Working Memory and Metacognition in Sentence Comprehension by Severely Head-Injured Children: A Preliminary Study

We studied the effects of working memory (WM) load on a sentence anomaly task in 12 children (mean age at study = 10.3 years) who had sustained a severe closed-head injury (CHI) at least 10 months previously and 12 healthy children (mean age = 8.92 years). Children were asked to judge whether each sentence (32 anomalous and 32 correct under high and low WM load conditions) was good or not good, and to identify and repair the anomaly. Group and age effects were significant, and both variables interacted with sentence type, reflecting greater sensitivity of anomalous than sensible sentences to CHI and age. A Group × WM load interaction was found. WM deficit contributes to impaired language processing after severe CHI and a metacognitive problem is dissociable from generalized cognitive dysfunction.