Flexibiliteit in brein en taal: De relatie tussen cognitieve flexibiliteit en morfologie

Abstract

Language acquisition starts at a young age. Yet, little is known about the processes underlying this language acquisition. Constructivist linguists state that learning a language is a cognitive process and domain-general skills underlie this process (Bybee, 2010; Tomasello, 1996). The debate is, whether the ability to acquire language is innate and domain-specific, or whether domain-general abilities, such as executive functions, underlie language acquisition. Possibly, executive functions – the brain’s control functions – are needed for language acquisition. This current study investigated the correlation between cognitive flexibility, one of the executive functions, and morphology, the ability to form new words based on grammatical rules. Next to that, the moderator effects of age and intelligence on this relation are examined. 51 Participants, 5- and 6-year-olds, are studied by a drawing test as a measurement of their cognitive flexibility (Karmiloff-Smith, 1990). The results of this study do not show a relation between cognitive flexibility and morphology. More research is needed to clarify the role that executive functions play in the language acquisition of young children.