Investigating the contribution of procedural and declarative memory to the acquisition of past tense morphology: Evidence from Finnish

Kidd, Evan; Kirjavainen, Minna

Abstract

The present paper reports on a study that investigated the role of procedural and declarative memory in the acquisition of Finnish past tense morphology. Two competing models were tested. Ullman's (2004) declarative/procedural model predicts that procedural memory supports the acquisition of regular morphology, whereas declarative memory supports the acquisition of irregular morphology. In contrast, single-route approaches predict that declarative memory should support lexical learning, which in turn should predict morphological acquisition. One-hundred and twenty-four (N = 124) monolingual Finnish-speaking children aged 4;0-6;7 completed tests of procedural and declarative memory, tests of vocabulary knowledge and nonverbal ability, and a test of past test knowledge. The results best supported the single-route approach, suggesting that this account best extends to languages that possess greater morphological complexity than English. © 2010 Psychology Press.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 1, 2011
• Publication Date: May 1, 2011
• Journal: Language and Cognitive Processes
• Print ISSN: 0169-0965
• Electronic ISSN: 1464-0732
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 26
• Issue: 4-6
• Pages: 794-829
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01690965.2010.493735
• Keywords: past tense morphology, language acquisition, Finnish, memory
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/969539
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01690965.2010.493735