Sentence Learning in Children and Adults: The Production of Forms and Transforms.

This investigation was intended to study the effects of some linguistic variables on child and adult memories for sentences when recall was prompted by nouns embedded in the sentences. Its purpose was to examine for developmental differences in sentence processing systems expected by psycholinguistic theory and research. A group of 64 subjects, comprised of fifth graders and college students, were tested individually with 32 sentences of mixed types including active and passive transformations. Recall of both verbatim and synonymous sentences was scored. Results revealed various surface and deep structure differences in the recall patterns of children and adults, suggesting some differences in the factors governing their sentence productions. (Author/FWB)