Developmental Changes in Real-Time Sentence Processing

An examination of syntactic, semantic, & morphologic cues used by English-speaking children (N = 56, aged 7-12) & young adults (N = 24) to determine agent roles during sentence interpretation, & processing times associated with these cues. Agent choice & reaction times indicate a developmental progression in agent role assignment, with early reliance on canonical (SVO) word order followed by later emerging noncanonical (VOS & OSV) strategies. Converging information from subject-verb agreement & animacy cues increased use of noncanonical word orders; however, weaker agreement & animacy cues also slowed reaction times. Noncanonical VOS, followed by OSV strategies, stabilized between ages 7 & 12, when adult-like patterns of competition & convergence emerged in strong & weak cue interaction. Results are considered within the framework of the competition model. 2 Tables, 8 Figures, 1 Appendix, 27 References. Adapted from the source document