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Neural Oscillations Reveal Differences in the Process of Word Learning among School-Aged Children from Lower Socioeconomic Status Backgrounds

Building a robust vocabulary in grade school is essential for academic success. Children from lower socioeconomic status (SES) households on average perform below their higher SES peers on word learning tasks, negatively impacting their vocabulary; however, significant variability exists within this...

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Autores principales: Schneider, Julie M., Abel, Alyson D., Momsen, Jacob, Melamed, Tina C., Maguire, Mandy J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MIT Press 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8386290/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34447943
http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/nol_a_00040
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author Schneider, Julie M.
Abel, Alyson D.
Momsen, Jacob
Melamed, Tina C.
Maguire, Mandy J.
author_facet Schneider, Julie M.
Abel, Alyson D.
Momsen, Jacob
Melamed, Tina C.
Maguire, Mandy J.
author_sort Schneider, Julie M.
collection PubMed
description Building a robust vocabulary in grade school is essential for academic success. Children from lower socioeconomic status (SES) households on average perform below their higher SES peers on word learning tasks, negatively impacting their vocabulary; however, significant variability exists within this group. Many children from low SES homes perform as well as, or better than, their higher SES peers on measures of word learning. The current study addresses what processes underlie this variability, by comparing the neural oscillations of 44 better versus worse word learners (ages 8–15 years) from lower SES households as they infer the meaning of unknown words. Better word learners demonstrated increases in theta and beta power as a word was learned, whereas worse word learners exhibited decreases in alpha power. These group differences in neural oscillatory engagement during word learning indicate there may be different strategies employed based on differences in children’s skills. Notably, children with greater vocabulary knowledge are more likely to exhibit larger beta increases, a strategy that is associated with better word learning. This sheds new light on the mechanisms that support word learning in children from low SES households.
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spelling pubmed-83862902021-08-25 Neural Oscillations Reveal Differences in the Process of Word Learning among School-Aged Children from Lower Socioeconomic Status Backgrounds Schneider, Julie M. Abel, Alyson D. Momsen, Jacob Melamed, Tina C. Maguire, Mandy J. Neurobiol Lang (Camb) Research Article Building a robust vocabulary in grade school is essential for academic success. Children from lower socioeconomic status (SES) households on average perform below their higher SES peers on word learning tasks, negatively impacting their vocabulary; however, significant variability exists within this group. Many children from low SES homes perform as well as, or better than, their higher SES peers on measures of word learning. The current study addresses what processes underlie this variability, by comparing the neural oscillations of 44 better versus worse word learners (ages 8–15 years) from lower SES households as they infer the meaning of unknown words. Better word learners demonstrated increases in theta and beta power as a word was learned, whereas worse word learners exhibited decreases in alpha power. These group differences in neural oscillatory engagement during word learning indicate there may be different strategies employed based on differences in children’s skills. Notably, children with greater vocabulary knowledge are more likely to exhibit larger beta increases, a strategy that is associated with better word learning. This sheds new light on the mechanisms that support word learning in children from low SES households. MIT Press 2021-07-13 /pmc/articles/PMC8386290/ /pubmed/34447943 http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/nol_a_00040 Text en © 2021 Massachusetts Institute of Technology https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For a full description of the license, please visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Research Article
Schneider, Julie M.
Abel, Alyson D.
Momsen, Jacob
Melamed, Tina C.
Maguire, Mandy J.
Neural Oscillations Reveal Differences in the Process of Word Learning among School-Aged Children from Lower Socioeconomic Status Backgrounds
title Neural Oscillations Reveal Differences in the Process of Word Learning among School-Aged Children from Lower Socioeconomic Status Backgrounds
title_full Neural Oscillations Reveal Differences in the Process of Word Learning among School-Aged Children from Lower Socioeconomic Status Backgrounds
title_fullStr Neural Oscillations Reveal Differences in the Process of Word Learning among School-Aged Children from Lower Socioeconomic Status Backgrounds
title_full_unstemmed Neural Oscillations Reveal Differences in the Process of Word Learning among School-Aged Children from Lower Socioeconomic Status Backgrounds
title_short Neural Oscillations Reveal Differences in the Process of Word Learning among School-Aged Children from Lower Socioeconomic Status Backgrounds
title_sort neural oscillations reveal differences in the process of word learning among school-aged children from lower socioeconomic status backgrounds
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8386290/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34447943
http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/nol_a_00040
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