Big Question 4

Variability in language processing and in language learning:

Why does the ability to learn language change with age? How can we characterise and map individual language skills in relation to the population distribution?

We aim to characterize variation in language processing and learning skills and to determine how these variations relate to variations in the underlying biology of individual participants. The project has two strands: Strand A focuses on language processing skills in young adults, and Strand B on language learning skills in children and adults. Strand A will develop a comprehensive battery of language tasks targeting sound, meaning, and grammatical processing of words and longer utterances during speaking and listening. In addition, we will select or develop tasks assessing general cognitive skills that are likely to affect performance in language tasks. After extensive piloting, a demographically representative group of 1000 young adults will be tested on the battery. DNA will be obtained from all participants and used for genome-wide genotyping. About a third of the sample will also participate in neuroimaging studies in order to map the variation in neurobiology across the population. Advanced statistical modelling will be used to derive underlying core dimensions of linguistic ability, to situate each participant in a multidimensional skill space that maps population variation, and determine the manner in which these skills map onto structure and function of underlying brain circuitry. Integrating our new sample with Nijmegen’s existing Brain Imaging Genetics cohorts, we will carry out focused investigations of genes and biological pathways that have been previously implicated in language ability, test how polygenic scores relate to performance on the task battery, and perform mediation analyses to bridge genes, brains and cognition.  

Strand B uses variability in learning ability to investigate why second-language (L2) acquisition can become harder in adulthood. Do age-related differences in L2 learning reflect maturational changes in neural plasticity and in the schema-based mnemonic processes used for learning and consolidating linguistic knowledge and skills? We will examine age-related changes in the relative contributions of the medial temporal lobe and the medial prefrontal cortex and in the interactions between these pathways and the perisylvian language network. 360 children aged 8-17 and 360 adults from the Strand A sample will complete batteries of behavioural and neuroscientific tests on L2 learning. Analyses will seek to uncover associations between language-learning abilities and maturational changes in the brain and to characterize individual variability in these associations.

People involved

Steering group

Team members

PhD Candidates

Collaborators

Prof. dr. Jan Buitelaar
Dr. Florian Hintz
Dr. Esther Janse
Dr. Evan Kidd
Dr. Kristin Lemhöfer
Dr. Andre Marquand
Dr. Beate St Pourcain
Dr. Julia Udden

Alumni

Jelle de Boer – Research Assistant
Merel Burgering – PhD
Marjolijn Dijkhuis – Research Assistant
Katharina Gruber – Research Assistant
Vera van ‘t Hoff – Research Assistant
Milou Huijsmans – Research Assistant
Suzanne Jongman – Postdoc
Bob Kapteijns – Research Assistant
Carlo Rooth – Research Assistant
Lot Snijders Blok – PhD
Dr. Olha Shkaravska – Developer
Jana Thorin – PhD
Shruti Ullas – PhD
Romy Verhoeven – Research Assistant
Dr. Xin Liu – Postdoc

Research Highlights (2021)

Highlight 1

Literacy enhances spoken word comprehension and word production

Team members: Florian Hintz

The project used data from the publicly available ‘Megapilot’ dataset (Hintz et al., 2020, Scientific Data) to investigate whether and, if so, how varying levels of literacy influence spoken word comprehension and production. The project also addressed the relationship between language comprehension and production tasks, which recent theories regard as facets of a unitary skill.

Extensive exposure to written text has vast consequences for one’s ability to use language. Recent research showed that the positive effects of enhanced literacy extended to spoken language comprehension. Some theories of language processing assume that comprehension and production are facets of a unitary skill. On such an account, the effects of literacy should transfer and also enhance language production skills. We tested this hypothesis by re-analysing a large publicly available dataset suitable for studying individual differences in language and general cognitive skills. Literacy explained substantial portions of variance in spoken-word comprehension (measured through a speeded semantic categorization task) and in word production (measured through a speeded picture naming task), even after accounting for non-verbal processing speed and IQ (see Figure 1). Experience with written text can thus enhance language use in the spoken domain, including word comprehension and word production. Our data are in line with the notion that word comprehension and word production draw on shared linguistic knowledge and access processes.

The dataset provided in this project offers the possibility to quantify the degree to which participants align their behaviour at different levels of analysis (phonetic, lexical, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic or gestural). It iThe project would not have been possible without the ‘cumulative science’ approach, that is, exploiting previously acquired and published data for addressing a new research question. We hope that next to the new scientific insights, this project will inspire others to also make use of the ‘Megapilot’ data resource.