從基因到認知：由非典型發展看語言

From Gene to Cognition: What Can Atypical Developments Tell Us about Language Acquisition?

認知缺損後的語言樣貌如何，是本文關心與討論的重點。本文以一個先天基因缺損的族群威廉氏症候群為例，說明先天的限制（基因）與後天發展（認知）的可能交互影響。這樣的交互影響使得威廉氏症候群有著不同的發展模式且相當非典型。比如，認知能力缺損的確影響著個體的語言處理能力，因此，相較於全面性的與心智年齡配對組在各個語言層面上有對等能力的預期，事實上威廉氏症候群的語言能力在一些向度上比起心智年齡配對組來得差，這樣的發現顯示出他們的語言能力有著明顯的強項與弱項，似乎語言模組論需要進一步重新思考。另外，一個關於威廉氏症候群可能是用不同的策略在學習語言這樣的說法也提出加以討論。

This paper examines the patterns of language processing in individuals with cognitive deficits. The cognitive profile of patients with Williams syndrome, a genetic disorder, is taken as an example to investigate the interaction between genetic deficits and cognition. This interaction influences individual developments, which in turn lead to atypical trajectories. As cognitive deficits affect individuals’ language processing, through various language testing, we do find that people with Williams syndrome are inferior to the people of the same mental age in the match group with various language tasks. The findings also indicate that there are strengths and weaknesses within their language ability. A possible proposal regarding a different learning strategy for this genetic disorder is also discussed.