Optimizing feedback-based learning in children with developmentallanguage disorder.

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

ABSTRACT This project aims to optimize a critical but understudied ingredient of language intervention provided to children with developmental language disorder (DLD) – feedback. The project is designed to bridge the gap between previous findings in our lab of inefficient feedback processing in DLD and clinical practice by identifying the conditions under which feedback-based learning can be improved in DLD. We hypothesize that the effectiveness of feedback can be significantly enhanced for children with DLD when it is tailored to their unique learning strengths. The rationale for this project is based on evidence that learning can be improved by enhancing the dominance of an intact learning system through feedback. The project will achieve its aim by manipulating (1) the timing of the feedback (immediate vs. delayed) and (2) the level of the learner’s involvement in error correction dictated by feedback (active vs. passive correction) to modulate the dominance of the implicit and declarative learning systems. While immediate feedback is processed by the implicit learning system, delaying the feedback by a few seconds implicates the declarative system. Likewise, teaching approaches that prompt active self-correction are associated with declarative learning, while passive exposure to corrective feedback (e.g., corrective recast) is assumed to support implicit learning. Aim 1 will determine the effect of manipulating feedback timing on declarative and implicit learning in 140 school-age children (8-12 years) with DLD. Evidence that delaying feedback improves learning in DLD would support the hypothesis of the implicit deficit theory that intervention should capitalize on declarative learning mechanisms. The project will test a novel alternative feedback-learning parity hypothesis whereby feedback-based learning is optimized when the timing of the feedback is aligned with the dominant learning system at a given time (i.e., immediate feedback during implicit learning; delayed feedback during declarative learning). Within the same group of children, Aim 2 will compare feedback-based learning in children with DLD when feedback (a) prompts active self-correction or (b) passively exposes learners to error corrections. Children will engage in two nonword- object paired-associate learning tasks. In one task feedback will promote active self-correction, which is in line with declarative learning. In the other task, feedback will passively expose the learner to corrective feedback and lead to learning that is assumed to be implicit. The project will determine whether children with DLD learn better when feedback prompts self-correction or when they are exposed to passive corrections. For both aims, behavioral indicators of response to feedback will be complemented by electrophysiological measures of feedback processing that can determine the involvement of implicit and declarative brain systems during the learning process. This work is scientifically and clinically significant because elucidating what manipulations optimize feedback-based learning will enhance our understanding of the impaired learning mechanism in DLD and will provide clinical guidance on what type of feedback to use during an intervention.