TY  - JOUR
A1  - Höhle, Barbara
A1  - Fritzsche, Tom
A1  - Müller, Anja
T1  - Children’s Comprehension of Sentences with Focus Particles and the Role of Cognitive Control
BT  - An Eye Tracking Study with German-Learning 4-Year-Olds
JF  - PLoS one
N2  - Children’s interpretations of sentences containing focus particles do not seem adult-like until school age. This study investigates how German 4-year-old children comprehend sentences with the focus particle ‘nur’ (only) by using different tasks and controlling for the impact of general cognitive abilities on performance measures. Two sentence types with ‘only’ in either pre-subject or pre-object position were presented. Eye gaze data and verbal responses were collected via the visual world paradigm combined with a sentence-picture verification task. While the eye tracking data revealed an adult-like pattern of focus particle processing, the sentence-picture verification replicated previous findings of poor comprehension, especially for ‘only’ in pre-subject position. A second study focused on the impact of general cognitive abilities on the outcomes of the verification task. Working memory was related to children’s performance in both sentence types whereas inhibitory control was selectively related to the number of errors for sentences with ‘only’ in pre-subject position. These results suggest that children at the age of 4 years have the linguistic competence to correctly interpret sentences with focus particles, which–depending on specific task demands–may be masked by immature general cognitive abilities.
KW  - eyes
KW  - sentence processing
KW  - cognition
KW  - cognitive linguistics
KW  - human performance
KW  - syntax
KW  - cognitive psychology
KW  - working memory
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0149870
SN  - 1932-6203
VL  - 11
IS  - 3
SP  - 1
EP  - 27
PB  - PLoS
CY  - Lawrence, Kan.
ER  - 
TY  - GEN
A1  - Höhle, Barbara
A1  - Fritzsche, Tom
A1  - Müller, Anja
T1  - Children’s Comprehension of Sentences with Focus Particles and the Role of Cognitive Control
BT  - An Eye Tracking Study with German-Learning 4-Year-Olds
N2  - Children’s interpretations of sentences containing focus particles do not seem adult-like until school age. This study investigates how German 4-year-old children comprehend sentences with the focus particle ‘nur’ (only) by using different tasks and controlling for the impact of general cognitive abilities on performance measures. Two sentence types with ‘only’ in either pre-subject or pre-object position were presented. Eye gaze data and verbal responses were collected via the visual world paradigm combined with a sentence-picture verification task. While the eye tracking data revealed an adult-like pattern of focus particle processing, the sentence-picture verification replicated previous findings of poor comprehension, especially for ‘only’ in pre-subject position. A second study focused on the impact of general cognitive abilities on the outcomes of the verification task. Working memory was related to children’s performance in both sentence types whereas inhibitory control was selectively related to the number of errors for sentences with ‘only’ in pre-subject position. These results suggest that children at the age of 4 years have the linguistic competence to correctly interpret sentences with focus particles, which–depending on specific task demands–may be masked by immature general cognitive abilities.
T3  - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 287 
KW  - cognition
KW  - cognitive linguistics
KW  - cognitive psychology
KW  - eyes
KW  - human performance
KW  - sentence processing
KW  - syntax
KW  - working memory
Y1  - 2016
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-90524
ER  -