Children's Language Coding in Short-Term Memory

Abstract

This paper presents a review of various studies on the acquisition, nature and function of language coding in children's learning. Recent experiments are described in which hearing children's phonetic, and deaf children's dactylic, coding activity and mediation effects were expressed in tasks requiring recall from short-term memory. There is some review of verbal production and mediation deficiency hypotheses, and a possible connection between disordered language and inefficient coding is discussed. As opposed to their value in generating meaning, language segments are considered useful in the rehearsal and storage of codable material in memory.