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Relationships between Preschooler’s Sentence Processing Ability and Executive Functions

Abstract

Children around 5 years of age show errors in interpreting temporary ambiguous sentences and have difficulty with revising sentence meanings. The cognitive control account proposed that such inability to revise might be related to immature inhibitory control among children whose executive functioning is still developing. To examine this possibility, the present study measured 3-6-year-old children’s sentence processing ability as well as various executive function components, including inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and working memory, and examined correlations among these measures. In addition, parental report on their child’s behavioral control and their belief on the importance of self-control was obtained to further examine if these measures correlate with sentence processing ability. The results suggested that cognitive flexibility and perseveration tendency measured by Dimensional Card Change Sort task are associated with sentence interpretation accuracy and error rates, suggesting that cognitive flexibility might also play a more important role in child sentence processing.

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Submission Date
2011-07-13
Revised Date
2011-08-20
Accepted Date
2011-08-22

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