Children’s Comprehension of Sentences with Focus Particles and the Role of Cognitive Control
- 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 forChildren’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.…
Verfasserangaben: | Barbara HöhleORCiDGND, Tom FritzscheORCiDGND, Anja Müller |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-90524 |
Untertitel (Englisch): | An Eye Tracking Study with German-Learning 4-Year-Olds |
Schriftenreihe (Bandnummer): | Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe (287) |
Publikationstyp: | Postprint |
Sprache: | Englisch |
Jahr der Erstveröffentlichung: | 2016 |
Erscheinungsjahr: | 2016 |
Veröffentlichende Institution: | Universität Potsdam |
Datum der Freischaltung: | 12.05.2016 |
Freies Schlagwort / Tag: | cognition; cognitive linguistics; cognitive psychology; eyes; human performance; sentence processing; syntax; working memory |
Fördernde Institution: | Universität Potsdam, Publikationsfonds |
Fördernummer: | PA 2016_06 |
Organisationseinheiten: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Strukturbereich Kognitionswissenschaften |
DDC-Klassifikation: | 5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 50 Naturwissenschaften / 500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik |
6 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften / 61 Medizin und Gesundheit / 610 Medizin und Gesundheit | |
Peer Review: | Referiert |
Publikationsweg: | Open Access |
Lizenz (Deutsch): | CC-BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International |
Externe Anmerkung: | Bibliographieeintrag der Originalveröffentlichung/Quelle |