Relationship between emotion comprehension, vocabulary, and verbal working memory in intellectual developmental disorders

This study investigated the role of language-related abilities in emotion comprehension among young people with non-specific intellectual developmental disorders (NS-IDDs). Forty children and adolescents with NS-IDDs completed tasks assessing emotion comprehension, receptive vocabulary, verbal reasoning skills, and verbal working memory. Results showed that emotion comprehension was better predicted by comprehension of abstract words and verbal working memory, and that these two predictors were themselves predicted by verbal reasoning skills. These results therefore suggest a link between emotion understanding and verbal reasoning, which could be mediated by abstract vocabulary and verbal working memory. These findings provide insight into the relationships between emotion comprehension and language-related abilities in NS-IDDs

Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Comprehension · Developmental psychology · Linguistics · Nonverbal communication · Verbal memory · Verbal reasoning · Vocabulary · Working memory · Genetics and Neurodevelopmental Disorders · Language Development and Disorders · Neuroscience · Psychology · Reading and Literacy Development

• The interplay between language and emotion

  Open Access•Pilar Ferré, Isabel Fraga et al.•Cognition & Emotion•2025

  Incluir item

• The interplay between language and emotion

  Pilar Ferré, Isabel Fraga et al.•Cognition & Emotion•2025

  Incluir item

• The Nature of vocabulary acquisition

  Margaret G McKeown, Mary E Curtis•The Nature of vocabulary…•1987

  Incluir item

• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

  American Psychiatric Association American Psychiatric Association, Ewer Ewer•Diagnostic And Statistical Manual…•2013

  Incluir item

• Emotion comprehension between 3 and 11 years

  Francisco Pons, Paul L Harris et al.•European Journal of Developmental…•2004

  Incluir item

• Concreteness, context availability, and imageability ratings and word associations for abstract, concrete, and emotion words

  Open Access•Jeanette Altarriba, Lisa Bauer et al.•Behavior Research Methods,…•1999

  Incluir item

• Emotion Knowledge, Social Competence, and Behavior Problems in Childhood and Adolescence

  Open Access•Christopher J Trentacosta, Sarah E Fine•Social Development•2010

  Incluir item

• The role of emotional valence in learning novel abstract concepts

  Marta Ponari, Courtenay Norbury et al.•Developmental Psychology•2020

  Incluir item

• The challenge of abstract concepts

  Anna M Borghi, Ferdinand Binkofski et al.•Psychological Bulletin•2017

  Incluir item