Mueller, J. L. 1, 2 , Friederici, A. D. 2 & Männel, C. 2
1 Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück
2 Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Science
The acquisition of human grammar crucially involves the detection of complex patterns in spoken language input. For example, sentences such as "The boy who smiles is called Tim" cannot be understood without the ability to relate non-adjacent linguistic elements to each other. We will present a series of auditory artificial grammar learning experiments using electroencephalography (EEG) across the first four years of life and young adulthood. The studies provide evidence that infants possess the ability to detect non-adjacent dependencies between syllables from early on and that this ability changes across the first four years of life. The changes can be described as a development from an automatic signal-driven learning mechanism in young infants towards attention-based learning in young adults. In conclusion, the ability to detect complex dependencies in the auditory input is argued to be one of the foundations of grammar acquisition which is shaped during human ontogeny by development of perception and cognitive control.