The role of procedural memory in grammar and numeracy skills

ABSTRACT

The objective of this study was to examine the contribution of procedural memory to grammar and numeracy skills, which both involve the manipulation of abstract patterns. Seventy-six typically developing children between 5 and 7 years of age were assessed on grammar with a past tense production task and a sentence comprehension task, on numeracy with a counting task and a calculation task, and on procedural memory with a serial reaction time task. Moderate correlations were found between the measures of grammar and numeracy. Moreover, 4 hierarchical linear regressions indicated that procedural memory was associated with calculation but not with counting or grammar skills when age and working memory were taken into account. These novel findings suggest that procedural memory may have a role to play in the development of some numeracy skills. Several possible explanations for the absence of contribution to grammar are considered.

KEYWORDS:

• Procedural memory
• statistical learning
• grammar
• numeracy
• typically developing children

Acknowledgement

We are grateful to the children who participated in this study and to their school for its collaboration. We would also like to thank the two reviewers who greatly helped improve the manuscript. At the time she completed this research, the first author was affiliated with Université Laval, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada and University College London, London, England.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [award number 771-2011-1104].