Successful language comprehension requires the rapid deployment of working memory resources alongside the capacity to predict upcoming linguistic input. While previous research views these as competing factors, this dissertation explores a unified theory of processing complexity and evaluates the interaction between memory and prediction. The…

Purpose: Developmental language disorder (DLD) is often associated with deficits in executive functions (EFs), but the specific pattern of which components are affected remains unclear. This study examined EF performance in Spanish-speaking children with DLD compared to typically developing (TD) peers matched for age and socioeconomic status.…

Purpose: This study examined working memory in children with developmental language disorder (DLD). The overarching goal of this work was to integrate three primary processing-based hypotheses of DLD, (a) limited verbal working memory, (b) slowed processing speed, and (c) inefficient inhibition of interference, by using the…

Purpose: This study investigated the categorical perception of Mandarin tones and consonant aspiration contrasts in babble noise among adults and adolescents aged 12-14 years, and explored the association between working memory and categorical perception. Method: Twenty-four adults and 20 adolescents with Mandarin as their native language were…

Purpose: This study examined the influence of cognitive factors on spoken word recognition in children with developmental language disorder (DLD) and typically developing (TD) children. Method: Participants included 234 children (aged 7;0-11;11 years;months), 117 with DLD and 117 TD children, propensity matched for age, gender, socioeconomic…

Purpose: Over the last decades, many studies have documented the clinical potential of nonword repetition (NWR) tasks for detecting developmental language disorder in mono- (MON) and bilingual (BIL) children by unveiling their difficulties in short-term memory and phonological accuracy. However, the precise nature of the nonwords to be used and…

In second language (L2) academic writing, being able to think in the L2 as opposed to thinking in the L1 and then translating into an L2 utterance may contribute to greater success in foreign-language writing. It reduces cognitive load, frees up more time and cognitive capacity to focus on syntactic structures in the target language and achieve…

Using a cross-modal priming task, the present study explores whether Chinese-English bilinguals process goal related information during auditory comprehension of English narratives like native speakers. Results indicate that English native speakers adopted both mechanisms of suppression and enhancement to modulate the activation of goals and keep…

This dissertation explores how listeners extract meaning from personal and reflexive pronouns in spoken language. To be understood, words like her and herself must be linked to a prior element in the speech stream (or antecedent). This process draws on syntactic knowledge and verbal working memory processes. I present two original research studies…

According to some accounts, the bilingual advantage is most pronounced in the domain of executive attention rather than inhibition and should therefore be more easily detected in conflict adaptation paradigms than in simple interference paradigms. We tested this idea using two conflict adaptation paradigms, one that elicits a list-wide…

Research on individual differences in second language (L2) reading ability has primarily focused on factors known to contribute to first language (L1) reading ability, with little consideration of factors mediating interference between languages. In an exploratory analysis, we compared the degree to which the linguistic interference that readers…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to measure the effect of time to response in a fast-mapping word learning task for children with specific language impairment (SLI) and children with typically developing language skills (TD). Manipulating time to response allows us to examine decay of the memory trace, the use of vocal rehearsal, and their…

The role of working memory (WM) in sentence comprehension has received considerable interest, but little work has investigated how sentence production relies on memory mechanisms. Three experiments investigated speakers' tendency to produce syntactic structures that allow for early production of material that is accessible in memory. In Experiment…

There is an ongoing debate in the field of Second Language Acquisition concerning whether a fundamental difference exists between the native language (L1) and adult second language (L2) online processing of syntax and morpho-syntax. The Shallow Structure Hypothesis (SSH) (Clahsen and Felser, 2006a, b) states that L2 online parsing is qualitatively…

Working memory (WM) as the ability to temporarily maintain and manipulate various kinds of information is known to be affected by proactive interference (PI) from previously relevant contents, but studies on developmental changes in the susceptibility to PI are scarce. In the present study, we investigated life span development of item-specific…