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THE LEARNING OF GRAMMATICAL INFLEXIONS IN NORMAL AND SUBNORMAL CHILDREN
Author(s) -
Bradbury B.,
Lunzkr E. A.
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-7610.1972.tb01150.x
Subject(s) - plural , psychology , possessive , generality , nonsense , linguistics , syllable , developmental psychology , subject (documents) , computer science , chemistry , philosophy , biochemistry , library science , psychotherapist , gene
SUMMARY Two groups of 18 children, one of average ability, the other drawn from E.S.N. schools were selected as of approximately MA6. Each subject was given a learning task requiring the induction of grammatical rules (to supply the appropriate nonsense‐syllable ending to a nonsense syllable stem) for past, plural and possessive. The three rules varied in generality and were allocated to grammatical form classes in a perfectly crossed design. Both groups of children learned the more general rule more effectively, and no other differences were consistent. E.S.N. children were less able to apply the rule to a single presentation of a transfer example. The findings are examined for the light that they throw on the nature of specific retardation in E.S.N. children.