NotesFAQContact Us
Collection
Advanced
Search Tips
Showing all 5 results Save | Export
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
van Heugten, Marieke; Johnson, Elizabeth K. – Journal of Memory and Language, 2010
This study examines the link between distributional patterns in the input and infants' acquisition of non-adjacent dependencies. In two Headturn Preference experiments, Dutch-learning 24-month-olds (but not 17-month-olds) were found to track the remote dependency between the definite article "het" and the diminutive suffix…
Descriptors: Grammar, Infants, Probability, Language Processing
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
White, Katherine S.; Morgan, James L. – Journal of Memory and Language, 2008
In previous studies of phonological sensitivity, toddlers have failed to differentiate mispronunciations of varying severity. We provide evidence of more sophisticated phonological knowledge. Nineteen-month-olds were presented with displays consisting of one familiar and one unfamiliar object. In Experiment 1, names of familiar objects were…
Descriptors: Toddlers, Phonology, Language Acquisition, Experiments
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Bencini, Giulia M. L.; Valiana, Virginia V. – Journal of Memory and Language, 2008
We use syntactic priming to test the abstractness of the sentence representations of young 3-year-olds (35-42 months). In describing pictures with inanimate participants, 18 children primed with passives produced more passives (11 with a strict scoring scheme, 16 with lax scoring) than did 18 children primed with actives (2 on either scheme) or 12…
Descriptors: Sentences, Semantics, Form Classes (Languages), Language Acquisition
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Thiessen, Erik D. – Journal of Memory and Language, 2007
Several recent experiments indicate that, when learning words, children are not as sensitive to phonemic differences (e.g., /d/ vs. /t/) as they are in discrimination tasks [Pater, J., Stager, C. L., & Werker, J. F. (2004). "The perceptual acquisition of phonological contrasts." "Language," 80, 384-402; Stager, C. L., & Werker, J. F. (1997).…
Descriptors: Phonemics, Young Children, Phonemes, Language Acquisition
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Roland, Douglas; Dick, Frederic; Elman, Jeffrey L. – Journal of Memory and Language, 2007
Many recent models of language comprehension have stressed the role of distributional frequencies in determining the relative accessibility or ease of processing associated with a particular lexical item or sentence structure. However, there exist relatively few comprehensive analyses of structural frequencies, and little consideration has been…
Descriptors: Sentence Structure, Psycholinguistics, Grammar, Child Language