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Inhibitory control and receptive vocabulary influence aspect comprehension in children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 November 2019

Andrew Blank Open the ORCID record for Andrew Blank [Opens in a new window] ,
Rachael Frush Holt  and
Laura Wagner
Andrew Blank
Affiliation:
Ohio State University
Rachael Frush Holt
Affiliation:
Ohio State University
Laura Wagner*
Affiliation:
Ohio State University
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Although many researchers appeal to performance limitations to account for children’s non-adult-like use of language, few studies have explicitly linked specific cognitive abilities to specific dimensions of language. This study investigated a well-studied underextension in children’s language involving linguistic aspect and tested participants in an aspectual comprehension task as well as a series of assessments evaluating neurocognitive and linguistic skills. Adults (N = 32) and 5-year-old children (N = 32) participated. The results for the children replicated the classic pattern of underextension, with children showing an uneven pattern of success even though all items were equally grammatical. In addition, children’s skill with items that involved overriding lexical information in favor of morphological information was predicted by their performance on an inhibitory control task while children’s skill with items that involved integrating contextual world knowledge was predicted by their performance on a receptive vocabulary task. These results demonstrate how specific dimensions of linguistic processing are supported differentially and sensibly by specific dimensions of cognition.

Keywords

aspectinhibitory controllanguage developmentlanguage performancesemantics
Type
Original Article
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , January 2020 , pp. 133 - 151
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019 

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