TY - JOUR A1 - Jacob, Gunnar A1 - Heyer, Vera A1 - Verissimo, Joao Marques T1 - Aiming at the same target BT - a masked priming study directly comparing derivation and inflection in the second language JF - International journal of bilingualism : cross-disciplinary, cross-linguistic studies of language behavior N2 - Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: We compared the processing of morphologically complex derived vs. inflected forms in native speakers of German and highly proficient native Russian second language (L2) learners of German. Design/methodology/approach: We measured morphological priming effects for derived and inflected German words. To ensure that priming effects were genuinely morphological, the design also contained semantic and orthographic control conditions. Data and analysis: 40 native speakers of German and 36 native Russian learners of L2 German participated in a masked-priming lexical-decision experiment. For both participant groups, priming effects for derived vs. inflected words were compared using linear mixed effects models. Findings/conclusions: While first language (L1) speakers showed similar facilitation effects for both derived and inflected primes, L2 speakers showed a difference between the two prime types, with robust priming effects only for derived, but not for inflected forms. Originality: Unlike in previous studies investigating derivation and inflection in L2 processing, priming effects for derived and inflected prime-target pairs were determined on the basis of the same target word, allowing for a direct comparison between the two morphological phenomena. In this respect, this is the first study to directly compare the processing of derived vs. inflected forms in L2 speakers. Significance/implications: The results are inconsistent with accounts predicting general L1/L2 differences for all types of morphologically complex forms as well as accounts assuming that L1 and L2 processing are based on the same mechanisms. We discuss theoretical implications for L2 processing mechanisms, and propose an explanation which can account for the data pattern. KW - Morphological processing KW - derivation KW - inflection KW - second language (L2) learners KW - masked priming Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006916688333 SN - 1367-0069 SN - 1756-6878 VL - 22 IS - 6 SP - 619 EP - 637 PB - Sage Publ. CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Farhy, Yael A1 - Verissimo, Joao Marques T1 - Semantic Effects in Morphological Priming: The Case of Hebrew Stems JF - Language and speech N2 - To what extent is morphological representation in different languages dependent on semantic information? Unlike Indo-European languages, the Semitic mental lexicon has been argued to be purely "morphologically driven", with complex stems represented in a decomposed format (root + vowel pattern) irrespectively of their semantic properties. We have examined this claim by comparing cross-modal root-priming effects elicited by Hebrew verbs of a productive, open-ended class (Piel) and verbs of a closed-class (Paal). Morphological priming effects were obtained for both verb types, but prime-target semantic relatedness interacted with class, and only modulated responses following Paal, but not Piel primes. We explain these results by postulating different types of morpho-lexical representation for the different classes: structured stems, in the case of Piel, and whole-stems (which lack internal morphological structure), in the case of Paal. We conclude that semantic effects in morphological priming are also obtained in Semitic languages, but they are crucially dependent on type of morpho-lexical representation. KW - Morphology KW - priming KW - Semitic KW - semantic transparency KW - stems Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/0023830918811863 SN - 0023-8309 SN - 1756-6053 VL - 62 IS - 4 SP - 737 EP - 750 PB - Sage Publ. CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wulff, Dirk U. A1 - De Deyne, Simon A1 - Jones, Michael N. A1 - Mata, Rui A1 - Austerweil, Joseph L. A1 - Baayen, R. Harald A1 - Balota, David A. A1 - Baronchelli, Andrea A1 - Brysbaert, Marc A1 - Cai, Qing A1 - Dennis, Simon A1 - Hills, Thomas T. A1 - Kenett, Yoed N. A1 - Keuleers, Emmanuel A1 - Marelli, Marco A1 - Pakhomov, Serguei A1 - Ramscar, Michael A1 - Schooler, Lael J. A1 - Shing, Yee Lee A1 - da Souza, Alessandra S. A1 - Siew, Cynthia S. Q. A1 - Storms, Gert A1 - Veríssimo, Joao Marques T1 - New Perspectives on the Aging Lexicon JF - Trends in cognitive science N2 - The field of cognitive aging has seen considerable advances in describing the linguistic and semantic changes that happen during the adult life span to uncover the structure of the mental lexicon (i.e., the mental repository of lexical and conceptual representations). Nevertheless, there is still debate concerning the sources of these changes, including the role of environmental exposure and several cognitive mechanisms associated with learning, representation, and retrieval of information. We review the current status of research in this field and outline a framework that promises to assess the contribution of both ecological and psychological aspects to the aging lexicon. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2019.05.003 SN - 1364-6613 SN - 1879-307X VL - 23 IS - 8 SP - 686 EP - 698 PB - Elsevier CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Farhy, Yael A1 - Veríssimo, Joao Marques A1 - Clahsen, Harald T1 - Universal and particular in morphological processing BT - evidence from Hebrew JF - The quarterly journal of experimental psychology N2 - Do properties of individual languages shape the mechanisms by which they are processed? By virtue of their non-concatenative morphological structure, the recognition of complex words in Semitic languages has been argued to rely strongly on morphological information and on decomposition into root and pattern constituents. Here, we report results from a masked priming experiment in Hebrew in which we contrasted verb forms belonging to two morphological classes, Paal and Piel, which display similar properties, but crucially differ on whether they are extended to novel verbs. Verbs from the open-class Piel elicited familiar root priming effects, but verbs from the closed-class Paal did not. Our findings indicate that, similarly to other (e.g., Indo-European) languages, down-to-the-root decomposition in Hebrew does not apply to stems of non-productive verbal classes. We conclude that the Semitic word processor is less unique than previously thought: Although it operates on morphological units that are combined in a non-linear way, it engages the same universal mechanisms of storage and computation as those seen in other languages. KW - Language universals KW - morphology KW - priming KW - Semitic Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2017.1310917 SN - 1747-0218 SN - 1747-0226 VL - 71 IS - 5 SP - 1125 EP - 1133 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - Abingdon ER - TY - GEN A1 - Bosch, Sina A1 - Veríssimo, Joao Marques A1 - Clahsen, Harald T1 - Inflectional morphology in bilingual language processing BT - an age-of-acquisition study T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - This study addresses the question of how age of acquisition (AoA) affects grammatical processing, specifically with respect to inflectional morphology, in bilinguals. We examined experimental data of more than 100 participants from the Russian/German community in Berlin, all of whom acquired Russian from birth and German at different ages. Using the cross-modal lexical priming technique, we investigated stem allomorphs of German verbs that encode multiple morphosyntactic features. The results revealed a striking AoA modulation of observed priming patterns, indicating efficient access to morphosyntactic features for early AoAs and a gradual decline with increasing AoAs. In addition, we found a discontinuity in the function relating AoA to morphosyntactic feature access, suggesting a sensitive period for the development of morphosyntax. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 569 KW - critical-period KW - 2nd-language grammar KW - adjectives KW - lexicon KW - L1 KW - L2 Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-433371 SN - 1866-8364 IS - 569 SP - 339 EP - 360 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Verissimo, João Marques T1 - Sensitive periods in both L1 and L2 BT - Some conceptual and methodological suggestions T2 - Bilingualism : language and cognition N2 - The keynote article (Mayberry & Kluender, 2017) makes an important contribution to questions concerning the existence and characteristics of sensitive periods in language acquisition. Specifically, by comparing groups of non-native L1 and L2 signers, the authors have been able to ingeniously disentangle the effects of maturation from those of early language exposure. Based on L1 versus L2 contrasts, the paper convincingly argues that L2 learning is a less clear test of sensitive periods. Nevertheless, we believe Mayberry and Kluender underestimate the evidence for maturational factors in L2 learning, especially that coming from recent research. KW - critical period for language KW - sensitive periods KW - language acquisition KW - age of acquisition KW - bilingualism Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728918000275 SN - 1366-7289 SN - 1469-1841 VL - 21 IS - 5 SP - 932 EP - 933 PB - Cambridge Univ. Press CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Farhy, Yael A1 - Verissimo, Joao Marques A1 - Clahsen, Harald T1 - Do late bilinguals access pure morphology during word recognition? BT - a masked-priming study on Hebrew as a second language JF - Bilingualism : language and cognition N2 - This study extends research on morphological processing in late bilinguals to a rarely examined language type, Semitic, by reporting results from a masked-priming experiment with 58 non-native, advanced, second-language (L2) speakers of Hebrew in comparison with native (L1) speakers. We took advantage of a case of ‘pure morphology’ in Hebrew, the so-called binyanim, which represent (essentially arbitrary) morphological classes for verbs. Our results revealed a non-native priming pattern for the L2 group, with root-priming effects restricted to non-finite prime words irrespective of binyanim type. We conclude that root extraction in L2 Hebrew word recognition is less sensitive to both morphological and morphosyntactic cues than in the L1, in line with the Shallow-Structure Hypothesis of L2 processing. KW - grammatical processing KW - morphology KW - behavioural measurements KW - healthy normal subjects KW - Hebrew Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728918000032 SN - 1366-7289 SN - 1469-1841 VL - 21 IS - 5 SP - 945 EP - 951 PB - Cambridge Univ. Press CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pliatsikas, Christos A1 - Verissimo, Joao Marques A1 - Babcock, Laura A1 - Pullman, Mariel Y. A1 - Glei, Dana A. A1 - Weinstein, Maxine A1 - Goldman, Noreen A1 - Ullman, Michael T. T1 - Working memory in older adults declines with age, but is modulated by sex and education JF - The quarterly journal of experimental psychology N2 - Working memory (WM), which underlies the temporary storage and manipulation of information, is critical for multiple aspects of cognition and everyday life. Nevertheless, research examining WM specifically in older adults remains limited, despite the global rapid increase in human life expectancy. We examined WM in a large sample (N=754) of healthy older adults (aged 58-89) in a non-Western population (Chinese speakers) in Taiwan, on a digit n-back task. We tested not only the influence of age itself and of load (1-back vs. 2-back) but also the effects of both sex and education, which have been shown to modulate WM abilities. Mixed-effects regression revealed that, within older adulthood, age negatively impacted WM abilities (with linear, not nonlinear, effects), as did load (worse performance at 2-back). In contrast, education level was positively associated with WM. Moreover, both age and education interacted with sex. With increasing age, males showed a steeper WM decline than females; with increasing education, females showed greater WM gains than males. Together with other findings, the evidence suggests that age, sex, and education all impact WM in older adults, but interact in particular ways. The results have both basic research and translational implications and are consistent with particular benefits from increased education for women. KW - Ageing KW - sex differences KW - education KW - working memory KW - n back Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/1747021818791994 SN - 1747-0218 SN - 1747-0226 VL - 72 IS - 6 SP - 1308 EP - 1327 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - Abingdon ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bosch, Sina A1 - Verissimo, Joao Marques A1 - Clahsen, Harald T1 - Inflectional morphology in bilingual language processing BT - An age-of-acquisition study JF - Language acquisition : a journal of developmental linguistics N2 - This study addresses the question of how age of acquisition (AoA) affects grammatical processing, specifically with respect to inflectional morphology, in bilinguals. We examined experimental data of more than 100 participants from the Russian/German community in Berlin, all of whom acquired Russian from birth and German at different ages. Using the cross-modal lexical priming technique, we investigated stem allomorphs of German verbs that encode multiple morphosyntactic features. The results revealed a striking AoA modulation of observed priming patterns, indicating efficient access to morphosyntactic features for early AoAs and a gradual decline with increasing AoAs. In addition, we found a discontinuity in the function relating AoA to morphosyntactic feature access, suggesting a sensitive period for the development of morphosyntax. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/10489223.2019.1570204 SN - 1048-9223 SN - 1532-7817 VL - 26 IS - 3 SP - 339 EP - 360 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - Abingdon ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Jessen, Anna A1 - Verissimo, João Marques A1 - Clahsen, Harald T1 - Variability and consistency in late bilinguals’ morphology BT - an ERP production study JF - The mental lexicon N2 - Speaking a late-learned second language (L2) is supposed to yield more variable and less consistent output than speaking one’s first language (L1), particularly with respect to reliably adhering to grammatical morphology. The current study investigates both internal processes involved in encoding morphologically complex words – by recording event-related brain potentials (ERPs) during participants’ silent productions – and the corresponding overt output. We specifically examined compounds with plural or singular modifiers in English. Thirty-one advanced L2 speakers of English (L1: German) were compared to a control group of 20 L1 English speakers from an earlier study. We found an enhanced (right-frontal) negativity during (silent) morphological encoding for compounds produced from regular plural forms relative to compounds formed from irregular plurals, replicating the ERP effect obtained for the L1 group. The L2 speakers’ overt productions, however, were significantly less consistent than those of the L1 speakers on the same task. We suggest that L2 speakers employ the same mechanisms for morphological encoding as L1 speakers, but with less reliance on grammatical constraints than L1 speakers. KW - event-related potentials (ERP) KW - plurals in compounds KW - morphological constraints KW - harmonic grammars KW - morphological processing Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1075/ml.18002.jes SN - 1871-1340 SN - 1871-1375 VL - 13 IS - 2 SP - 186 EP - 214 PB - John Benjamins Publishing Co. CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Verissimo, Joao Marques A1 - Clahsen, Harald T1 - Variables and similarity in linguistic generalization: Evidence from inflectional classes in Portuguese JF - Journal of memory and language N2 - Two opposing viewpoints have been advanced to account for morphological productivity, one according to which some knowledge is couched in the form of operations over variables, and another in which morphological generalization is primarily determined by similarity. We investigated this controversy by examining the generalization of Portuguese verb stems, which fall into one of three conjugation classes. In Study 1, an elicited production task revealed that the generalization of 2nd and 3rd conjugation stems is influenced by the degree of phonological similarity between novel roots and existing verbs, whereas the 1st conjugation generalizes beyond similarity. In Study 2, we directly contrasted two distinct computational implementations of conjugation class assignment in how well they matched the human data: a similarity-driven model that captures phonological similarities, and a dual-mechanism model that implements an explicit distinction between context-free and similarity-based generalizations. The similarity-driven model consistently underestimated 1st conjugation responses and overestimated proportions of 2nd and 3rd conjugation responses, especially for novel verbs that are highly similar to existing verbs of those classes. In contrast, the expected proportions produced by the dual-mechanism model were statistically indistinguishable from human responses. We conclude that both context-free and context-sensitive processes determine the generalization of conjugations in Portuguese, and that similarity-based algorithms of morphological acquisition are insufficient to exhibit default-like generalization. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. KW - Variables KW - Similarity KW - Rules KW - Morphological generalization KW - Productivity KW - Computational modeling Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2014.06.001 SN - 0749-596X SN - 1096-0821 VL - 76 SP - 61 EP - 79 PB - Elsevier CY - San Diego ER - TY - GEN A1 - Farhy, Yael A1 - Veríssimo, Joao Marques A1 - Clahsen, Harald T1 - Universal and particular in morphological processing BT - evidence from Hebrew T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Do properties of individual languages shape the mechanisms by which they are processed? By virtue of their non-concatenative morphological structure, the recognition of complex words in Semitic languages has been argued to rely strongly on morphological information and on decomposition into root and pattern constituents. Here, we report results from a masked priming experiment in Hebrew in which we contrasted verb forms belonging to two morphological classes, Paal and Piel, which display similar properties, but crucially differ on whether they are extended to novel verbs. Verbs from the open-class Piel elicited familiar root priming effects, but verbs from the closed-class Paal did not. Our findings indicate that, similarly to other (e.g., Indo-European) languages, down-to-the-root decomposition in Hebrew does not apply to stems of non-productive verbal classes. We conclude that the Semitic word processor is less unique than previously thought: Although it operates on morphological units that are combined in a non-linear way, it engages the same universal mechanisms of storage and computation as those seen in other languages. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 468 KW - language universals KW - morphology KW - priming KW - Semitic Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-412541 EP - 468 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Veríssimo, Joao Marques A1 - Heyer, Vera A1 - Jacob, Gunnar A1 - Clahsen, Harald T1 - Selective effects of age of acquisition on morphological priming BT - evidence for a sensitive period T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Is there an ideal time window for language acquisition after which nativelike representation and processing are unattainable? Although this question has been heavily debated, no consensus has been reached. Here, we present evidence for a sensitive period in language development and show that it is specific to grammar. We conducted a masked priming task with a group of Turkish-German bilinguals and examined age of acquisition (AoA) effects on the processing of complex words. We compared a subtle but meaningful linguistic contrast, that between grammatical inflection and lexical-based derivation. The results showed a highly selective AoA effect on inflectional (but not derivational) priming. In addition, the effect displayed a discontinuity indicative of a sensitive period: Priming from inflected forms was nativelike when acquisition started before the age of 5 but declined with increasing AoA. We conclude that the acquisition of morphological rules expressing morphosyntactic properties is constrained by maturational factors. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 486 KW - visual word recognition KW - 2nd-language acquisition KW - maturational constraints KW - language-acquisition KW - 2nd langauge KW - speech KW - experience KW - perception KW - english Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-412611 SN - 1866-8364 IS - 486 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Clahsen, Harald A1 - Verissimo, Joao Marques T1 - Investigating grammatical processing in bilinguals The case of morphological priming JF - Linguistic approaches to bilingualism N2 - In this article we discuss methods for investigating grammatical processing in bilinguals. We will present a methodological approach that relies on: (i) linguistic theory (in our case, morphology) for the construction of experimental materials; (ii) a design that allows for direct (within-experiment, within-participant, and within-item) comparisons of the critical conditions; and (iii) data analysis techniques that make both linear and non-linear gradient effects visible. We review recent studies of masked morphological priming in bilinguals in which the application of these methodological principles revealed highly selective interactions of age of acquisition (and the native/non-native contrast) with the linguistic distinction between inflection and derivation. We believe that such considerations are not only relevant for grammatical processing experiments, but also for studying bilingualism, and its potential cognitive advantages, more generally. KW - Morphological priming KW - inflection KW - derivation KW - age of acquisition KW - critical period Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.15039.cla SN - 1879-9264 SN - 1879-9272 VL - 6 SP - 685 EP - 698 PB - John Benjamins Publishing Co. CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - GEN A1 - Verissimo, Joao Marques T1 - Extending a Gradient Symbolic approach to the native versus non-native contrast: The case of plurals in compounds T2 - Bilingualism : language and cognition. N2 - The Gradient Symbolic Computation (GSC) model presented in the keynote article (Goldrick, Putnam & Schwarz) constitutes a significant theoretical development, not only as a model of bilingual code-mixing, but also as a general framework that brings together symbolic grammars and graded representations. The authors are to be commended for successfully integrating a theory of grammatical knowledge with the voluminous research on lexical co-activation in bilinguals. It is, however, unfortunate that a certain conception of bilingualism was inherited from this latter research tradition, one in which the contrast between native and non-native language takes a back seat. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728916000134 SN - 1366-7289 SN - 1469-1841 VL - 19 SP - 900 EP - 902 PB - Cambridge Univ. Press CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Veríssimo, Joao Marques A1 - Farhy, Yael A1 - Clahsen, Harald T1 - Universal and particular in morphological processing BT - Evidence from Hebrew JF - Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology N2 - Do properties of individual languages shape the mechanisms by which they are processed? By virtue of their nonconcatenative morphological structure, the recognition of complex words in Semitic languages has been argued to rely strongly on morphological information and on decomposition into root and pattern constituents. Here, we report results from a masked priming experiment in Hebrew in which we contrasted verb forms belonging to two morphological classes, Paal and Piel, which display similar properties, but crucially differ on whether they are extended to novel verbs. Verbs from the open-class Piel elicited familiar root priming effects, but verbs from the closed-class Paal did not. Our findings indicate that, similarly to other (e.g., Indo-European) languages, down-to-the-root decomposition in Hebrew does not apply to stems of non-productive verbal classes. We conclude that the Semitic word processor is less unique than previously thought: Although it operates on morphological units that are combined in a non-linear way, it engages the same universal mechanisms of storage and computation as those seen in other languages. KW - Language universals , morphology , priming , Semitic Y1 - 2018 UR - http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/17470218.2017.1310917 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2017.1310917 VL - 71 IS - 5 SP - 1125 EP - 1132 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Verissimo, Joao Marques A1 - Heyer, Vera A1 - Jacob, Gunnar A1 - Clahsen, Harald T1 - Selective effects of age of acquisition on morphological priming BT - evidence for a sensitive period JF - Language acquisition : a journal of developmental linguistics N2 - Is there an ideal time window for language acquisition after which nativelike representation and processing are unattainable? Although this question has been heavily debated, no consensus has been reached. Here, we present evidence for a sensitive period in language development and show that it is specific to grammar. We conducted a masked priming task with a group of Turkish-German bilinguals and examined age of acquisition (AoA) effects on the processing of complex words. We compared a subtle but meaningful linguistic contrast, that between grammatical inflection and lexical-based derivation. The results showed a highly selective AoA effect on inflectional (but not derivational) priming. In addition, the effect displayed a discontinuity indicative of a sensitive period: Priming from inflected forms was nativelike when acquisition started before the age of 5 but declined with increasing AoA. We conclude that the acquisition of morphological rules expressing morphosyntactic properties is constrained by maturational factors. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/10489223.2017.1346104 SN - 1048-9223 SN - 1532-7817 VL - 25 IS - 3 SP - 315 EP - 326 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - Abingdon ER - TY - GEN A1 - Verissimo, Joao Marques T1 - Extending a Gradient Symbolic approach to the native versus non-native contrast BT - the case of plurals in compounds T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - The Gradient Symbolic Computation (GSC) model presented in the keynote article (Goldrick, Putnam & Schwarz) constitutes a significant theoretical development, not only as a model of bilingual code-mixing, but also as a general framework that brings together symbolic grammars and graded representations. The authors are to be commended for successfully integrating a theory of grammatical knowledge with the voluminous research on lexical co-activation in bilinguals. It is, however, unfortunate that a certain conception of bilingualism was inherited from this latter research tradition, one in which the contrast between native and non-native language takes a back seat. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 518 Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-413712 SN - 1866-8364 IS - 518 SP - 900 EP - 902 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Ruberg, Tobias A1 - Rothweiler, Monika A1 - Veríssimo, João Marques A1 - Clahsen, Harald T1 - Childhood bilingualism and Specific Language Impairment BT - A study of the CP-domain in German SLI T2 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - This study addresses the question of whether and how growing up with more than one language shapes a child's language impairment. Our focus is on Specific Language Impairment (SLI) in bilingual (Turkish-German) children. We specifically investigated a range of phenomena related to the so-called CP (Complementizer Phrase) in German, the hierarchically highest layer of syntactic clause structure, which has been argued to be particularly affected in children with SLI. Spontaneous speech data were examined from bilingual children with SLI in comparison to two comparison groups: (i) typically-developing bilingual children, (ii) monolingual children with SLI. We found that despite persistent difficulty with subject-verb agreement, the two groups of children with SLI did not show any impairment of the CP-domain. We conclude that while subject-verb agreement is a suitable linguistic marker of SLI in German-speaking children, for both monolingual and bilingual ones, 'vulnerability of the CP-domain' is not. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 870 KW - developmental language impairment KW - specific language impairment KW - child second language acquisition KW - syntax KW - agreement Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-518095 SN - 1866-8364 IS - 3 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Marimon Tarter, Mireia A1 - Hofmann, Andrea A1 - Veríssimo, Joao Marques A1 - Männel, Claudia A1 - Friederici, Angela Dorkas A1 - Höhle, Barbara A1 - Wartenburger, Isabell T1 - Children’s Learning of Non-adjacent Dependencies Using a Web-Based Computer Game Setting T2 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Infants show impressive speech decoding abilities and detect acoustic regularities that highlight the syntactic relations of a language, often coded via non-adjacent dependencies (NADs, e.g., is singing). It has been claimed that infants learn NADs implicitly and associatively through passive listening and that there is a shift from effortless associative learning to a more controlled learning of NADs after the age of 2 years, potentially driven by the maturation of the prefrontal cortex. To investigate if older children are able to learn NADs, Lammertink et al. (2019) recently developed a word-monitoring serial reaction time (SRT) task and could show that 6–11-year-old children learned the NADs, as their reaction times (RTs) increased then they were presented with violated NADs. In the current study we adapted their experimental paradigm and tested NAD learning in a younger group of 52 children between the age of 4–8 years in a remote, web-based, game-like setting (whack-a-mole). Children were exposed to Italian phrases containing NADs and had to monitor the occurrence of a target syllable, which was the second element of the NAD. After exposure, children did a “Stem Completion” task in which they were presented with the first element of the NAD and had to choose the second element of the NAD to complete the stimuli. Our findings show that, despite large variability in the data, children aged 4–8 years are sensitive to NADs; they show the expected differences in r RTs in the SRT task and could transfer the NAD-rule in the Stem Completion task. We discuss these results with respect to the development of NAD dependency learning in childhood and the practical impact and limitations of collecting these data in a web-based setting. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 766 KW - non-adjacent dependencies KW - rule learning KW - web-based KW - implicit learning KW - serial reaction time (SRT) task KW - SRT Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-550834 SN - 1866-8364 VL - 12 SP - 1 EP - 15 PB - Universitätsverlag Potsdam CY - Potsdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Marimon Tarter, Mireia A1 - Hofmann, Andrea A1 - Veríssimo, Joao Marques A1 - Männel, Claudia A1 - Friederici, Angela Dorkas A1 - Höhle, Barbara A1 - Wartenburger, Isabell T1 - Children’s Learning of Non-adjacent Dependencies Using a Web-Based Computer Game Setting JF - Frontiers in Psychology N2 - Infants show impressive speech decoding abilities and detect acoustic regularities that highlight the syntactic relations of a language, often coded via non-adjacent dependencies (NADs, e.g., is singing). It has been claimed that infants learn NADs implicitly and associatively through passive listening and that there is a shift from effortless associative learning to a more controlled learning of NADs after the age of 2 years, potentially driven by the maturation of the prefrontal cortex. To investigate if older children are able to learn NADs, Lammertink et al. (2019) recently developed a word-monitoring serial reaction time (SRT) task and could show that 6–11-year-old children learned the NADs, as their reaction times (RTs) increased then they were presented with violated NADs. In the current study we adapted their experimental paradigm and tested NAD learning in a younger group of 52 children between the age of 4–8 years in a remote, web-based, game-like setting (whack-a-mole). Children were exposed to Italian phrases containing NADs and had to monitor the occurrence of a target syllable, which was the second element of the NAD. After exposure, children did a “Stem Completion” task in which they were presented with the first element of the NAD and had to choose the second element of the NAD to complete the stimuli. Our findings show that, despite large variability in the data, children aged 4–8 years are sensitive to NADs; they show the expected differences in r RTs in the SRT task and could transfer the NAD-rule in the Stem Completion task. We discuss these results with respect to the development of NAD dependency learning in childhood and the practical impact and limitations of collecting these data in a web-based setting. KW - non-adjacent dependencies KW - rule learning KW - web-based KW - implicit learning KW - serial reaction time (SRT) task KW - SRT Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.734877 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 12 SP - 1 EP - 15 PB - Frontiers CY - Lausanne, Schweiz ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pañeda, Claudia A1 - Lago, Sol A1 - Vares, Elena A1 - Veríssimo, João Marques A1 - Felser, Claudia T1 - Island effects in Spanish comprehension JF - Glossa : a journal of general linguistics N2 - A growing body of experimental syntactic research has revealed substantial variation in the magnitude of island effects, not only across languages but also across different grammatical constructions. Adopting a well-established experimental design, the present study examines island effects in Spanish using a speeded acceptability judgment task. To quantify variation across grammatical constructions, we tested extraction from four different types of structure (subjects, complex noun phrases, adjuncts and interrogative clauses). The results of Bayesian mixed effects modelling showed that the size of island effects varied between constructions, such that there was clear evidence of subject, adjunct and interrogative island effects, but not of complex noun phrase island effects. We also failed to find evidence that island effects were modulated by participants' working memory capacity as measured by an operation span task. To account for our results, we suggest that variability in island effects across constructions may be due to the interaction of syntactic, semantic-pragmatic and processing factors, which may affect island types differentially due to their idiosyncratic properties. KW - extraction islands KW - Spanish KW - reading comprehension KW - working memory KW - sentence processing Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.1058 SN - 2397-1835 VL - 5 IS - 1 PB - Open Library of Humanities CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ruberg, Tobias A1 - Rothweiler, Monika A1 - Veríssimo, João Marques A1 - Clahsen, Harald T1 - Childhood bilingualism and Specific Language Impairment BT - A study of the CP-domain in German SLI JF - Bilingualism: Language and Cognition N2 - This study addresses the question of whether and how growing up with more than one language shapes a child's language impairment. Our focus is on Specific Language Impairment (SLI) in bilingual (Turkish-German) children. We specifically investigated a range of phenomena related to the so-called CP (Complementizer Phrase) in German, the hierarchically highest layer of syntactic clause structure, which has been argued to be particularly affected in children with SLI. Spontaneous speech data were examined from bilingual children with SLI in comparison to two comparison groups: (i) typically-developing bilingual children, (ii) monolingual children with SLI. We found that despite persistent difficulty with subject-verb agreement, the two groups of children with SLI did not show any impairment of the CP-domain. We conclude that while subject-verb agreement is a suitable linguistic marker of SLI in German-speaking children, for both monolingual and bilingual ones, 'vulnerability of the CP-domain' is not. KW - developmental language impairment KW - specific language impairment KW - child second language acquisition KW - syntax KW - agreement Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728919000580 SN - 1366-7289 SN - 1469-1841 VL - 23 IS - 3 SP - 668 EP - 680 PB - Cambridge Univ. Press CY - Cambridge ER -