Category Learning Retention in Adults With and Without Developmental Language Disorder

NCT05901493 | Recruiting

• 1 other identifier: 1938428
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 540
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 2

Brief Summary

Approximately 7% of the population experiences developmental language disorder (DLD), a language disorder with unclear causes. DLD affects communication beyond adolescence and poses challenges for education and career advancement due to difficulties in learning and memory. Recent research suggests that adults with DLD struggle with overnight memory consolidation, indicating a need for effective learning and memory support. This project aims to determine the optimal training schedule for perceptual memory retention in adults with and without DLD. The study involves recruiting 240 adults (120 with DLD, 120 without) for speech-perceptual training with different training schedules. The researchers predict that the manipulation of training schedules will interact with circadian preference and overnight consolidation, leading to the discovery of the best practice schedule for speech sound retention. Additionally, 300 more adults (150 with DLD, 150 without) will be recruited to investigate how optimal training schedules interact with reflexive and reflective learning strategies. The time course of learning and retention will be tracked during reflexive and reflective categorization training in six different training schedules.

Conditions

Developmental Language Disorder; Adults Without Language Disorder

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Speech discrimination - behavior

  Participants will be administered a short (approximately 4-minute) behavioral task. They will be exposed to two speech sounds, separated by a 1-second interval. Some sounds will begin with the dental stop consonant, and other sounds will begin with the retroflex stop consonant. Participants will be asked to decide if the two sounds they hear are the same or different. Accuracy will be converted to d-prime (a measure of signal detection). This d-prime score will be the primary behavioral outcome for speech discrimination.

  1 week

• category identification - behavior

  Participants will be administered a short (approximately 2 minutes) for each modality (auditory and visual). Participants will either hear (auditory - pure tone) or see (visual - gabor patch) a stimulus, and will need to choose which category the stimulus belongs to out of a choice of two. The percentage of trials that are answered correctly will be the primary behavioral outcome for auditory and visual category identification.

  48 hours

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Speech discrimination - Event-related potential of the electroencephalogram (ERP/EEG)

  1 event-related potential (ERP) session 1 week following training

Study Arms (6)

Blocked Evening Only Training

EXPERIMENTAL

One hour training in the evening, followed by a one hour training 24 hours later

Behavioral: Perceptual category training

Distributed Evening Training

EXPERIMENTAL

One hour training in the evening, followed by a two 30 min trainings 12 and 24 hours later

Behavioral: Perceptual category training

Blocked Evening-Morning Training

EXPERIMENTAL

One hour training in the evening, followed by a one hour training 12 hours later

Behavioral: Perceptual category training

Blocked Morning Only Training

EXPERIMENTAL

One hour training in the morning, followed by a one hour training 24 hours later

Behavioral: Perceptual category training

Distributed Morning Training

EXPERIMENTAL

One hour training in the morning, followed by a two 30 min trainings 12 and 24 hours later

Behavioral: Perceptual category training

Blocked Morning-Evening Training

EXPERIMENTAL

One hour training in the morning, followed by a one hour training 12 hours later

Behavioral: Perceptual category training

Interventions

Perceptual category training BEHAVIORAL

Participants complete a forced-choice categorization task with feedback, in order to learn difficult auditory and visual categories

Blocked Evening Only Training; Blocked Evening-Morning Training; Blocked Morning Only Training; Blocked Morning-Evening Training; Distributed Evening Training; Distributed Morning Training

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 55 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• native speakers of American English
• Grew up in a household in which only American English was spoken
• years of age
• Typical vision \& hearing
• (Aim 2) access to headphones/devices capable of accessing experiment script via internet
• Must meet criteria for Group membership as either TD or DLD

You may not qualify if:

• History of neurological disorders
• History of psychiatric disorders
• History of socio-emotional disorders
• On prescription medication(s) that alter sleep

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Delaware: lead
• Northeastern University: collaborator

Study Sites (2)

University of Delaware

Newark, Delaware, 19713, United States

RECRUITING

Northeastern University

Boston, Massachusetts, 02115, United States

RECRUITING

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Language Development Disorders

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Language Disorders; Communication Disorders; Neurobehavioral Manifestations; Neurologic Manifestations; Nervous System Diseases; Signs and Symptoms; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms

Central Study Contacts

Frances Earle, PhD

CONTACT

6468128376; fsearle@udel.edu

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: BASIC SCIENCE
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Model Details: Participants will be assigned to one of six training schedules to complete over 48 hours. All participants will complete the same amount of training. The investigators will examine retention of trained information at the end of the week.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: May 19, 2023
• First Posted: June 13, 2023
• Study Start: October 23, 2022
• Primary Completion (Estimated): December 31, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): July 31, 2027
• Last Updated: June 12, 2024

Record last verified: 2024-06

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: ANALYTIC CODE
• Time Frame: This data will be made available upon publication of the data, indefinitely

Locations

US (2)