Learning from input and memory evolution: Points of vulnerability on a pathway to mastery in word learning

Abstract

Word learning consists of at least two neurocognitive processes: learning from input during training and memory evolution during gaps between training sessions. Fine-grained analysis of word learning by normal adults provides evidence that learning from input is swift and stable, whereas memory evolution is a point of potential vulnerability on the pathway to mastery. Moreover, success during learning from input is linked to positive outcomes from memory evolution. These two neurocognitive processes can be overlaid on to components of clinical treatment with within-session variables (i.e. dose form and dose) potentially linked to learning from input and between-session variables (i.e. dose frequency) linked to memory evolution. Collecting data at the beginning and end of a treatment session can be used to identify the point of vulnerability in word learning for a given client and the appropriate treatment component can then be adjusted to improve the client's word learning. Two clinical cases are provided to illustrate this approach.

Keywords::

• Vocabulary
• word learning
• input
• memory evolution
• clinical treatment

Acknowledgements

The project described was supported by Grants DC 012824, DC 05803 and HD 02528 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH. I would like to thank the staff of the KAW Story Project (supported by DC 012824) for their contributions to participant recruitment, data collection and data processing, the staff of the Participant Recruitment and Management Core (supported by DC 05803) for assistance with participant recruitment, the staff of the Analytic Techniques and Technology Core (supported by DC 05803) and the Research Design and Analysis Unit (supported by HD 02528) for assistance with study design and data analysis.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Supplementary material available online

Supplementary Appendix.