Children use canonical sentence schemas: A crosslinguistic study of word order and inflections

We propose that children construct a canonical sentence schema as a preliminary organizing structure for language behavior. The canonical sentence embodies the typical features of complete clauses in the input language, and serves as a framework for the application of productive and perceptual strategies. The canonical sentence schema offers a functional explanation of word-order and inflectional strategies based on the child's attempts to quickly master basic communication skills in his or her language. The present research explores sensitivity to the canonical sentence form and to word-order and inflectional perceptual strategies for comprehending simple transitive sentences in monolingual children aged 2;0 to 4;4 in four languages: English (ordered, uninflectional), Italian (weakly ordered, weakly inflectional), Serbo-Croatian (weakly ordered, inflectional), Turkish (minimally ordered, inflectional). The results show that children fail to respond systematically to sequences that violate the canonical sentence form of their particular language. They develop distinct word-order and inflectional strategies appropriate to the regularities of their language. The early behavioral emergence of linguistically appropriate canonical sentences and processing strategies suggests a behavioral foundation for linguistic constraints on the surface form of sentences.     

Effects of perception versus imagery on later recognition of visual patterns.

Three experiments were conducted to determine the role of imagery in aiding memory for visual information and to compare its effectiveness relative to direct perception. Subjects engaged in orienting tasks in which they had to decide whether the second of two sequentially presented meaningless patterns was a part of the first. They later received unexpected recognition tests for the original drawings. Increasing the interval between patterns by adding an extra post-stimulus period for imaginal processing improved later recognition scores. Experiments comparing continued perception with an equal blank interval suggested that periods of direct perception and of imagery are about equally effective in promoting memory. The results are discussed in the frame work of Craik and Lockhart (1972) with regard to type I and type II processing, and in the light of Neisser's (1967) view on imagery and perception.