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Word length effects on pictorial memory encoding in 5- to 7-year-old children: An eye-tracking study

Ness, Torunn ; Johansson, Roger LU orcid and Psouni, Elia LU orcid (2020) In Cognitive Development 55.
Abstract
How speech coding is used for visual material is critical to understanding the link between language and memory development. Using eye-tracking, the present study examined whether the number of syllables of pictured objects’ names, monosyllabic versus multisyllabic, predicts looking time at the stimuli-objects in the context of a memory task, thereby indicating verbal recoding. The children’s (N = 39, ages 5–7 years) language ability was also considered. Younger children (5;1–6;3 years) did not appear to sub-vocally recode the verbal labels of visual stimuli during encoding, whereas older children (6;4–7;3 years) who were already attending elementary school looked longer at objects with multisyllabic labels. Notably, it was primarily the... (More)
How speech coding is used for visual material is critical to understanding the link between language and memory development. Using eye-tracking, the present study examined whether the number of syllables of pictured objects’ names, monosyllabic versus multisyllabic, predicts looking time at the stimuli-objects in the context of a memory task, thereby indicating verbal recoding. The children’s (N = 39, ages 5–7 years) language ability was also considered. Younger children (5;1–6;3 years) did not appear to sub-vocally recode the verbal labels of visual stimuli during encoding, whereas older children (6;4–7;3 years) who were already attending elementary school looked longer at objects with multisyllabic labels. Notably, it was primarily the less verbally competent among those children who contributed to the effect. Thus, our results demonstrate, for the first time, that young children’s sub-vocal verbal processing when trying to memorize visual stimuli may be contingent upon verbal competence. (Less)
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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Cognitive Development
volume
55
article number
100917
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85087728108
ISSN
0885-2014
DOI
10.1016/j.cogdev.2020.100917
project
Recollections seen from the viewpoint of different minds
Integrated visual and verbal processing in young children
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
46331dc8-84dc-4b33-bf1d-148faf7309ed
date added to LUP
2020-07-10 20:17:28
date last changed
2024-01-17 08:35:49
@article{46331dc8-84dc-4b33-bf1d-148faf7309ed,
  abstract     = {{How speech coding is used for visual material is critical to understanding the link between language and memory development. Using eye-tracking, the present study examined whether the number of syllables of pictured objects’ names, monosyllabic versus multisyllabic, predicts looking time at the stimuli-objects in the context of a memory task, thereby indicating verbal recoding. The children’s (N = 39, ages 5–7 years) language ability was also considered. Younger children (5;1–6;3 years) did not appear to sub-vocally recode the verbal labels of visual stimuli during encoding, whereas older children (6;4–7;3 years) who were already attending elementary school looked longer at objects with multisyllabic labels. Notably, it was primarily the less verbally competent among those children who contributed to the effect. Thus, our results demonstrate, for the first time, that young children’s sub-vocal verbal processing when trying to memorize visual stimuli may be contingent upon verbal competence.}},
  author       = {{Ness, Torunn and Johansson, Roger and Psouni, Elia}},
  issn         = {{0885-2014}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Cognitive Development}},
  title        = {{Word length effects on pictorial memory encoding in 5- to 7-year-old children: An eye-tracking study}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2020.100917}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.cogdev.2020.100917}},
  volume       = {{55}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}