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Related Concept Videos

Language Development01:22

Language Development

510
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...
510
Language and Cognition01:27

Language and Cognition

502
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.
502
Components of Language01:24

Components of Language

505
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.
505
Piaget's Stage 4 of Cognitive Development01:19

Piaget's Stage 4 of Cognitive Development

174
The formal operational stage, as described in Piaget's cognitive development theory, begins around age 11 and extends into adulthood. It marks the emergence of advanced cognitive abilities that differentiate adolescent and adult thinking from those of younger children. This stage is characterized by abstract reasoning, hypothetical-deductive reasoning, and a more complex understanding of self and others.
Abstract Reasoning and Hypothetical-Deductive Thinking
Unlike the concrete operational...
174

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Oct 8, 2025

Using the Visual World Paradigm to Study Sentence Comprehension in Mandarin-Speaking Children with Autism
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German-speaking children use sentence-initial case marking for predictive language processing at age four.

Duygu Özge1, Jaklin Kornfilt2, Katja Maquate3

  • 1Middle East Technical University, Turkey; Harvard University, United States of America.

Cognition
|December 25, 2021
PubMed
Summary

Four-year-old German children can predict upcoming sentence elements using case marking, similar to Turkish children. This suggests early predictive language processing in children, regardless of language-specific methods.

Keywords:
Acquisition of German case markingChild language processingDevelopment of parsing abilitiesIncremental processing in childrenPredictive use of case marking

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Area of Science:

  • Developmental psycholinguistics
  • Language acquisition
  • Cognitive science

Background:

  • Adults integrate multiple cues for linguistic predictions.
  • Limited understanding of children's use of morphosyntax for prediction.
  • Previous studies show mixed results for Turkish vs. German children's use of case marking.

Purpose of the Study:

  • Investigate if four-year-old German children use case marking predictively.
  • Determine if morphosyntax aids prediction independent of verb identity and word order.
  • Address discrepancies in cross-linguistic findings on early predictive processing.

Main Methods:

  • Visual-world eye-tracking study with 4-year-old German-speaking children.
  • Ambiguous sentence-initial case marking cues (subject-initial vs. object-initial).
  • Sentence-final verb to resolve thematic roles.

Main Results:

  • Children used accusative case on object-initial utterances to predict agent role.
  • Predictions were made before the argument and verb were fully processed.
  • Evidence for predictive processing independent of canonical word order.

Conclusions:

  • Four-year-old German children utilize case marking for predictive sentence processing.
  • Cross-linguistic differences in studies may stem from methodology, not language structure.
  • Findings support theories of early abstraction and adult-like predictive parsing in language acquisition.