Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34690387›Full record

ArticleInternational journal of behavioral development2021

Age of sign language acquisition has lifelong effect on syntactic preferences in sign language users.

Julia Krebs, Dietmar Roehm, Ronnie B Wilbur, Evie A Malaia

Open access · greenAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in International journal of behavioral development, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
8citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
3.3field-weighted citation impact, top 8% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 20 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Argument marking in a new sign language.Te Reo : proceedings of the Linguistic Society of New Zealand · 2025
    Article
  5. Article
  6. Review
  7. Article
  8. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.

Julia KrebsResearch group Neurobiology of Language, Department of Linguistics, University of Salzburg, Erzabt-Klotz-Straße 1, 5020 Salzburg, Austria.
Dietmar RoehmResearch group Neurobiology of Language, Department of Linguistics, University of Salzburg, Erzabt-Klotz-Straße 1, 5020 Salzburg, Austria.
Ronnie B WilburLinguistics Program, and Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Lyles-Porter Hall, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
Evie A MalaiaDepartment of Communicative Disorders, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35404, USA.
University of Salzburg · ATPurdue University West Lafayette · USUniversity of Alabama · US

Funding

Modeling the Nonmanuals in American Sign LanguageR01DC005241 · NIDCD · PURDUE UNIVERSITY WEST LAFAYETTE · PI WILBUR, RONNIE B · 2004 to 2008
$2.4M
Computational Methods for the Study of American Sign Language Nonmanuals Using Very Large DatabasesR01DC014498 · NIDCD · OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY · PI MARTINEZ, ALEIX M · 2016 to 2021
$1.6M
NIDCD NIH HHS R01 DC005241NIDCD NIH HHS R01 DC014498
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Acquisition of natural language has been shown to fundamentally impact both one's ability to use the first language, and the ability to learn subsequent languages later in life. Sign languages offer a unique perspective on this issue, because Deaf signers receive access to signed input at varying ages. The majority acquires sign language in (early) childhood, but some learn sign language later - a situation that is drastically different from that of spoken language acquisition. To investigate the effect of age of sign language acquisition and its potential interplay with age in signers, we examined grammatical acceptability ratings and reaction time measures in a group of Deaf signers (age range: 28-58 years) with early (0-3 years) or later (4-7 years) acquisition of sign language in childhood. Behavioral responses to grammatical word order variations (subject-object-verb vs. object-subject-verb) were examined in sentences that included: 1) simple sentences, 2) topicalized sentences, and 3) sentences involving manual classifier constructions, uniquely characteristic of sign languages. Overall, older participants responded more slowly. Age of acquisition had subtle effects on acceptability ratings, whereby the direction of the effect depended on the specific linguistic structure.

Indexed as

ageage of acquisitionAustrian Sign Languagesign language

Identifiers

PMID34690387
PMCPMC8530180
OpenAlexW3088207853

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.