title: Inhibitory Control Predicts Grammatical Ability.
abstract: We present evidence that individual variation in grammatical ability can be predicted by individual variation in inhibitory control. We tested 81 5-year-olds using two classic tests from linguistics and psychology (Past Tense and the Stroop). Inhibitory control was a better predicator of grammatical ability than either vocabulary or age. Our explanation is that giving the correct response in both tests requires using a common cognitive capacity to inhibit unwanted competition. The implications are that understanding the developmental trajectory of language acquisition can benefit from integrating the developmental trajectory of non-linguistic faculties, such as executive control.
authors.affiliation: Faculty for Education and Languages, Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6BJ, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ibbotson
authors.affiliation: Faculty for Education and Languages, Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6BJ, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kearvell-White
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002663:Child Language; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D007807:Language Tests; D008037:Linguistics / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D014825:Vocabulary