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Assumptions of strong, causal relations between cognition, language, and affection are often made in general and in bilingualism in particular. This paper presents first a set of hypotheses concerning the relation between affection and language in bilingualism. One subset is concerned with language learning, language maintenance, and mental health in migrant children, another with the critical period theory for language learning. A second set of assumptions is concerned with the relation between affection and cognition in general. A third set of hypotheses considers the relationship between language and cognition. Research and statements regarding the three sets are reviewed. The actual relationships are studied by means of canonical correlations, and compared with averaged simple correlations. No systematic correlations between language and emotion, and cognition and emotion could be found. However, the associations between language and non-verbal intelligence, reading and intelligence, and language and reading were found to be substantial. The results agreed with recent neuropsychological, endocrinologic, and perceptual research. Contains 88 references. (Author/LB)

This paper discusses cognitive communicative training in preschool and reports on a study of 11 Hawaiian preschoolers that examined how these children interacted with others, used language, manipulated objects, and solved problems at home and at school. The study observed the children at school and at home over a 5-month period, collecting videotape and audiotape records which were coded according to interaction setting, interaction, and communication. The study found that children interacted with adults a larger proportion of the time at home than at school, and most were not hesitant around teachers, parents, or observers. It did not find the expected split between adult and child realms in Hawaiian households. It did find that children tended to use objects in complex, goal-directed ways more frequently at home than at school, and tended to encounter and solve more problems by themselves at home than at school. Overall, the study found that the children grew up in widely diverse family settings, with no evidence for a prototypical Hawaiian family type or environment. (MDM)

This paper discusses cognitive communicative training in preschool and reports on a study of 11 Hawaiian preschoolers that examined how these children interacted with others, used language, manipulated objects, and solved problems at home and at school. The study observed the children at school and at home over a 5-month period, collecting videotape and audiotape records which were coded according to interaction setting, interaction, and communication. The study found that children interacted with adults a larger proportion of the time at home than at school, and most were not hesitant around teachers, parents, or observers. It did not find the expected split between adult and child realms in Hawaiian households. It did find that children tended to use objects in complex, goal-directed ways more frequently at home than at school, and tended to encounter and solve more problems by themselves at home than at school. Overall, the study found that the children grew up in widely diverse family settings, with no evidence for a prototypical Hawaiian family type or environment. (MDM)

This book explores socio-cultural meanings of ‘self’ in the Chinese language through analysing a range of conversations among Chinese immigrants to Australia qualitatively on the topics of individuality, social relationships and collective identity. If language, culture and cognition are major roads, this book is the junction that unites them by arguing that selfhood occurs at their interface. It provides an interdisciplinary approach to unpack manifestations and perceptions of ‘self’ in the contemporary Chinese diaspora discourse from the perspectives of Sociolinguistics, Cognitive Linguistics and the newly developed Cultural Linguistics. This book not only discusses empirical and theoretical issues on the conceptualisation and communication of social identity in a cross-cultural context, it also reveals how traditional and modern ideas in Chinese culture are interacting with those of other world cultures. Considering the power of language, enduring and emerging beliefs and stances that permeate these speakers’ views on their social being and outlooks on life impart their significance in cross-cultural communication and pragmatics.<br />As of January 2023, this e-book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched.

This book explores socio-cultural meanings of ‘self’ in the Chinese language through analysing a range of conversations among Chinese immigrants to Australia qualitatively on the topics of individuality, social relationships and collective identity. If language, culture and cognition are major roads, this book is the junction that unites them by arguing that selfhood occurs at their interface. It provides an interdisciplinary approach to unpack manifestations and perceptions of ‘self’ in the contemporary Chinese diaspora discourse from the perspectives of Sociolinguistics, Cognitive Linguistics and the newly developed Cultural Linguistics. This book not only discusses empirical and theoretical issues on the conceptualisation and communication of social identity in a cross-cultural context, it also reveals how traditional and modern ideas in Chinese culture are interacting with those of other world cultures. Considering the power of language, enduring and emerging beliefs and stances that permeate these speakers’ views on their social being and outlooks on life impart their significance in cross-cultural communication and pragmatics.<br />As of January 2023, this e-book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched.

The purpose of this study is to conduct a systematic review to identify and evaluate interventional studies involving (1) online gaming or gamified cognitive training and (2) language learning that have been carried out with the intention of improving cognition in older adults.

This paper reviews some of the cognitive and linguistic functions which develop during the period of concrete operational thought (ages 4-9) as defined in Piaget's developmental theory. Discussion centers on the formation of classes and relations and the development of the language associated with these operations. Also discussed are conservation and the linguistic structures associated with it and selected research studies. The literature reviewed suggests that there is a relationship between language and cognitive development in the concrete operations period. (SDH)

This paper reviews some of the cognitive and linguistic functions which develop during the period of concrete operational thought (ages 4-9) as defined in Piaget's developmental theory. Discussion centers on the formation of classes and relations and the development of the language associated with these operations. Also discussed are conservation and the linguistic structures associated with it and selected research studies. The literature reviewed suggests that there is a relationship between language and cognitive development in the concrete operations period. (SDH)

This registration contains the protocol for the systematic review, "Language and cognition in the developing bilingual brain: From infancy to adolescence". A PRISMA-Protocol Checklist (showing reporting items included) and the systematic review protocol itself are attached in the additional documents.

This registration contains the protocol for the systematic review, "Language and cognition in the developing bilingual brain: From infancy to adolescence". A PRISMA-Protocol Checklist (showing reporting items included) and the systematic review protocol itself are attached in the additional documents.

Even before infants begin to speak, listening to language exerts a powerful influence on their cognition. For infants as young as 4 months, listening to their native language supports their ability to form object categories, a core cognitive capacity. Yet, listening to other carefully-matched nonlinguistic signals (sine-wave tone sequences; backwards speech) offers no such advantage. Importantly, this link to cognition is initially abstract enough to include language in the visual modality, even in hearing infants who have never been exposed to a sign language. At 4 months, hearing infants successfully formed an object category when a woman introduced each object with American Sign Language (ASL) while pointing and looking at the object. It was specifically the linguistic elements of ASL that drove this effect, as 4-month-old infants failed to form the object category if objects were only introduced with the pointing and eye gaze cues (Novack et al., 2021). This advantage of ASL quickly fades, however; by 6 months, ASL no longer supports categorization (Novack et al., 2021). This developmental change warrants attention. After all, most deaf infants are born to hearing parents. Although most do not receive systematic exposure to a sign language until well after 6 months, they nevertheless successfully acquire sign language. In the current experiment, we build upon infants’ considerable plasticity, harnessing their sensitivity to language exposure during this 4- to 6-month developmental window. We ask whether providing infants with exposure to ASL is sufficient to permit them to maintain its earlier link to cognition, as measured in a subsequent object categorization task. We gather evidence from infants in two conditions, described below; these vary only in the amount and timing of the exposure to ASL provided.

Even before infants begin to speak, listening to language exerts a powerful influence on their cognition. For infants as young as 4 months, listening to their native language supports their ability to form object categories, a core cognitive capacity. Yet, listening to other carefully-matched nonlinguistic signals (sine-wave tone sequences; backwards speech) offers no such advantage. Importantly, this link to cognition is initially abstract enough to include language in the visual modality, even in hearing infants who have never been exposed to a sign language. At 4 months, hearing infants successfully formed an object category when a woman introduced each object with American Sign Language (ASL) while pointing and looking at the object. It was specifically the linguistic elements of ASL that drove this effect, as 4-month-old infants failed to form the object category if objects were only introduced with the pointing and eye gaze cues (Novack et al., 2021). This advantage of ASL quickly fades, however; by 6 months, ASL no longer supports categorization (Novack et al., 2021). This developmental change warrants attention. After all, most deaf infants are born to hearing parents. Although most do not receive systematic exposure to a sign language until well after 6 months, they nevertheless successfully acquire sign language. In the current experiment, we build upon infants’ considerable plasticity, harnessing their sensitivity to language exposure during this 4- to 6-month developmental window. We ask whether providing infants with exposure to ASL is sufficient to permit them to maintain its earlier link to cognition, as measured in a subsequent object categorization task. We gather evidence from infants in two conditions, described below; these vary only in the amount and timing of the exposure to ASL provided.

This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to resolve a long-standing and fundamental debate in SLA and TBLT: how does increasing the cognitive complexity of an oral task affect a learner's subsequent language performance? The project is centered on the conflicting predictions of two major theoretical frameworks: Skehan's Limited Attention Capacity (LAC) model, which posits a trade-off between performance dimensions (i.e., gains in complexity come at the cost of fluency or accuracy), and Robinson's Cognition Hypothesis, which predicts that increasing task complexity along specific resource-directing dimensions will simultaneously enhance both linguistic complexity and accuracy, albeit at the expense of fluency.

This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to resolve a long-standing and fundamental debate in SLA and TBLT: how does increasing the cognitive complexity of an oral task affect a learner's subsequent language performance? The project is centered on the conflicting predictions of two major theoretical frameworks: Skehan's Limited Attention Capacity (LAC) model, which posits a trade-off between performance dimensions (i.e., gains in complexity come at the cost of fluency or accuracy), and Robinson's Cognition Hypothesis, which predicts that increasing task complexity along specific resource-directing dimensions will simultaneously enhance both linguistic complexity and accuracy, albeit at the expense of fluency.

Developmental language disorder (DLD) is a persistent language disorder where children have difficulty understanding, learning, and using spoken language (Bishop, Snowling, Thompson, Greenhalgh et al., 2017). Whilst linguistic difficulties in children with DLD have been widely researched, the relationship between cognitive and linguistic processes are not as well-defined. This study follows on from a previous research project which investigated the relationship between cognition and language in children aged 7-10 years, with and without DLD. Our findings suggested that a combination of cognitive abilities are important for linguistic outcomes, namely non-verbal intelligence, working memory, and the speed of automatization. In this new study, we aim to build upon our previous findings as well as explore new factors such as analogical reasoning, language aptitude (grammatical sensitivity), and executive functioning (the role of inhibition). The rationale for investigating these predictors are as follows: Analogical reasoning is important for language learning, especially with regards to learning vocabulary and grammar. Previous research suggests that children with DLD may have impaired analogical reasoning (Krzemien et al., 2017; Leroy et al., 2012, 2014). An important part of this process is being able to focus on similarities and also disregard irrelevant information. In addition, Krzemien et al. (2017) highlight that children with DLD have difficulty with ​aspects of ​executive function, such as inhibition, and that this potentially influences analogical reasoning performance. Therefore, we explore the role of inhibition in relation to analogical reasoning. (Foreign) language aptitude is thought to be irrelevant to first language acquisition because it it is widely assumed that first language acquisition develops implicitly (see DeKeyser et al., 2010). However, there is evidence suggesting that it does matter and this makes sense, theoretically, in a usage-based framework of language acquisition. It also makes sense theoretically in the declarative-procedural framework: according to Ullman (2004, 2020), children with DLD compensate for problems with procedural learning by relying more on declarative memory – so by extension, aptitude may be relevant as well. In our study, we explore grammatical sensitivity. Lastly, our previous study investigated implicit statistical learning using a forced-choice embedded triplets paradigm, yet​​ participants​ (both with and without DLD)​, performed largely at chance. According to previous literature, children with DLD have difficulty with implicit statistical learning (Lammertink et al., 2017; Lum et al., 2014; Obeid et al., 2016). However, recent research highlights many issues with measuring implicit statistical learning, especially in children (see Arnon, 2019, 2020; Isbilen & Christiansen, 2022; Oliveira et al., 2022). In this study, we implement a new task to measure implicit statistical learning.

Learning and teaching second language skills requires many different techniques and approaches. In the modern world, students have many opportunities to learn many different languages with the help of technology and with the help of many different modern and traditional approaches. Embodied cognition approach plays a great role in second language acquisition. When foreign language teachers or professors develop embodied cognition in their classes students can learn many different languages easily. This study deals with embodied cognition in foreign language learning classes. The definitions of embodied cognition and the embodied approach in foreign language education will be given. General characteristics of embodied cognition will be told. Different views of embodied cognition will be shared. Sample classroom activities will also be shared.

Learning and teaching second language skills requires many different techniques and approaches. In the modern world, students have many opportunities to learn many different languages with the help of technology and with the help of many different modern and traditional approaches. Embodied cognition approach plays a great role in second language acquisition. When foreign language teachers or professors develop embodied cognition in their classes students can learn many different languages easily. This study deals with embodied cognition in foreign language learning classes. The definitions of embodied cognition and the embodied approach in foreign language education will be given. General characteristics of embodied cognition will be told. Different views of embodied cognition will be shared. Sample classroom activities will also be shared.

Cross-sectional study investigating the early developmental patterns in children with visual impairment at two years of age, including the relationship between two types of play behaviours on cognition and language acquisition.

Cross-sectional study investigating the early developmental patterns in children with visual impairment at two years of age, including the relationship between two types of play behaviours on cognition and language acquisition.

Cross-sectional study investigating the early developmental patterns in children with visual impairment at two years of age, including the relationship between two types of play behaviours on cognition and language acquisition.

Cross-sectional study investigating the early developmental patterns in children with visual impairment at two years of age, including the relationship between two types of play behaviours on cognition and language acquisition.

This descriptive-quantitative-correlational investigation involving a total of 1080 pre-service teachers primarily aimed to determine the cognition of the would-be teachers towards the mother tongue. In addition, it intended to also identify the willingness of the respondents to teach using the mother tongue and to teach the mother tongue as a subject. This cross-sectional investigation gathered data through a developed and validated survey-questionnaire. The research tool yielded reliability characterized as 'excellent' (Cronbach's Alpha = 0.94). Analysis of the data revealed that the respondents are 'positive' in terms of their held cognition or belief towards the MT. Moreover, the respondents are found to be willing to teach using the MT as a medium of instruction and to teach MT as a subject. Furthermore, a high positive significant correlation was established between the variables cognition and willingness to teach in the MT and cognition and willingness to the MT.

This descriptive-quantitative-correlational investigation involving a total of 1080 pre-service teachers primarily aimed to determine the cognition of the would-be teachers towards the mother tongue. In addition, it intended to also identify the willingness of the respondents to teach using the mother tongue and to teach the mother tongue as a subject. This cross-sectional investigation gathered data through a developed and validated survey-questionnaire. The research tool yielded reliability characterized as 'excellent' (Cronbach's Alpha = 0.94). Analysis of the data revealed that the respondents are 'positive' in terms of their held cognition or belief towards the MT. Moreover, the respondents are found to be willing to teach using the MT as a medium of instruction and to teach MT as a subject. Furthermore, a high positive significant correlation was established between the variables cognition and willingness to teach in the MT and cognition and willingness to the MT.

The development of spatial cognition is understudied in young children. This project is going to study the contribution of spatial language to the development of spatial ability in young children (age range 3-6 years old). As prior research has shown, language and cognition are closely linked, especially in early stages. Furthermore, spatial language seems to facilitate spatial cognition which is in turn predictive for later maths and science skills. We will investigate whether and when a sex difference in spatial language skills and spatial abilities might emerge. Furthermore, the impact of inherent (e.g., biological sex, age) and societal factors (e.g., interests and free time activities, socio-economic status, school status) are explored. The fundamental ambition is to identify which aspects of spatial ability are more malleable (and thus receptive to training intervention) and to determine whether spatial language is an effective scaffolding tool for young children’s cognitive development.

The development of spatial cognition is understudied in young children. This project is going to study the contribution of spatial language to the development of spatial ability in young children (age range 3-6 years old). As prior research has shown, language and cognition are closely linked, especially in early stages. Furthermore, spatial language seems to facilitate spatial cognition which is in turn predictive for later maths and science skills. We will investigate whether and when a sex difference in spatial language skills and spatial abilities might emerge. Furthermore, the impact of inherent (e.g., biological sex, age) and societal factors (e.g., interests and free time activities, socio-economic status, school status) are explored. The fundamental ambition is to identify which aspects of spatial ability are more malleable (and thus receptive to training intervention) and to determine whether spatial language is an effective scaffolding tool for young children’s cognitive development.

The development of spatial cognition is understudied in young children. This project is going to study the contribution of spatial language to the development of spatial ability in young children (age range 3-6 years old). As prior research has shown, language and cognition are closely linked, especially in early stages. Furthermore, spatial language seems to facilitate spatial cognition which is in turn predictive for later maths and science skills. We will investigate whether and when a sex difference in spatial language skills and spatial abilities might emerge. Furthermore, the impact of inherent (e.g., biological sex, age) and societal factors (e.g., interests and free time activities, socio-economic status, school status) are explored. The fundamental ambition is to identify which aspects of spatial ability are more malleable (and thus receptive to training intervention) and to determine whether spatial language is an effective scaffolding tool for young children’s cognitive development.

This statistical analysis plan outlines the proposed analytical strategy to re-conceptualise SENs and mental health - as part of a wider project "Rethinking Special Educational Needs (For more details, see https://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/project/rethinking-special-educational-needs)- using two secondary datasets "Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) and Twins Early Development Study (TEDS)". Using both datasets, we aim to investigate the interrelations between language, learning, cognition, social functioning, and mental health difficulties for children in early- (i.e., 3-5 years) and middle-childhood (i.e., 7-9 years) in England. Specifically, the current analysis plan aims to address the following research questions: 1. How do language, cognition, social functioning, and mental health cluster in early and middle childhood? 2. To what extent are clusters connected to each other?

31 p. ; 21 cm

31 p. ; 21 cm

31 p. ; 21 cm

31 p. ; 21 cm

31 p. ; 21 cm

In future, machine agents will be able to communicate among themselves and with humans with the flexibility and complexity of human language. Leonid Perlovsky proposed Modeling Field Theory (MFT) as a new method for overcoming the exponential growth of combinatorial complexity (CC) in computational intelligent techniques currently used in cognitive systems design. MFT uses fuzzy dynamic logic to avoid CC and computes similarity measures between internal concept-models and the perceptual and linguistic signals. More recently, Perlovsky (2004) has suggested the use of MFT specifically to model linguistic abilities. By using concept-models with multiple sensorimotor modalities, a MFT system can integrate language-specific signals with other internal cognitive representations. The general aim of this project is to integrate language and cognitive capabilities in cognitive systems through the combination of grounded adaptive agent and MFT techniques. This will be achieved through the following objectives: 1. To adapt the MFT algorithm for the acquisition of linguistic, cognitive and sensorimotor abilities in adaptive agents 2. To design and implement a computer simulator for linguistic agents with MFT controller 3. To execute a series of simulation experiments on the integration of language and cognitive abilities in collaborative tasks (e.g. object manipulation and navigation tasks) 4. To do further simulation aiming at the scaling up of the agents lexicon in terms of high number of lexical entries and types of syntactic categories.

In future, machine agents will be able to communicate among themselves and with humans with the flexibility and complexity of human language. Leonid Perlovsky proposed Modeling Field Theory (MFT) as a new method for overcoming the exponential growth of combinatorial complexity (CC) in computational intelligent techniques currently used in cognitive systems design. MFT uses fuzzy dynamic logic to avoid CC and computes similarity measures between internal concept-models and the perceptual and linguistic signals. More recently, Perlovsky (2004) has suggested the use of MFT specifically to model linguistic abilities. By using concept-models with multiple sensorimotor modalities, a MFT system can integrate language-specific signals with other internal cognitive representations. The general aim of this project is to integrate language and cognitive capabilities in cognitive systems through the combination of grounded adaptive agent and MFT techniques. This will be achieved through the following objectives: 1. To adapt the MFT algorithm for the acquisition of linguistic, cognitive and sensorimotor abilities in adaptive agents 2. To design and implement a computer simulator for linguistic agents with MFT controller 3. To execute a series of simulation experiments on the integration of language and cognitive abilities in collaborative tasks (e.g. object manipulation and navigation tasks) 4. To do further simulation aiming at the scaling up of the agents lexicon in terms of high number of lexical entries and types of syntactic categories.

This discussion of the kind of knowledge acquired by a novice learning BASIC programming and how this knowledge may be most efficiently acquired suggests that people who do programming acquire three basic skills that are not obvious either in instruction or in traditional performance: (1) the ability to analyze each statement into a type of prestatement, (2) the ability to enumerate the transactions involved for each prestatement, and (3) the ability to chunk prestatements into general clusters or configurations. The instructional implications of a psychological analysis of the basic concepts underlying performance in BASIC programming are considered, and an alternative instructional approach--the "transactional approach"--is recommended for teaching programming. This approach involves teaching the underlying concepts of transactions, prestatements, and chunks using a concrete model of the computer, before emphasizing hands-on learning. It is argued that once the student has acquired the relevant subsuming concepts, the relationship between program and output will be more meaningful. Nine references are listed, and appendices include the eight levels of knowledge for BASIC; examples of transactions, prestatements, and chunks and diagrams of the traditional and transactional approaches. Other publications in this report series are listed. (MER)

The author reviews the literature and considers clinical implications of three issues in language and cognition: the relationship between language and cognition, the strategies children use in the language-learning task, and the cognitive determinants of what children say. Examined are questions (such as whether cognitive skills are dependent on or prerequisite for linguistic skills) said to have bearing on the evaluation of language-disordered and learning disabled children; strategies children apply to determine the structure and meaning of language; and examples of the cognitive determinants in children's language (such as overextension in the meanings of words). (LS)

The author reviews the literature and considers clinical implications of three issues in language and cognition: the relationship between language and cognition, the strategies children use in the language-learning task, and the cognitive determinants of what children say. Examined are questions (such as whether cognitive skills are dependent on or prerequisite for linguistic skills) said to have bearing on the evaluation of language-disordered and learning disabled children; strategies children apply to determine the structure and meaning of language; and examples of the cognitive determinants in children's language (such as overextension in the meanings of words). (LS)

This project utilizes meta-analytic techniques to examine the neural activation patterns associated with embodied cognition in second language processing. Analysis focuses on task-based fMRl studies, identifying consistently activated brain regions and investigating the moderating effects of semantic content, processing depth, language distance, and L2 proficiency.

This project utilizes meta-analytic techniques to examine the neural activation patterns associated with embodied cognition in second language processing. Analysis focuses on task-based fMRl studies, identifying consistently activated brain regions and investigating the moderating effects of semantic content, processing depth, language distance, and L2 proficiency.

This project utilizes meta-analytic techniques to examine the neural activation patterns associated with embodied cognition in second language processing. Analysis focuses on task-based fMRl studies, identifying consistently activated brain regions and investigating the moderating effects of semantic content, processing depth, language distance, and L2 proficiency.

This project utilizes meta-analytic techniques to examine the neural activation patterns associated with embodied cognition in second language processing. Analysis focuses on task-based fMRl studies, identifying consistently activated brain regions and investigating the moderating effects of semantic content, processing depth, language distance, and L2 proficiency.

This project utilizes meta-analytic techniques to examine the neural activation patterns associated with embodied cognition in second language processing. Analysis focuses on task-based fMRl studies, identifying consistently activated brain regions and investigating the moderating effects of semantic content, processing depth, language distance, and L2 proficiency.

Variability in predispositions for language learning has attracted scholarly curiosity for over 100 years. Despite major changes in theoretical explanations and foreign/second language teaching paradigms, some patterns of associations between predispositions and learning outcomes seem timelessly robust. This book discusses evidence from a research project investigating individual differences in a wide variety of domains, ranging from language aptitude over general cognitive abilities to motivational and other affective and social constructs. The focus lies on young learners aged 10 to 12, a less frequently investigated age in aptitude research. The data stem from two samples of multilingual learners in German-speaking Switzerland. The target languages are French and English. The chapters of the book offer two complementary perspectives on the topic: On the one hand, cross-sectional investigations of the underlying structure of these individual differences and their association with the target languages are discussed. Drawing on factor analytical and multivariable analyses, the different components are scrutinized with respect to their mutual dependence and their relative impact on target language skills. The analyses also take into account contextual factors such as the learners’ family background and differences across the two contexts investigated. On the other hand, the potential to predict learner’s skills in the target language over time based on the many different indicators is investigated using machine learning algorithms. The results provide new insights into the stability of the individual dispositions, on the impact of contextual variables, and on empirically robust dimensions within the array of variables tested.

Variability in predispositions for language learning has attracted scholarly curiosity for over 100 years. Despite major changes in theoretical explanations and foreign/second language teaching paradigms, some patterns of associations between predispositions and learning outcomes seem timelessly robust. This book discusses evidence from a research project investigating individual differences in a wide variety of domains, ranging from language aptitude over general cognitive abilities to motivational and other affective and social constructs. The focus lies on young learners aged 10 to 12, a less frequently investigated age in aptitude research. The data stem from two samples of multilingual learners in German-speaking Switzerland. The target languages are French and English. The chapters of the book offer two complementary perspectives on the topic: On the one hand, cross-sectional investigations of the underlying structure of these individual differences and their association with the target languages are discussed. Drawing on factor analytical and multivariable analyses, the different components are scrutinized with respect to their mutual dependence and their relative impact on target language skills. The analyses also take into account contextual factors such as the learners’ family background and differences across the two contexts investigated. On the other hand, the potential to predict learner’s skills in the target language over time based on the many different indicators is investigated using machine learning algorithms. The results provide new insights into the stability of the individual dispositions, on the impact of contextual variables, and on empirically robust dimensions within the array of variables tested.

This article is from Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases , volume 9 . Abstract Background: Metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD) is a rare, genetic neurodegenerative disease. It leads to progressive demyelination resulting in regression of development and early death. With regard to experimental therapies, knowledge of the natural course of the disease is highly important. We aimed to analyse onset and character of first symptoms in MLD and to provide detailed natural course data concerning language and cognition. Methods: Patients with MLD were recruited nationwide within the scope of the German research network LEUKONET. 59 patients’ questionnaires (23 late-infantile, 36 juvenile) were analysed. Results: Time from first symptoms (at a median age of 1.5 years in late-infantile and 6 years in juvenile MLD) to diagnosis took one year in late-infantile and two years in juvenile patients on average. Gait disturbances and abnormal movement patterns were first signs in all patients with late-infantile and in most with juvenile MLD. Onset in the latter was additionally characterized by problems in concentration, behaviour and fine motor function (p = 0.0011, p 

Cultural Constraints on Grammar and Cognition in Pirahã Another Look at the Design Features of Human Language by Daniel Everett