The Role of Cognitive Skills and Language Experience in Grammatical Processing

认知技能和语言经验在语法处理中的作用

基本信息

批准号：
10617188
负责人：
Duane G Watson
金额：
$ 47.77万
依托单位：
VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
财政年份：
2020
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2020-04-01 至 2025-03-31
项目状态：
未结题

项目摘要

Despite having mastered basic word reading skills, large numbers of readers struggle to understand what they read. More worrisome still is the over-representation of minority and low-income populations in the ranks of struggling readers, which is linked to poor health outcomes. At the same time, there is very little agreement among psycholinguists and education researchers as to what factors drive variability in language understanding. This research program tests two factors that have been argued to explain variability in grammatical processing and language comprehension abilities. The first are differences in cognitive abilities (i.e. working memory, processing speed, and phonological ability). The second are differences in experience with language. We test these two possibilities in a series of experiments examining individual differences in language comprehension in young readers and adults. We have 2 specific aims: 1) To determine whether syntactic processing is guided by cognitive constraints or language experience; 2) to determine whether correlations between language experience and comprehension skills that were discovered in pilot work are the result of previous experience with diverse grammatical structures or the result of improved parsing efficiency derived from practice. The outcomes of the proposed experiments have implications for core questions in language research. Evidence that working memory or other cognitive factors predict language skill is most consistent with theories that domain general aspects of cognition are engaged in understanding language. Evidence that language experience predicts variability in reading skill is more consistent with theories that posit that statistical representations drive language processing.

尽管掌握了基本的单词阅读技巧，但很多读者仍难以理解他们所读的内容。更令人担忧的是少数族裔和低收入群体的比例过高人口处于阅读困难的行列，这与不良的健康状况有关。同时长期以来，心理语言学家和教育研究人员对于哪些因素没有达成一致意见推动语言理解的可变性。该研究计划测试了两个因素主张解释语法处理和语言理解能力的变异性。第一个是认知能力的差异（即工作记忆、处理速度和语音）能力）。第二是语言体验的差异。我们测试这两种可能性检查年轻读者语言理解个体差异的一系列实验和成人。我们有 2 个具体目标：1）确定句法处理是否受以下指导：认知限制或语言经验； 2）判断语言之间是否存在相关性在试点工作中发现的经验和理解能力是以前的结果不同语法结构的经验或来自于提高解析效率的结果实践。拟议实验的结果对语言的核心问题有影响研究。有证据表明，工作记忆或其他认知因素最能预测语言技能与认知的一般方面涉及理解的理论相一致语言。语言经验预测阅读技能变异性的证据与假设统计表示驱动语言处理的理论。