Individual differences in language skills

Florian Hintz

Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Psychology of Language Department

Individual differences in language processing are prevalent in our daily lives. However, for decades, psycholinguistic research has largely ignored variation in the normal range of abilities. Recently, scientists have begun to acknowledge the importance of inter-individual variability for a comprehensive characterization of the language system. In spite of this change of attitude, empirical research on individual differences is still sparse, which is in part due to the lack of a suitable research tool. I will present a novel battery of behavioral tests for assessing individual differences in language skills in younger adults. Furthermore, I will describe analyses from the first applications of the battery, in samples aged between 18 and 30, to shed light on the principal dimensions of language skills.