Lescht, Erica
(2024)
Explicit Learning in Developmental Stuttering.
Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
Stuttering is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by overt speech disfluencies and significant adverse impact on quality of life. Atypical cortico-basal ganglia-thalamocortical loops are theorized to contribute to the onset and development of stuttering. Children who stutter (CWS) also have less efficient executive function skills and reduced neural connectivity in brain regions that support executive function compared to children who do not stutter (CWNS). These brain regions and skills are known to support learning. Dual-learning systems (DLS) models propose two category learning systems. The explicit system supports learning rule-based categories and is scaffolded by executive function. The procedural system supports learning information-integration categories implicitly using feedback and reward. Based on previous findings in CWS that suggest differences in cortico-basal ganglia-thalamocortical loop connectivity and executive function skills, which may suggest reduced learning performance and inefficient learning strategy use in CWS, we investigated auditory and visual explicit category learning in CWS using DLS models. Sixty-three 7–12-year-old CWS (N = 31) and CWNS (N = 32) completed three online sessions which included a battery of speech, language, cognitive, and auditory and visual explicit category learning tasks. Children learned to categorize auditory (sounds) that varied along temporal and spectral modulation dimensions and visual (lines) stimuli that varied along spatial frequency and orientation dimensions. There were no significant group differences in learning accuracy, reaction times, or learning strategy use. Both groups of children had higher accuracies in the auditory modality at the beginning of learning but showed more improvements in accuracy across learning blocks in the visual modality. Performance on tasks that measured inhibition and cognitive flexibility skills was similar for CWS and CWNS. Inhibition skills did not predict learning performance. Higher cognitive flexibility skills predicted significant improvements in accuracy across learning blocks in the visual modality for both CWS and CWNS. In the auditory modality, higher cognitive flexibility skills predicted improvements in accuracy across learning blocks in CWNS only. Taken together, these findings suggest that explicit category learning is intact in CWS and stronger cognitive flexibility skills in CWNS support learning across modalities, a relationship that is less robust in CWS.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
|
| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
|
| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
6 June 2024 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
1 March 2024 |
| Approval Date: |
6 June 2024 |
| Submission Date: |
10 April 2024 |
| Access Restriction: |
1 year -- Restrict access to University of Pittsburgh for a period of 1 year. |
| Number of Pages: |
99 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences > Communication Science and Disorders |
| Degree: |
PhD - Doctor of Philosophy |
| Thesis Type: |
Doctoral Dissertation |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
Stuttering, Learning, Category Learning, Children |
| Date Deposited: |
06 Jun 2024 14:00 |
| Last Modified: |
06 Jun 2024 14:00 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/46087 |
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