The effects of presentation and content on syllogistic reasoning by children with and without specific language impairment

Abstract

This study examines performance at a syllogistic reasoning task for a group of children (age 10 years) with specific language impairment (SLI) along with age- and language-matched controls. The syllogisms were presented either verbally or verbally/pictorially, and contained two types of item: imaginary versus real, both intended not to evoke strong beliefs. Children with SLI performed worse than age-matched controls, and equivalently to language-matched controls. Patterns of performance indicate this may be due to cognitive ability deficits rather than specific language deficits. For all groups, pictorial presentation interfered with reasoning processes. It is suggested that, for syllogisms, this pictorial information contextualises the interpretation of the task, and that in turn either raises working memory load or evokes belief bias. Additionally, these results suggest that caution should be exhibited before using visual aids to help children with SLI in the classroom.

Keywords:

• Cognition
• Development
• Reasoning
• Specific language impairment

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by an ESRC fellowship, Grant No. RES-000-27-0058. The authors would like to thank Professors Judith Johnston and Steve Newstead for their insightful input into this project.