Ane Theimann

• Theimann, Ane; Kuzmina, Ekaterina & Hansen, Pernille (2021). Verb-Mediated Prediction in Bilingual Toddlers. Frontiers in Psychology. ISSN 1664-1078. 12. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.719447. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Prediction is an important mechanism for efficient language processing. It has been shown that as a part of sentence processing, both children and adults predict nouns based on semantically constraining verbs. Language proficiency is said to modulate prediction: the higher proficiency, the better the predictive skill. Children growing up acquiring two languages are often more proficient in one of them, and as such, investigation of the predictive ability in young bilingual children can shed light on the role of language proficiency. Furthermore, according to production-based models, the language production system drives the predictive ability. The present study investigates whether bilingual toddlers predict upcoming nouns based on verb meanings in both their languages, and whether this ability is associated with expressive vocabulary. Seventeen Norwegian-English bilingual toddlers (aged 2;5–3;3), dominant in Norwegian, participated in the study. Verb-mediated predictive ability was measured via a visual world paradigm (VWP) experiment, including sentences with semantically constraining and neutral verbs. Expressive vocabulary was measured by MacArthurBates CDI II. The results suggested that the toddler group predicted upcoming noun arguments in both their dominant and non-dominant languages, but were faster in their dominant language. This finding highlights the importance of language dominance for predictive processing. There was no significant relationship between predictive ability and expressive vocabulary in either language.

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• Kartushina, Natalia; Onnis, Luca; Rosslund, Audun; Singh, Arun Prakash; White, Michelle Jennifer & Theimann, Ane [Show all 14 contributors for this article] (2023). Babies and kids - how do they acquire and learn multiple lects?
• Theimann, Ane; Köder, Franziska Maria; Norvik, Monica I. & Rodriguez Ronderos, Camilo (2023). Linguistic and non-linguistic prediction in toddlers: an ongoing eye-tracking study.
• Ribu, Ingeborg Sophie; Goral, Mira; Theimann, Ane; Iacorossi, Michela; Lehtonen, Minna & Norvik, Monica I. [Show all 10 contributors for this article] (2022). Eye-tracking Measures of Prediction in L1 and L2 in Bilingual People with and without Aphasia .
• Ribu, Ingeborg Sophie; Theimann, Ane Ylje Opedal; Kuzmina, Ekaterina; Goral, Mira; Iacorossi, Michela & Lehtonen, Minna [Show all 8 contributors for this article] (2021). Predictive ability in bilingual speakers with and without aphasia.
• Fyndanis, Valantis; Cameron, S.; Caplan, D.; Davril, C.; Kaldhol, Nina Hagen & Knoph, Monica I. K. [Show all 10 contributors for this article] (2018). The impact of successive bi-/multilingualism on the cognitive abilities of healthy older speakers: Evidence from Norwegian academics.

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