Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Complementation Tests

Complementation Tests

A complementation test is a simple cross to identify whether the two mutations are located on the same gene or different genes. It was first performed by Edward Lewis in the 1940s while working on fruit flies. He developed the test to identify the location and arrangement of different mutations on chromosomes.
Organisms heterozygous for different mutations are crossed pairwise in all combinations. If present on different genes, the mutations can complement each other by providing the missing...

Higher Mental Functions of the Brain: Language

Higher Mental Functions of the Brain: Language

Language is a system of communication that allows the expression of thoughts, ideas, and feelings. The brain processes language in both hemispheres.
Language formation and comprehension take place in the dominant hemisphere. The dominant hemisphere is responsible for understanding the meaning of spoken, written, or sign language, as well as the ability to communicate. For most people, the left hemisphere is the dominant one. The right hemisphere, then, gives tone and emotional context to the...

Gestalt Principles of Perception

Gestalt Principles of Perception

Gestalt principles provide a framework for understanding how humans perceive objects as unified wholes within their context. These principles are essential in explaining the cognitive processes that make sense of complex visual stimuli by organizing them into coherent groups. One fundamental principle is proximity, which posits that objects located close to each other are perceived as a collective group. For instance, when dots are positioned near one another, the visual system interprets them...

Components of Language

Components of Language

Language, whether spoken, signed, or written, consists of specific components: lexicon and grammar. The lexicon is the vocabulary of a language, comprising its words. Grammar is the set of rules used to convey meaning through the lexicon. For example, English grammar adds “-ed” to most verbs to indicate past tense. Words are formed by combining phonemes, which are the basic sound units of a language. Different languages have different sets of phonemes (e.g., “ah” vs. “eh”). Phonemes combine to...

Language Development

Language Development

Children master language quickly and with relative ease, supported by both biological predisposition and reinforcement. B. F. Skinner (1957) proposed that language is learned through reinforcement, while Noam Chomsky (1965) argued that language acquisition mechanisms are biologically determined.
The critical period for language acquisition suggests that the ability to acquire language is at its peak early in life. As people age, this proficiency decreases. Language development begins very...

Language and Cognition

Language and Cognition

Language serves as a bridge between ideas and communication, influencing how individuals perceive and interact with the world. Psychologists have long debated whether language shapes thought or vice versa. This discussion gained grip with Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf in the 1940s, who proposed that language determines thought, a concept known as linguistic determinism. They suggested that the vocabulary and structure of a language influence how its speakers think and perceive reality.

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Mapping action naming in patients with gliomas: The influence of transitivity.

Neuroimage. Reports·2025

Same author

The cortical representation of transitivity: Insights from tractography-based inhibitory nTMS.

Neuropsychologia·2024

Same author

Can the resource reduction hypothesis explain sentence processing in aphasia? A visual world study in German.

Brain and language·2022

Same author

Variability in sentence comprehension in aphasia in German.

Brain and language·2021

Same author

Computational Models of Retrieval Processes in Sentence Processing: (Trends in Cognitive Sciences 23, 968-982; 2019).

Trends in cognitive sciences·2021

Same author

A Computational Evaluation of Two Models of Retrieval Processes in Sentence Processing in Aphasia.

Cognitive science·2021

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 14, 2026

Eye Tracking During Visually Situated Language Comprehension: Flexibility and Limitations in Uncovering Visual Context Effects

Eye Tracking During Visually Situated Language Comprehension: Flexibility and Limitations in Uncovering Visual Context Effects

Published on: November 30, 2018

Does morphology make the difference? Agrammatic sentence comprehension in German.

Frank Burchert¹, Ria De Bleser, Katharina Sonntag

¹Neurolinguistics Department, Potsdam University, PF, Germany. burchert@ling.uni-potsdam.de

Brain and Language

|October 31, 2003

Summary

This study on German agrammatic speakers found that rich morphology doesn't alter syntactic comprehension patterns. Results partially support the trace deletion hypothesis, showing varied individual comprehension abilities.

More Related Videos

Using the Visual World Paradigm to Study Sentence Comprehension in Mandarin-Speaking Children with Autism

Using the Visual World Paradigm to Study Sentence Comprehension in Mandarin-Speaking Children with Autism

Published on: October 3, 2018

An Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effects of Ageing on Sentence Processing

An Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effects of Ageing on Sentence Processing

Published on: October 25, 2019

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 14, 2026

Eye Tracking During Visually Situated Language Comprehension: Flexibility and Limitations in Uncovering Visual Context Effects

Eye Tracking During Visually Situated Language Comprehension: Flexibility and Limitations in Uncovering Visual Context Effects

Published on: November 30, 2018

Using the Visual World Paradigm to Study Sentence Comprehension in Mandarin-Speaking Children with Autism

Using the Visual World Paradigm to Study Sentence Comprehension in Mandarin-Speaking Children with Autism

Published on: October 3, 2018

An Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effects of Ageing on Sentence Processing

An Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effects of Ageing on Sentence Processing

Published on: October 25, 2019

Area of Science:

Linguistics
Neuroscience
Psycholinguistics

Background:

Agrammatism, a language disorder, affects syntactic comprehension.
The Trace Deletion Hypothesis (TDH) predicts specific comprehension deficits in agrammatic speakers.
German, with its rich morphology and flexible word order, offers unique insights into syntactic processing.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate syntactic comprehension in German agrammatic speakers.
To test the generalizability of the TDH pattern to morphologically rich languages.
To explore the role of case and number morphology in agrammatic comprehension.

Main Methods:

Examined seven German agrammatic speakers.
Utilized minimal pairs of canonical and non-canonical sentences.
Analyzed comprehension performance on number- and case-marked sentences.

Main Results:

Morphology did not significantly impact overall comprehension patterns.
Group results aligned with TDH predictions for number-marked sentences, but not case-marked sentences.
Individual analyses revealed a spectrum of comprehension abilities, including TDH-like profiles.

Conclusions:

The TDH pattern is not universally applicable to morphologically rich languages.
Case morphology in German does not fully compensate for syntactic comprehension deficits.
Syntactic comprehension in agrammatism presents a heterogeneous profile across individuals.