Task demands and executive function abilities in the comprehension of costly sentences by schoolchildren

Authors

  • Erica dos S. Rodrigues Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RIO), Laboratório de Psicolinguística e Aquisição da Linguagem (LAPAL), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3524-5820
  • Marina Rosa Ana Augusto Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Laboratório de Psicolinguística e Aquisição da Linguagem (LAPAL), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9022-394X
  • Julianna Breia Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RIO), Laboratório de Psicolinguística e Aquisição da Linguagem (LAPAL), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. https://orcid.org/0009-0005-0628-2058
  • Lara Pestana Henrique Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Laboratório de Psicolinguística e Aquisição da Linguagem (LAPAL), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. https://orcid.org/0009-0000-4158-1022
  • Letícia Maria Sicuro Corrêa Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RIO), Laboratório de Psicolinguística e Aquisição da Linguagem (LAPAL), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6561-1238

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-4301.2023.1.44447

Keywords:

DLD (Development Language Disorder), Inhibitory control, Long-distance dependencies, Relative clauses and WH questions, Picture-identification task.

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between children’s comprehension of syntactically costly sentences (passives, relatives and WH-questions) and their performance in inhibitory control (IC) tasks. 74 Brazilian Portuguese-speaking schoolchildren were tested with MABILIN, a linguistic battery with a picture-identification task intended to track language impairment, and two versions of the Flanker and Go/no-Go tests, designed for children. Image complexity was manipulated in the comprehension of right-branching relative clauses and WH+N questions. A positive correlation between children’s overall performance in the language test and the IC tests was obtained. Moreover, children’s performance in the analysis of complex images was positively correlated with IC abilities. The results suggest that demands of the sentence-mapping process in linguistic tasks can be crucially dependent on IC. The implications of the results for the tracking of DLD (Developmental Language Disorder) are discussed.

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Author Biographies

Erica dos S. Rodrigues, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RIO), Laboratório de Psicolinguística e Aquisição da Linguagem (LAPAL), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.

Ph.D in Letters at Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio); Associate Professor at the Graduate Program in Language Studies and researcher at the Psycholinguistics and Language Acquisition Laboratory (LAPAL) at the same institution. PQ2-CNPq Grant 311763/2022-7.

Marina Rosa Ana Augusto , Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Laboratório de Psicolinguística e Aquisição da Linguagem (LAPAL), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.

Ph.D in Linguistics at Campinas State University (UNICAMP); Associate Professor at the Graduate Program in Letters of Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ) and researcher at the Psycholinguistics and Language Acquisition Laboratory (LAPAL) at PUC-Rio. Prociência/Faperj Grant 2023-2026.

Julianna Breia, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RIO), Laboratório de Psicolinguística e Aquisição da Linguagem (LAPAL), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.

Graduate Student at the Graduate Program in Language Studies of Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio); and graduate fellow at the Psycholinguistics and Language Acquisition Laboratory (LAPAL); CAPES-Edital 12/2021 scholarship, under supervision of Letícia
Maria Sicuro Correa.

Lara Pestana Henrique, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Laboratório de Psicolinguística e Aquisição da Linguagem (LAPAL), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.

Undergraduate student in Letters at Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ); student scholarship, under supervision of Marina Rosa Ana Augusto in the Project DEL (Déficit Específico da Linguagem): conhecendo populações em condições diferenciadas de aquisição da língua.

Letícia Maria Sicuro Corrêa, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RIO), Laboratório de Psicolinguística e Aquisição da Linguagem (LAPAL), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.

Ph.D in Psycholinguistics at the University of London; Full Professor at the Graduate Program in Language Studies of Pontifical University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC- Rio); Research director of the Psycholinguistics and Language Acquisition Laboratory (LAPAL): PQ1A-CNPq Grant 312123/2020-5; Cientista do Estado (FAPERJ) Grant E-2/200.903/2021.

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Published

2024-02-29

How to Cite

dos S. Rodrigues, E., Rosa Ana Augusto , M., Breia, J., Pestana Henrique, L., & Sicuro Corrêa, L. M. (2024). Task demands and executive function abilities in the comprehension of costly sentences by schoolchildren. Letrônica, 16(1), e44447. https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-4301.2023.1.44447

Issue

Vol. 16 No. 1 (2023): Single Volume

Section

PSICOLINGUÍSTICA E NEUROLINGUÍSTICA EM INTERFACES

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