The eyes have it: lexical and syntactic comprehension in a new paradigm

TLDR

The study introduces a novel method to assess noun, verb, and word‑order comprehension in infants and young children through three separate experiments. The method uses minimal motor activity and no speech, presenting two simultaneous video events with a single linguistic cue that matches only one event, and measures differential visual fixation. All three experiments showed that children’s visual fixation favored the video matching the linguistic cue, indicating the method can reveal emerging linguistic abilities and clarify production–comprehension debates.

Abstract

ABSTRACT A new method to assess language comprehension in infants and young children is introduced in three experiments which test separately for the comprehension of nouns, verbs, and word order. This method requires a minimum of motor movement, no speech production, and relies on the differential visual fixation of two simultaneously presented video events accompanied by a single linguistic stimulus. The linguistic stimulus matches only one of the video events. In all three experiments patterns of visual fixation favour the screen which matches the linguistic stimulus. This new method may provide insight into the child's emerging linguistic capabilities and help resolve longstanding controversies concerning language production versus language comprehension.