Which statement about nonword repetition tasks is true?

Which statement about nonword repetition tasks is true?

• A. They assess vocabulary size only
• B. They measure general cognitive ability
• C. They assess sentence grammar knowledge
• D. They are used to assess phonological working memory and risk for language impairment

Answer: (D)

Nonword repetition tasks are about phonological working memory—the ability to hold and rehearse unfamiliar sound sequences. Because the items are nonwords, they don’t have stored meanings or lexical representations, so repeating them relies on processing and briefly holding phonological information rather than on knowing real words. This makes the task a good predictor of language impairment risk, since weaknesses in phonological memory are linked to challenges in learning and using language. It's not primarily about vocabulary size or general intelligence, and the nonwords don’t provide grammatical structure, so these tasks don’t assess sentence grammar knowledge.

Nonword repetition tasks are about phonological working memory—the ability to hold and rehearse unfamiliar sound sequences. Because the items are nonwords, they don’t have stored meanings or lexical representations, so repeating them relies on processing and briefly holding phonological information rather than on knowing real words. This makes the task a good predictor of language impairment risk, since weaknesses in phonological memory are linked to challenges in learning and using language. It's not primarily about vocabulary size or general intelligence, and the nonwords don’t provide grammatical structure, so these tasks don’t assess sentence grammar knowledge.