Effects of animacy and executive functions in Mandarin-speaking children’s processing of relative clauses: A self-paced listening task

Abstract

This study investigated how animacy cues and executive functions (i.e., working memory [WM], inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility) influence 4- to 5-year-old Mandarin-speaking children’s processing of subject relative clauses and object relative clauses (ORCs). Using a self-paced listening task combined with a picture selection task, two experiments tested distinct animacy configurations. Experiment 1 employed relative clauses (RCs) with animate embedded nouns and manipulated the head noun animacy (animate vs. inanimate), revealing a facilitation effect for inanimate head nouns. Experiment 2 used RCs with inanimate embedded nouns and the same head noun animacy manipulation but found the opposite pattern: a facilitation effect for animate head nouns. The reverse animacy effects support the similarity-based interference processing account. Both experiments showed an ORC preference in accuracy, modulated by head noun animacy, and critically, WM played a prominent role in children’s comprehension of RCs. The study underscores the multifaceted nature of RC comprehension, which is influenced by syntactic complexity, animacy cues, and cognitive resources.

Keywords

Relative clause comprehension animacy executive functions Mandarin-speaking preschoolers self-paced listening task

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