title: Electrophysiological measures of attention during speech perception predict metalinguistic skills in children.
abstract: Event-related potential (ERP) evidence demonstrates that preschool-aged children selectively attend to informative moments such as word onsets during speech perception. Although this observation indicates a role for attention in language processing, it is unclear whether this type of attention is part of basic speech perception mechanisms, higher-level language skills, or general cognitive abilities. The current study examined these possibilities by measuring ERPs from 5-year-old children listening to a narrative containing attention probes presented before, during, and after word onsets as well as at random control times. Children also completed behavioral tests assessing verbal and nonverbal skills. Probes presented after word onsets elicited a more negative ERP response beginning around 100 ms after probe onset than control probes, indicating increased attention to word-initial segments. Crucially, the magnitude of this difference was correlated with performance on verbal tasks, but showed no relationship to nonverbal measures. More specifically, ERP attention effects were most strongly correlated with performance on a complex metalinguistic task involving grammaticality judgments. These results demonstrate that effective allocation of attention during speech perception supports higher-level, controlled language processing in children by allowing them to focus on relevant information at individual word and complex sentence levels.
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA. Electronic address: lastheimer@psych.umass.edu.
authors: Lori
authors: L
authors: Astheimer
authors: Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada M3J 1P3.
authors: Monika
authors: M
authors: Janus
authors: Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada M6A 2E1.
authors: Sylvain
authors: S
authors: Moreno
authors: Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada M3J 1P3.
authors: Ellen
authors: E
authors: Bialystok
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D032882:Comprehension; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Development; Event-related potential; Metalinguistic awareness; Selective attention; Speech perception