Fastelli, A. 1, 2 , Marshall, C. 3 , Mento, G. 4 & Arfé, B. 1
1 Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialisation, University of Padua, Italy
2 Bruno Kessler Foundation, Trento, Italy
3 Institute of Education, University College London, London, United Kingdom
4 Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Italy
Recent improvements in auditory prosthetics technology are providing cochlear implanted (CI) children better access to sounds, yet some children still show significant difficulties in language learning. Part of this variability has been recently attributed to a deficit in the implicit learning of regularities underlying sequences of stimuli, which is a fundamental aspect of human cognition and language development. This hypothesis is controversial and widely debated. The involvement of other aspects of learning (e.g. verbal rehearsal) in implicit learning tasks seems to explain some of the results. This was also found in our previous studies based on an artificial grammar learning paradigm. In the present study, we explored the relationship between implicit learning and linguistic skills in hearing and CI children using a probabilistic simple reaction time task (SRT). Thirty-five 5-11 years old children (mean age: 8;01) participated in this study. Children performed the SRT task along with the digit span task and the formulated sentences task to assess verbal working memory and expressive linguistic skills, respectively. Results show that implicit learning skills are comparable between the two groups. No significant correlation was found between implicit learning and linguistic tasks. However, deaf children's performances suggest some weaknesses in inhibitory control.