Structural priming of adjective-noun structures in hearing and deaf children.
We examined priming of adjective-noun structures in Dutch hearing and deaf children. In three experiments, hearing 7- and 8-year-olds, hearing 11- and 12-year-olds, and deaf 11- and 12-year-olds read a prenominal structure (e.g., the blue ball), a relative clause structure (e.g., the ball that is blue), or a main clause (e.g., the ball is blue). After reading each prime structure, children described a target picture in writing. Half of the target pictures contained the same noun as the prime structure and half contained a different noun. Hearing 7- and 8-year-olds and 11- and 12-year-olds, as well as deaf 11- and 12-year-olds, showed priming effects for all three structures in both the same-noun and different-noun conditions. Structural priming was not boosted by lexical repetition in the hearing and deaf 11- and 12-year-olds; a lexical boost effect was observed only in the 7- and 8-year-olds and only in the relative clause structure. The findings suggest that hearing and deaf children possess abstract representations of adjective-noun structures independent of particular lexical items.
van Beijsterveldt
Liesbeth M
LM
Behavioral Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, P.O. Box 9104, Nijmegen 6500 HE, The Netherlands.
van Hell
Janet G
JG
D002648:Child; D003638:Deafness / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D009426:Netherlands; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D012718:Set, Psychology; D012813:Sign Language; D014706:Verbal Learning; D014956:Writing