Current Studies

Differentiation of visual patterns

From what age on are children able to perceive breaks in actions, and can therefore differentiate between one sequence of actions and two sequences separated by a brief break?

Understanding of goal-directed actions
How do children perceive actions and intentions of others? When does the ability action understanding evolve?

Action imitation
How do children of various age imitate actions of others? What cues do they use to understand other peoples' intentions? To what extant do social cues, such as language and emotions, influence action understanding in early childhood?

Categorisation of words
From what age on can children differentiate whether a new word is a noun or a verb, and what kind of information do they use?

Understanding of grammar rules
At what age are infants able to differentiate a false word sequence from a right one? For example:

Whom has the dog been chasing?

Whom the dog has been chasing?

Differentiation  of langual rhythm
Langual rhythm plays a key role in language acquisition as it provides cues for word boundaries. Most German words are accentuated on the first syllable. Therefore, it is a good strategy to assume a word boundary before an accentuated syllable.

We study from what age on and under what circumstances infants are able to differentiate various patterns of accentuation.