Effects of children's working memory capacity and processing speed on their sentence imitation performance.

BACKGROUND: More limited working memory capacity and slower processing for language and cognitive tasks are characteristics of many children with language difficulties. Individual differences in processing speed have not consistently been found to predict language ability or severity of language impairment. There are conflicting views on whether working memory and processing speed are integrated or separable abilities. AIMS: To evaluate four models for the relations of individual differences in children's processing speed and working memory capacity in sentence imitation. The models considered whether working memory and processing speed are integrated or separable, as well as the effect of the number of operations required per sentence. The role of working memory as a mediator of the effect of processing speed on sentence imitation was also evaluated. METHODS & PROCEDURES: Forty-six children with varied language and reading abilities imitated sentences. Working memory was measured with the Competing Language Processing Task (CLPT), and processing speed was measured with a composite of truth-value judgment and rapid automatized naming tasks. Mixed-effects ordinal regression models evaluated the CLPT and processing speed as predictors of sentence imitation item scores. A single mediator model evaluated working memory as a mediator of the effect of processing speed on sentence imitation total scores. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Working memory was a reliable predictor of sentence imitation accuracy, but processing speed predicted sentence imitation only as a component of a processing speed by number of operations interaction. Processing speed predicted working memory capacity, and there was evidence that working memory acted as a mediator of the effect of processing speed on sentence imitation accuracy. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: The findings support a refined view of working memory and processing speed as separable factors in children's sentence imitation performance. Processing speed does not independently explain sentence imitation accuracy for all sentence types, but contributes when the task requires more mental operations. Processing speed also has an indirect effect on sentence imitation by contributing to working memory capacity.

Angry White Faces: A Contradiction of Racial Stereotypes and Emotion-Resembling Appearance.

Machine learning findings suggest Eurocentric (aka White/European) faces structurally resemble anger more than Afrocentric (aka Black/African) faces (e.g., Albohn, 2020; Zebrowitz et al., 2010); however, Afrocentric faces are typically associated with anger more so than Eurocentric faces (e.g., Hugenberg & Bodenhausen, 2003, 2004). Here, we further examine counter-stereotypic associations between Eurocentric faces and anger, and Afrocentric faces and fear. In Study 1, using a computer vision algorithm, we demonstrate that neutral European American faces structurally resemble anger more and fear less than do African American faces. In Study 2, we then found that anger- and fear-resembling facial appearance influences perceived racial prototypicality in this same counter-stereotypic manner. In Study 3, we likewise found that imagined European American versus African American faces were rated counter-stereotypically (i.e., more like anger than fear) on key emotion-related facial characteristics (i.e., size of eyes, size of mouth, overall angularity of features). Finally in Study 4, we again found counter-stereotypic differences, this time in processing fluency, such that angry Eurocentric versus Afrocentric faces and fearful Afrocentric versus Eurocentric faces were categorized more accurately and quickly. Only in Study 5, using race-ambiguous interior facial cues coupled with Afrocentric versus Eurocentric hairstyles and skin tone, did we find the stereotypical effects commonly reported in the literature. These findings are consistent with the conclusion that the "angry Black" association in face perception is socially constructed in that structural cues considered prototypical of African American appearance conflict with common race-emotion stereotypes.