To what extent does children’s performance on the inference task differ by their
phonological memory?

The children with high phonological memory performed better than the children with low
phonological memory for both post tests (see Table in Appendix 5.10). A trend for
significance was found during the immediate post test, while significant differences were
found during the delayed post test (Mann-Whitney: Z=2.3, p<.05).

It was also investigated whether the same pattern was evident within each age group. The
same pattern was found within each age group. Significant differences were found for the 5
year-olds during the immediate post test (Mann-Whitney, Z=2.3, p<.05).Furthermore,
whether the same pattern was evident within each linguistic condition was investigated. The
same pattern was found within each linguistic condition. Significant differences were found
for the Lexical contrast condition during the delayed post test (Mann-Whitney: Z=2.1, p<.05).

Error analysis

An Error analysis was carried out to identify the different types of responses given in the
inference task. These are presented in table 5.6 below.

Table 5.9 Types of responses given in the inference task

The distribution of children’s responses for both words and both post tests is presented in
Table 5.10. Children’s performance for both target words together is presented since their
performance did not differ significantly by target item.

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