PSY365 Exam 1

why is it really hard to understand language?

scientists disagree on a lot of the basic features of language because it’s such an abstract concept

like blind monks trying to explain an elephant based on where they’re touching it

psycholinguistics

the study of the psychological factors involved in the perception, production, and acquisition of language

what are the 2 broad views in the psycho linguistics field?

nativism and anti-nativism

nativist view

humans were genetically programmed for language (like the “nature” side of the debate)

anti-nativist view

humans evolved with stronger cognitive abilities that allow us to use language; language is a useful side effect of language

like the “nurture” side of the debate

how do honeybees communicate?

through dances; research shows that:

• angle = direction of food source from hive

• length = distance of food source from hive

• speed = quality of food source from hive

why are the ways that animals communicate not considered language?

because we don’t know if animals are actually understanding what they are doing/saying or are just communicating to get positive reactions out of researchers/food

what were the 3 conditions that Savage-Rumbaugh said she would have to see in order to be convinced that an animal learned a word?

only if they:

• understand the word as well as producing it

• use the word across many different contexts (not just to get a reaction)

• use it consistently and appropriately

Hockett’s design features

this dude compiled a list of the 16 “design features” of language that set humans apart from animals, but we only need to know 7 of them:

1. semanticity

2. artibrariness

3. discreteness

4. displacement

5. productivity

6. traditional transmission

7. duality of patterning

semanticity (Hockett’s design features of language)

signals have fixed meanings

e.g. saying “pass the salt” results in someone handing you a salt shaker

arbitrariness (Hockett’s design features of language)

the form of the sound doesn’t resemble the meaning of it

e.g. saying “whale” is such a short sound compared to how big a whale actually is

discreteness (Hockett’s design features of language)

the signals in language are distinct units instead of being continuous

e.g. we don’t speak just by going “aaaaa” or “a”, we combine letters together to make different words

displacement (Hockett’s design features of language)

language should allow us to talk about things absent in time or space

e.g. referring to the Big Ben tower in London while being far away from it

productivity (Hockett’s design features of language)

language allows us to produce new messages that have never said before but can still be understood

similar to the idea of syntax

traditional transmission (Hockett’s design features of language)

language is learned from other users of that language instead of being inherently known from birth

duality of patterning (Hockett’s design features of language)

language allows us to combine a small number of elements into many meaningful units

e.g. combining the letters “p” “a” and “t” to create the words “pat”, “tap” and “apt” which are all words that mean different things

joint attention

the awareness between 2 or more individuals that they are paying attention to the same thing

recursion

the “nesting” of related clauses within language

e.g. “Carol is John’s sister” → John’s sister, who’s name might be Carol, is us nesting the meaning of referring to “Carol” as John’s sister

or e.g. “He said that she said that I was late for class” → (He said that (she said that (I was late for class)))

Noah Chomsky

a psychologist who supports the nativist (nurture) view in psycholinguistics

coined the term universal grammar

universal grammar

the idea that humans are hardwired for learning language and that’s why humans learn language while animals don’t

coined by Noah Chomsky but has been challenged by anti-nativist arguments

how do vervet monkeys communicate with one another?

they produce 3 distinct calls when seeing a predator (leopard, snake, eagle)

when another monkey hears that call they either run up into the trees (leopard), peer in the grass (snake), or look at the sky (eagle)

Koko the gorilla

a gorilla who grew famous for her learned ability to sign and communicate with researchers

was able to coin new terms, e.g. “finger bracelet”

Alex the parrot

a parrot who was able to answer questions about the material, color, and amount of different objects shown to him

joint attention

the awareness between 2 or more people that they are paying attention to the same thing

assumed by Tomasello that it was necessary for language development

what did Tomasello’s experiments on chimpanzees show about joint attention?

in his earlier experiments where containers of food were switched, chimpanzees would pick a random container even if they saw that someone pointing at the right container

in a later experiment, he saw that chimpanzees inferred that a container contained food if a human was struggling to reach for it

he inferred then that humans possess a cooperative urge that is crucial for language development

what are the two types of signals as stated by Grice?

informative and communicative signals

informative signals (Grice)

signals with no specific intention behind it

• often occur in nature

• animals mostly send these kinds of signals

e.g. smoke (signal) means there’s a fire nearby

communicative signals

signals sent with intention

e.g. coughing at a dinner party (signal) could mean that a friend is telling another friend that they want to leave

syntax

the order of words in a language contribute to the meaning of the message

like the rules of grammar

how are humans physiologically different from chimpanzees in terms of language?

humans have a larger and lower larynx (the place where our vocal chords are) than monkeys do

what is the nativist argument for humans having a larger larynx than chimpanzees?

speaking to other people was so important that we evolved to have larger larynxes, even though they increase our risk for choking

what is the anti-nativist argument for humans having a larger larynx than chimpanzees?

the idea of a larger larynx being important for speech is unclear

• some animals have lower larynxes too but they don’t speak

• parrots can imitate human speech but they have a completely different anatomy

homesign

a communication system that deaf children of hearing parents develop in the absence of any linguistic input growing up

more complex than ape communication (nativist arg) but less complex than full languages (anti-nativist arg)

nicaraguan sign language (NSL)

a sign language that developed in a small community of deaf children in Nicaragua

how were older NSL users different than younger NSL users?

older NSL users:

• signed slower + used full signs

• signed faster + used multiple different signs to describe the same event, showing more evidence of systematic/grammatical signs

specific language impairment (SLI)

hereditary disorder where children fail to develop language normally in the absence of other cognitive impairments

however, these impairments often come with other cognitive deficits, suggesting that language might be linked with cognition

what are the 2 explanations of SLI?

domain-specific: SLI disrupts mechanisms specific to language

domain-general: SLI disrupts cognitive mechanisms heavily used in language, but it just shows up in language

FOXP2 gene

a gene on chromosome 7 that was discovered to be heavily associated with language

however, genetic disruptions in this also produces humming, licking, and tongue/lip movements so it’s unclear if its a genetic abnormality

Proto-Indo-European

a language thought to be spoken around 2500-4500 years ago

most modern languages evolved from this language

how does language evolve over time?

through:

• random variation: e.g. genetic drift

• selection pressures: language evolved through pressures to communicate

alien language experiment (Kirby, Cornish, Smith 2008)

setup: participants learned random pairs of gibberish words and moving shapes and were tested on the names of the moving shapes

• then, the new names were used for subsequent participants, and so on

results: the amount of errors participants made decreased and the amount of structure in the language increased

• no selective pressure for language to evolve and yet it did; supports nativist argument

linguistic code

system of symbols and combinatory rules that are conventionally agreed upon by a community of language users as conveying specific meanings

similar to syntax

cerebral cortex

the outer layers of the brain

• folded, so it includes ridges (gyri) and sulci (grooves)

gyrus

the ridges of the cerebral cortex

sulcus

the grooves of the cerebral cortex

subcortical brain

the deeper parts of the brain

what are the 4 lobes of the human brain?

the frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes

what are the ways we learned what part of the brain serves what function?

through studies of damaged brains (e.g. Phineas Gage)

Phineas Gage

a railway worker who had an iron rod pierced through his left frontal lobe

he retained a lot of cognitive functions but his personality drastically changed

lesion

any type of damage to the brain

Lebronge (Broca’s area)

some dude Paul Broca had a patient who had frequent seizures but was able to produce only one syllable/word

his autopsy revealed damage to his left frontal lobe

Broca’s area

the left frontal lobe area thought to be associated with language production

done due to autopsies done on Phineas Gage

Wernicke’s area

the left temporal lobe area thought to be associated with language comprehension

aphasia

any type of neur0ological damage that causes disruptions in language

includes Broca’s and Wernicke’s aphasia

Broca’s (motor/expressive) aphasia

disrupted language that affects speech production (good syntax but meaningless words)

Wernicke’s (also called sensory/receptive) aphasia

disrupted language that affects language comprehension (lack of syntax but meaningful words)

is it as straightforward as Broca’s area doing speech production and Wernicke’s area doing language comprehension?

nope; later research shows that damage to multiple areas of the left hemisphere predicted poor comprehension, not specifically Broca’s or Wernicke’s area

which hemisphere controls which part of the body?

the left hemisphere is thought to control the right side of the body and vice versa

which hemisphere is thought to be specialized for language?

the left hemisphere

dichotic listening

an experiment where different words are spoken into each ear

people often report hearing the sound heard in the right ear, as that information goes into the left hemisphere

Brodmann areas

coined by some dude who did meticulous studies of animal and human brains to map the brain for special functions

his research helped coin the terms Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area

brain lateralization

refers to idea that the brain’s left and right hemispheres are specialized for different functions

the left hemisphere is thought to be associated with language

fMRI

a neuroimaging technique that measures hemodynamic (blood/oxygen related) changes in the brain

diagrams of fMRI show the activity of a control condition minus the activity of an experimental conditions

• because the brain is always working

gives good spatial resolution (exact location of brain activity) but bad temporal resolution (exact timing of brain activity)

what are the two different pathways in the brain?

the ventral stream and dorsal stream

ventral stream

refers to the brain pathway that gives us the knowledge of “what”

• goes up into the parietal lobe, conveniently where Broca’s area is located

• e.g. recognizing a comb

dorsal stream

refers to the brain pathway that gives us the knowledge of “how”

• goes down into the temporal lobe, conveniently where Wernicke’s area is located

• e.g. knowing how to use a comb

how did we discover that Broca’s area is near the motor cortex and how Wernicke’s area is near the motor cortex?

an fMRI experiment was done on deaf and hearing participants where they were asked to show how to use a hammer

deaf participants had more activation in their Broca’s area, the place associated with speech production which is close to the motor cortex

• evidence of the dorsal pathway being used, associated with our knowledge of how to do things

meanwhile, hearing participants showed more activation in their Wernicke’s area, which is in the temporal lobe

• evidence of the ventral pathway being used, associated with our knowledge of what things are

how does dichotic listening show evidence of a double disassociation between syllable and word recognition?

in a study, hearing participants couldn’t tell syllables apart while deaf participants could

electroencephalography (EEG)

measures changes in voltage by placing electrodes onto the scalp

• measures broad activity of multiple action potentials from neurons firing

event-related potentials (ERPs)

a chart of a bunch of different participants who did EEG studies

waves of negative voltage go up while waves of positive voltage go down

N400 (ERP wave)

a negative wave that occurs around 400 milliseconds after stimulus onset

appears usually when participants hear unexpected words in a sentence

e.g. “John buttered his bread with socks”

P600 (ERP wave)

a positive wave that occurs around 600 milliseconds after stimulus onset

appears when a word doesn’t follow the grammatical rules of a language

• however, it might be similar to language and music

e.g. “the spoiled child throw the toy on the floor” —should be “threw” or “throws”

phoneme

a unit of sound that produces a meaningful change in a language

e.g. /t/

allophone (phoneme)

a phoneme that sounds very similar in the language you speak

• happens due to assimilation; our tongues are lazy and a speaker puts no effort into differentiating between the two

minimal word pairs

pairs of words that differ only by one phoneme (e.g. bigger and bidder)

vocal folds (chords)

ridges inside the larynx that vibrate as the air passes through them