The role of working memory and contextual constraints in children's processing of relative clauses

被引:18
|
作者
Weighall, Anna R. [1 ]
Altmann, Gerry T. M. [2 ]
机构
[1] Sheffield Hallam Univ, Fac Dev & Soc, Dept Psychol Sociol & Polit, Sheffield S10 2BP, S Yorkshire, England
[2] Univ York, Dept Psychol, York YO10 5DD, N Yorkshire, England
基金
英国生物技术与生命科学研究理事会;
关键词
SYNTACTIC AMBIGUITY RESOLUTION; INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES; YOUNG-CHILDREN; PROBABILISTIC CONSTRAINTS; LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION; COMPLEX SENTENCES; CAPACITY THEORY; EYE-MOVEMENTS; ACQUISITION; GRAMMAR;
D O I
10.1017/S0305000910000267
中图分类号
B844 [发展心理学(人类心理学)];
学科分类号
040202 ;
摘要
An auditory sentence comprehension task investigated the extent to which the integration of contextual and structural cues was mediated by verbal memory span with 32 English-speaking six-to eight-year-old children. Spoken relative clause sentences were accompanied by visual context pictures which fully (depicting the actions described within the relative clause) or partially (depicting several referents) met the pragmatic assumptions of relativization. Comprehension of the main and relative clauses of centre-embedded and right-branching structures was compared for each context. Pragmatically appropriate contexts exerted a positive effect on relative clause comprehension, but children with higher memory spans demonstrated a further benefit for main clauses. Comprehension for centre-embedded main clauses was found to be very poor, independently of either context or memory span. The results suggest that children have access to adult-like linguistic processing mechanisms, and that sensitivity to extralinguistic cues is evident in young children and develops as cognitive capacity increases.
引用
收藏
页码:579 / 605
页数:27
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