Lambda the Ultimate

It is often mentioned on LtU that there is not enough research done on human factors, so I thought this might be interesting for some of you.

Artificial Grammar Reveals Inborn Language Sense

...how human children acquire language-which is so complex and has so many variations-remains largely a mystery. Fifty years ago, linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky proposed an answer: Humans are able to learn language so quickly because some knowledge of grammar is hardwired into our brains. In other words, we know some of the most fundamental things about human language unconsciously at birth, without ever being taught.
Now, in a groundbreaking study, cognitive scientists at The Johns Hopkins University have confirmed a striking prediction of the controversial hypothesis that human beings are born with knowledge of certain syntactical rules that make learning human languages easier.

Perhaps it is possible to use such research to inform language and library design (or maybe we could use the same research techniques to conduct our own studies?)

I tried to take a look at the actual research by browsing Jennifer L. Culbertson's publications and most of it goes way over my head I'm afraid. However, her dissertation seems like it could be informative and there is a nice graphic summary which is mildly titillating.