Electrophysiological Evidence for Sentence Comprehension - Wings

‘tense’ experiments as well as in the additional ‘gender’ and ‘quantifier’ experiments
reaction time data were measured separately, using E-prime software (Schneider et al.,
2002). The reason for separate measurements of RT and ERP is a practical one: e-prime
equipment used in the measurements has a very high level of precision (+/- 20 μs) and a
more practical way of exporting data to a statistical program than the ERP equipment
used in the experiments. In addition, e-prime RT data collection was used as a training
session for the ERP experiment. The same kind of stimuli sentences (or word pairs) was
used in RT measurements. However, the words were changed to avoid their repetition in
the ERP experiments.
Verbal and non-verbal abilities tests. Verbal and non-verbal abilities tests were used to
determine language status of SLI children in order to choose as homogenous group of
SLI children as possible. At present these test materials are the best testing materials for
establishing (and using) inclusion and exclusion of SLI children in Croatian. The testing
materials used in this study were developed in the Laboratory for Psycholinguistic
Research (Clinical Research Unit) as working materials for language disorder
diagnostics. They were used for making a reliable profile of language abilities of SLI
children. The tests materials examine phonological, morpho-syntactic and lexical skills of
the children (v. Table 3 for an overview). In addition, Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test
(PPVT) was administred. The PPVT has been standardized for Croatian (Kovačević et
al., in press). Narrative abilities were assessed using The Bus Story (Renfrew, 1969).
Employment of so many tests provided rather detailed information on all language
components for each child involved in the study. However, as the tests were initially
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