反馈处理情况。
该概率类别学习任务要求 28 名 8-13 岁的儿童对具有五个二进制特征的新卡通动物进行分类,将其归入两个类别之一。表现反馈引导对刺激分类的增量学习。通过测量反馈相关事件相关电位的幅度,比较 DLD 儿童和年龄匹配的典型发育(TD)儿童之间的反馈处理情况。此外,每组在收到正反馈后重复分类刺激的可能性(“保持”行为)和在收到负反馈后改变分类的可能性(“转换”行为)作为反馈处理结果的衡量标准。
与 TD 同龄人相比,DLD 儿童在所有学习结果上的分类准确性都较低。与 TD 儿童相比,DLD 儿童不太可能表现出“保持”行为,也不太可能在收到正反馈后重复正确的反应。两组“转换”行为或在负反馈后改变错误反应的可能性均为随机水平。电生理数据表明,与 TD 儿童相比,DLD 儿童的反馈相关负性效应(即对正反馈和负反馈的差异处理较小)较小。尽管两组儿童在 P3a 振幅上没有差异,但仅在 TD 组中发现“保持/转换”行为与 P3a 之间存在强烈的正相关。
与 TD 同龄人相比,DLD 儿童似乎不能从增量纠正反馈中受益。处理差异在反馈评估的初始阶段以及在将反馈所携带的信息转化为未来行动的信息方面被捕捉到。