The Predictive Power of Age and Nonverbal Short-term Memory for Phonological Processing Ability

年齡與非語文短期記憶對於英語音韻處理能力之預測效應

10.7084/LIS.200612.0051

蘇復興(Fu-Hsing Su)；黃俐絲(Li-Szu Huang)

年齡 ； 短期記憶 ； 音韻處理 ； 迴歸分析 ； age ； short-term memory ； phonological processing ； regressional analysis

語文與國際研究

3期（2006 / 12 / 01）

51 - 68

英文

本研究從心理語言學的角度著眼，探索非語文短期記憶和英語音韻處理之間的關聯，並試圖瞭解年齡和非語文短期記憶如何預測音韻處理能力。為此，研究者特地挑選臺灣東部某山地國小的六年級學童擔任受試者，人數共27名，分別對他們施以數字廣度測驗及英語音韻測驗。前者係取自「魏氏兒童智力量表第三版」(WISC-Ⅲ)的分測驗，包含順序背誦及逆序背誦兩種題型；後者則細分為音素數目計算測驗、節首輔音辨異測驗、韻尾音辨異測驗、和音節知覺測驗等四項。在資料分析方面，研究者透過簡易迴歸的方式，以判斷非語文短期記憶對於英語音韻處理能力是否具有預測效力，並進而採用多元迴歸分析，藉此檢視年齡與非語文短期記憶對於各項音韻測驗的表現是否具有聯合的預測效力。結果顯示，非語文短期記憶雖然能夠預測前述四種音韻測驗的表現，但是關係薄弱，其R值依序各為0.220、0.235、0.445和0.305。即便加上年齡這項因素時，其預測效力的幅度仍然有限，其R值僅僅為0.225、0.267、0.456、和0.306。此一數值的微小變化顯示加入年齡因素僅能小幅提高非語文短期記憶的預測效力。

Being psycholinguistic in nature, this study explored the predictive relationship between nonverbal short-term memory (STM) and English phonological processing for Chinese-speaking children. It as well attempted to determine the joint power of age and STM in forecasting the ability of phonological processing. Subjects were 27 six-graders from an elementary school at a mountain area in eastern Taiwan. They took the Digit Span subtest of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition (WISC-Ⅲ), the Chinese version. This subtest, judged to be discriminatorily powerful in evaluating nonverbal STM, contained two parts of forward and backward span. The subjects were also administered four phonological measures which tapped their knowledge or skill at different levels: Phoneme Counting Task (PCT), Onset Oddity Task (OOT), Rhyme Oddity Task (ROT), and Syllable Doubling Task (SDT). The research data were analyzed using both the simple and the multiple regression paradigms. Simple regression analyses demonstrated a weak predictive power of nonverbal STM over the performance on the PCT, the OOT, the ROT, and the SDT. The R values, in a proper order, were 0.220, 0.235, 0.445, and 0.305 respectively. As for the joint predictive power of age and STM was concerned, multiple regression analyses indicated an effect at a small scale. The R values were 0.225, 0.267, 0.456, and 0.306 in the case wherein the two variables predicted the PCT, the OOT, the ROT, and the SDT. The slight change of R values suggested that adding age as an independent variable would not greatly improve the predictive power of STM.

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