The development of abstract syntax: evidence from structural priming and the lexical boost

Area of Science:

• Psycholinguistics
• Developmental Psychology
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Structural priming influences theories of adult sentence processing and syntactic development.
• Few studies integrate adult and developmental data on structural priming.
• An integrative developmental approach is needed for understanding sentence processing and acquisition.

Purpose of the Study:

• To integrate adult and developmental data on structural priming using a developmental approach.
• To investigate age-related differences in abstract and lexical structural priming.
• To examine the interplay between abstract syntactic knowledge and verb-specific frames across development.

Main Methods:

• Employed a dialog comprehension-to-production paradigm.
• Primed participants (3-4 year olds, 5-6 year olds, and adults) with double object and prepositional dative structures.
• Manipulated verb overlap between prime and target sentences (same vs. different verb).

Main Results:

• A significant abstract structural priming effect was observed across all age groups, larger in younger children.
• A 'lexical boost' (increased priming with verb overlap) was significant in adults but not in the youngest children.
• Developmental differences in priming magnitude suggest distinct mechanisms for abstract and lexical priming.

Conclusions:

• Abstract syntactic knowledge develops independently of verb-specific frames.
• Separate mechanisms likely underlie abstract and lexical structural priming, supporting implicit learning accounts.
• An integrative developmental approach is valuable for understanding both adult sentence processing and syntax acquisition.