# The Role of Cognitive Skills and Language Experience in Grammatical Processing

> **NIH NIH R01** · VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $52,032

## Abstract

Despite having mastered basic word reading skills, large numbers of readers struggle to
understand what they read. More worrisome still is the over-representation of minority and low-income
populations in the ranks of struggling readers, which is linked to poor health outcomes. At the same
time, there is very little agreement among psycholinguists and education researchers as to what factors
drive variability in language understanding. This research program tests two factors that have been
argued to explain variability in grammatical processing and language comprehension abilities. The first
are differences in cognitive abilities (i.e. working memory, processing speed, and phonological
ability). The second are differences in experience with language. We test these two possibilities in a
series of experiments examining individual differences in language comprehension in young readers
and adults. We have 2 specific aims: 1) To determine whether syntactic processing is guided by
cognitive constraints or language experience; 2) to determine whether correlations between language
experience and comprehension skills that were discovered in pilot work are the result of previous
experience with diverse grammatical structures or the result of improved parsing efficiency derived from
practice. The outcomes of the proposed experiments have implications for core questions in language
research. Evidence that working memory or other cognitive factors predict language skill is most
consistent with theories that domain general aspects of cognition are engaged in understanding
language. Evidence that language experience predicts variability in reading skill is more consistent with
theories that posit that statistical representations drive language processing.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10616577
- **Project number:** 3R01HD098652-03S1
- **Recipient organization:** VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Duane G Watson
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $52,032
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2020-04-01 → 2025-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10616577

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10616577, The Role of Cognitive Skills and Language Experience in Grammatical Processing (3R01HD098652-03S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10616577. Licensed CC0.

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