Language in Cognitive Psychology

Flashcards about Language and Cognitive Psychology

What is Language?

A system of communication using sounds or symbols.

What does language allow us to express?

Express feelings, thoughts, ideas, and experiences.

What is a Hierarchical system in language?

Components that can be combined to form larger units

What governs the rules of language?

Specific ways components can be arranged.

How is language universal?

Language is universal across cultures, development is similar, but languages have unique words, sounds and rules

According to B.F. Skinner, how is language learned?

Language learned through reinforcement

According to Noam Chomsky, how is language coded

Human language coded in the genes and the underlying basis of all language is similar

What are the main concerns of Psycholinguistics?

Comprehension, Speech production, Representation, Acquisition

What is a Lexicon?

All words a person understands

What is Semantics?

The meaning of language.

What is Lexical semantics?

The meaning of words.

What is the word frequency effect?

We respond faster to high-frequency words.

What is Speech segmentation?

Perception of individual words even though there are no silences between spoken words.

What is Lexical ambiguity?

Words often have multiple meanings.

What is Lexical priming?

People briefly access all meanings of a word before relying on context to determine accurate meaning

What is Biased dominance?

When words have two or more meanings with different dominance

What is Balanced dominance?

When words have two or more meanings with about the same dominance

What is Semantics?

Meanings of words and sentences

What is Syntax?

Rules for combining words into sentences

What is Parsing?

Mentally groups the words into phrases which helps the listener create meaning

What are Garden path sentences?

Sentences that begin by appearing to mean one thing, but then end up meaning something else

What is Late closure?

Parser assumes new word is part of the current phrase

What is Coherence?

Representation of the text in one’s mind that creates clear relations between parts of the text and the story’s main topic

What is Inference?

Readers create information during reading not explicitly stated in the text

What is Anaphoric Inference?

Connecting objects/people

What is Instrument Inference?

Tools or methods

What is Causal Inference?

Events in one clause caused by events in previous sentences

What is a Situation model?

Mental representation of what a text is about

What is Given-new contract?

Speaker constructs sentences so they include given information and new information

What is Entrainment?

Synchronization between conversation partners