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.…
| Author details: | Barbara HöhleORCiDGND, Tom FritzscheORCiDGND, Anja Müller |
|---|---|
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0149870 |
| ISSN: | 1932-6203 |
| Title of parent work (English): | PLoS one |
| Subtitle (English): | An Eye Tracking Study with German-Learning 4-Year-Olds |
| Publisher: | PLoS |
| Place of publishing: | Lawrence, Kan. |
| Publication type: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Date of first publication: | 2016/03/01 |
| Publication year: | 2016 |
| Publishing institution: | Universität Potsdam |
| Release date: | 2016/05/12 |
| Tag: | cognition; cognitive linguistics; cognitive psychology; eyes; human performance; sentence processing; syntax; working memory |
| Volume: | 11 |
| Issue: | 3 |
| First page: | 1 |
| Last Page: | 27 |
| Funding institution: | Universität Potsdam, Publikationsfonds |
| Funding number: | PA 2016_06 |
| Organizational units: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Strukturbereich Kognitionswissenschaften |
| DDC classification: | 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 |
| Grantor: | Publikationsfonds der Universität Potsdam |
| Publishing method: | Open Access |
| License (German): |  CC-BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International |
| External remark: | Zweitveröffentlichung in der Schriftenreihe Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe ; 287 |
