Automatism in subject-verb agreement error detection:: A study in children and adults

This research examines the development of expertise in the detection of agreement errors, between a verb and a subject noun. Analysis of the performance of primary and secondary school children and adults in a task consisting of detecting agreement errors in sentences presented one by one on a computer screen, indicates that : 1) the detection of agreement errors is undertaken through a monitoring system; 2) this monitoring system is used to pinpoint configurations that might be incorrect; 3) an algorithm that verifies the given agreement follows the aforementioned detection; 4) expertise in revision results in an evolution of the monitoring system employed. With experience in writing, this monitoring would unconsciously draw on the presence of co-occurrences between morphemes (i.e., an "-nt" inflection associated by proximity with an "-s" inflection). The most plausible interpretation of these results is that reading and writing facilitate storage Of spatial co-occurrences between such morphemes and that detection activity, when revision is carried out in cognitively costly conditions, benefits from this implicit learning.