It has been suggested that the ability to learn a foreign language is related to working memory. However, there is no clear evidence about which component of working memory may be involved. Two experiments investigated working memory problems in groups of seventh and eighth grade Italian children with difficulties in learning English as a second language. They were compared with control groups ...

Two experiments combined masked priming with event-related potential (ERP) recordings to examine effects of primes that are orthographic neighbors of target words. Experiment 1 compared effects of repetition primes with effects of primes that were high-frequency orthographic neighbors of low-frequency targets (e.g., faute-faune [error-wildlife]), and Experiment 2 compared the same word neighbor...

Standardized vocabulary tests have been criticized for their cultural/experiential biases and insensitivity to word learning differences. This review discusses the utility of supplementing the diagnostic process with a processing-based measure, such as a nonword repetition task. Nonword repetition tasks have been heralded as a more sensitive indicator of individual differences in vocabulary/wor...

A short-term implicit memory effect is reported and interpreted as arising within the word recognition system. In Experiment 1, repetition priming in lexical decision was determined for low-frequency words and pseudowords at lags of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, and 23 intervening items. For words, a large short-term priming component decayed rapidly but smoothly over the first 3 items (8 s) to a stable...

A computational model is presented that tackles the issue of serial ordering both across word forms (as in list recall) and within word forms (as in nonword repetition). The model was set up to simulate performance in these two tasks. A number of patterns of relationship between performance in these tasks then fell out of the model, including the well-documented correlation between performance ...

CONTEXT Stuttering has a life span incidence and it significantly impacts academic, social, emotional and vocational achievements of patients who stutter. AIMS The purpose of the present study was to examine phonological encoding in young children who stutter (CWS) during a non word repetition task and to test the covert repair hypothesis (CRH) and phonological skills in Persian native childr...

Nonword repetition (NWR) tasks have become popular in recent years as measures of phonological short term memory (PSTM) in research settings, and as potential markers of language impairment in clinical settings. This has increased interest in the subskills that potentially NWR performance. The current study investigated the influence of PSTM, vocabulary skills, articulatory output skills, liter...

An increasing body of evidence suggests that nonword repetition is related to immediate serial memory (e.g., Baddeley, Gathercole, & Papagno, 1998; Gathercole & Baddeley, 1993). One possible account of this relationship is that a nonword is processed like a list when it is first encountered. If this is the case, it should be possible to detect serial position effects in repetition of single non...

In these experiments, cross-script masked repetition priming and word frequency effects were examined for Japanese words and nonwords as a function of script familiarity and the nature of the task (lexical decision or naming). In the lexical decision task, masked repetition priming effects were observed only for word targets and those effects were larger for targets presented in an orthographic...