Journal article
Stimulus Labels Support Declarative but Not Procedural Memory in Children With and Without Hearing Loss
Journal of speech, language, and hearing research, Vol.68(12), pp.6129-6143
12/2025
DOI: 10.1044/2025_JSLHR-25-00146
PMCID: PMC12704923
PMID: 41237759
Abstract
Children with hearing loss show deficits in sequential learning, a form of procedural memory, and often perform poorly on verbal serial recall, a form of declarative memory. The current study examines sequential learning and serial recall in pediatric cochlear implant (CI) users with young ages of implantation. Additionally, it investigates the role of rehearsal on procedural and declarative memory as well as whether rehearsal interferes with the ability to generalize procedurally learned sequences to declarative serial recall.
Sixty children (21 with CIs who primarily use spoken English; 39 typically hearing), ages 7-15 years, completed two serial reaction time (SRT) tasks: one used stimuli that could be easily verbalized (i.e., "Color" SRT); the other used spatial stimuli (i.e., "Monster" SRT). After each SRT task, children completed a serial recall task in which half of the trials incorporated the procedurally learned sequence.
Bayesian statistical analyses reveal that, in contrast to previous findings, hearing status did not predict performance on either sequential learning or serial recall. On the declarative serial recall task, all children benefited from easily accessible labels; they also benefited from prior procedural learning, but only when labels were not easily accessible.
Serial recall is supported by numerous strategies-including rehearsal and prior sequence learning. Notably, children with CIs also use these strategies. We also demonstrate a common asymmetry observed in adulthood: Serial recall of easy to label items was best predicted by language abilities, whereas serial recall of difficult to label items was best predicted by nonverbal IQ.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Stimulus Labels Support Declarative but Not Procedural Memory in Children With and Without Hearing Loss
- Creators
- Brynn N Golden - Boys Town National Research HospitalJeffrey J Shymanski - Merit Hearing, Ankeny, IAElizabeth A Walker - University of IowaAngela M AuBuchon - Boys Town
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of speech, language, and hearing research, Vol.68(12), pp.6129-6143
- DOI
- 10.1044/2025_JSLHR-25-00146
- PMID
- 41237759
- PMCID
- PMC12704923
- NLM abbreviation
- J Speech Lang Hear Res
- ISSN
- 1558-9102
- eISSN
- 1558-9102
- Publisher
- AMER SPEECH-LANGUAGE-HEARING ASSOC
- Grant note
- American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation Clinical Research GrantNational Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health through a NIH Centers of Biomedical Excellence Grant: P20GM109023
This research was supported by an American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation Clinical Research Grant (Principal Investigator [PI] : E.A. Walker) and by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health through a NIH Centers of Biomedical Excellence Grant P20GM109023 (PI: L.J. Leibold) . The authors would like to thank Rebecca Wagner and Maggie Sackinsky for assistance with data collection at Boys Town National Research Hospital and coordination across testing sites, as well as Margaret Dallapiazza and Wendy Fick for assistance with participant coordination through The University of Iowa.
- Language
- English
- Electronic publication date
- 11/14/2025
- Date published
- 12/2025
- Academic Unit
- Communication Sciences and Disorders; Otolaryngology
- Record Identifier
- 9985027355602771
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