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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Children’s inference generation
T2 - the role of vocabulary and working memory
AU - Currie, Nicola
AU - Cain, Kate
N1 - Under a Creative Commons license
PY - 2015/9
Y1 - 2015/9
N2 - Inferences are crucial to successful discourse comprehension. We assessed the contributions of vocabulary and working memory to inference making in children aged 5 to 6 (n=44), 7 to 8 (n=43) and 9 to 10 (n=43) years. Children listened to short narratives and answered questions to assess local and global coherence inferences after each one. ANOVA confirmed developmental improvements on both types of inference. Although standardized measures of both vocabulary and working memory were correlated with inference making, multiple regression analyses determined that vocabulary was the key predictor. For local coherence inferences, only vocabulary predicted unique variance for the 6- and 8- year-olds; in contrast, none of the variables predicted performance for the 10-year-olds. For global coherence inferences, vocabulary was the only unique predictor for each age group. Mediation analysis confirmed that, although working memory was associated with the ability to generate local and global coherence inferences in 6- to 10-year-olds, the effect was mediated by vocabulary. We conclude that vocabulary knowledge supports inference making in two ways: through knowledge of word meanings required to generate inferences and also through its contribution to memory processes.
AB - Inferences are crucial to successful discourse comprehension. We assessed the contributions of vocabulary and working memory to inference making in children aged 5 to 6 (n=44), 7 to 8 (n=43) and 9 to 10 (n=43) years. Children listened to short narratives and answered questions to assess local and global coherence inferences after each one. ANOVA confirmed developmental improvements on both types of inference. Although standardized measures of both vocabulary and working memory were correlated with inference making, multiple regression analyses determined that vocabulary was the key predictor. For local coherence inferences, only vocabulary predicted unique variance for the 6- and 8- year-olds; in contrast, none of the variables predicted performance for the 10-year-olds. For global coherence inferences, vocabulary was the only unique predictor for each age group. Mediation analysis confirmed that, although working memory was associated with the ability to generate local and global coherence inferences in 6- to 10-year-olds, the effect was mediated by vocabulary. We conclude that vocabulary knowledge supports inference making in two ways: through knowledge of word meanings required to generate inferences and also through its contribution to memory processes.
KW - Inference
KW - Local coherence
KW - Global coherence
KW - Working memory
KW - Vocabulary
KW - School-aged children
U2 - 10.1016/j.jecp.2015.03.005
DO - 10.1016/j.jecp.2015.03.005
M3 - Journal article
VL - 137
SP - 57
EP - 75
JO - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
JF - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
SN - 0022-0965
ER -