Processing Grammar in the Brain

In this study, we want to investigate how fast people can learn a new language and what factors enhance the learning process. 

For this, participants learn an artificial language with the help of a picture-based task. During an fMRI session participants have to perform a grammatical judgement task in the previously learned language. 

With the help of additional information, e.g. language skills and performance in cognitive tests, we want to see what factors enhance the learning process of a new language and if one of those factors can predict if someone is “a good language learner” or “a bad language learner”. 

In this study we investigate how grammar (especially syntax and morphology) are processed by Swedish and German native speakers. 

With the help of an MRI scanner, we look at activation patterns for syntax processing by letting participants read word lists and sentences with varying degrees in syntactic complexity. Further, we want to investigate to what degree morphosyntax (German) and word order variation (Swedish) facilitate processing of syntactic complex sentences, and if one of them is facilitating syntactic processing more than the other one.