Native and non-native learners require around 30 years to reach asymptotic performance¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associationalr2·q2
Currency · newest study 2018 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2023: baselines and conditions change
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q2 i? Native speakers did not reach asymptote until around 30 years old, though most learning occurs in the first 10-20 years. → Hartshorne Joshua K. 2018
Evidence¶
Hartshorne Joshua K. 2018¶
Hartshorne Joshua K., Tenenbaum Joshua B., Pinker Steven. (2018). A critical period for second language acquisition: Evidence from 2/3 million English speakers. Cognition. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6559801/
q2 · i? · associational · r2
Descriptive reading of performance-versus-age curves for native speakers in the quiz dataset. The authors state native speakers "did not reach asymptote until around 30 years old", with most learning in the first 10-20 years.
"Inspection of Fig. 5B suggests that native speakers did not reach asymptote until around 30 years old, though most of the learning takes place in the first 10–20 years."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Ultimate attainment is similar for learners who begin by 10-12 years of age and declines continuously thereafter — related
- Ultimate attainment and optimal-period length do not reliably differ across major native-language groups, with slightly more evidence for differences in learning curves — related
- Native-speaker children have about 2,500 words at school entry and vocabulary growth becomes exponential once independent reading begins — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
thirty-years-to-asymptotic-performance |
title |
Native and non-native learners require around 30 years to reach asymptotic performance |
description |
Native and non-native learners require around 30 years to reach asymptotic performance |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2018 |
recheck_by |
2023 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-17 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — hartshorne-joshua-k-2018 |
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