Trainability in lexical specificity mediates between short-term memory and both 
vocabulary and rhyme awareness

Van Goch, Merel M.; Verhoeven, Ludo; McQueen, James M.

doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2017.05.008

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Trainability in lexical specificity mediates between short-term memory and both vocabulary and rhyme awareness

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McQueen, James M.
Research Associates, MPI for Psycholinguistics, Max Planck Society;
Radboud University;
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, External Organizations;

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Citation

Van Goch, M. M., Verhoeven, L., & McQueen, J. M. (2017). Trainability in lexical specificity mediates between short-term memory and both vocabulary and rhyme awareness. Learning and Individual Differences. Advance online publication. doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2017.05.008.

Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-001M-0000-002D-4ED3-A

Abstract

A major goal in the early years of elementary school is learning to read, a process in which children show substantial individual differences. To shed light on the underlying processes of early literacy, this study investigates the interrelations among four known precursors to literacy: phonological short-term memory, vocabulary size, rhyme awareness, and trainability in the phonological specificity of lexical representations, by means of structural equation modelling, in a group of 101 4-year-old children. Trainability in lexical specificity was assessed by teaching children pairs of new phonologically-similar words. Standardized tests of receptive vocabulary, short-term memory, and rhyme awareness were used. The best-fitting model showed that trainability in lexical specificity partially mediated between short-term memory and both vocabulary size and rhyme awareness. These results demonstrate that individual differences in the ability to learn phonologically-similar new words are related to individual differences in vocabulary size and rhyme awareness.