PSY 357: Unit 2

What is linguistic determinism? They are associated with Ancient Greeks and what kind of psychologist?

Thought determined by language. All thoughts must first be words. Behaviorists

What two things is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis made up of?

Linguistic determinism and linguistic relativity

What is linguistic relativity?

Differences among languages cause differences in thoughts

What is the strong Whorf hypothesis?

Thoughts determined by language. Can’t have concept of word if don’t know the word

What is the weak Whorf hypothesis?

Thoughts only influenced by language. Language explains some variance in thought

What are three critiques of Whorf’s claim that “““Eskimo””” has more words for snow than English?

Eskimo is not a language (Inuit combined with other languages), English has a lot of words for snow, so what if it were true?

What is the frozen throat experiment?

Proved strong linguistic determinism cannot be true because can still think with frozen throat muscles.

What are three other reasons strong linguistic determination cannot be true?

Preverbal children think, people without a language think, animals can think (Rio the sea lion)

How do you test weak linguistic determinism?

Have three colored squares, with the second looking like it could either be like 1 or 3. It should be harder for a language that considers 2 like 3 to discriminate between them if they are flashed 2 and 3

Define bottom-up processing.

Processing by piecing together sensory details without any prior context

Define top-down processing.

Processing something by using prior knowledge and context

What is articulatory phonetics?

Study of pronunciation of speech sounds

How do you define pronunciation in terms of psycholinguistics?

Movements of physical structure of vocal tract and air moving through it

What is the difference between consonants and vowels?

Consonants: impede air flow. Vowels: air flows unobstructed

Define these manners of articulation:

• Stop

• Fricative

• Voicing

Stop: Airflow stopped. Fricative: airflow not completely stopped. Voicing: vocal cords vibrating

What are the two sources of variation in regards to vowels?

Location in mouth and tongue position

What does acoustic phonetics say about our ability to understand language?

Incredible amount of variation in language, yet we can perceive it all perfectly

What is context-conditioned variation? What is coarticulation?

Context-conditioned variation: phonemes are processed differently by everybody depending on word and context. Coarticulation: Phoneme sound determined by next phoneme

How many words do Eskimos have for snow, according to Whorf? How many words to Eskimos have for snow, according to Pullum? Is it truly different than the number of words that any other culture has for snow?

Whorf claims 7 words. Pullum claims 2 words. Not truly different than the number of words any other culture has.

What sequence of events led to so many reputable sources being wrong about the number of Eskimo words for snow? What role did Whorf himself play in this sequence? What have been the consequences of this sequence of events, in terms of common cultural (mis)understandings about the facts of this phenomenon?

Franz Boas - 4 words. Whorf - 7 words. Misinformation across different sources. Led to people making claims without evidence about Eskimo language.

Does this support or refute the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis:

Whorf’s observation that Eskimos have many words for “snow”

Supports weak hypothesis. Whorf believed Eskimos were more knowledgeable about snow and therefore had more words for it.

Does this support or refute the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis:

Rosch’s color categorization study (Americans vs. Dani)

Refutes weak hypothesis. Dani could still differentiate between colors in English like Americans could

Does this support or refute the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis:

The English/Chinese bilingual categorization study

Supports weak hypothesis. Categorized chicken, cow, and grass differently depending on if instructions were in Chinese or English. 

Does this support or refute the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis:

Roberson et al. (British vs Berinmo)

Supports weak hypothesis. British and Berinmo did worse at categorizing each other’s colors

Does this support or refute the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis:

Rio the sea lion

Refutes strong hypothesis. Rio did not know language but could still differentiate between categories

Does this support or refute the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis:

The “fearless Smith” (paralysis)

Refutes strong hypothesis. Smith volunteered to be poisoned, still had thoughts despite frozen vocal cords

What is the term for this source of consonant articulation: closing/near-closing of lips (b, m, v, w, p)

bilabial

What is the term for this source of consonant articulation: made with lips and teeth (f, v)

labiodental

What is the term for this source of consonant articulation: tongue between teeth (th)

dental

What is the term for this source of consonant articulation: put tongue behind upper teeth (t, d, s, z, n, l)

alveolar

What is the term for this source of consonant articulation: put tongue in middle of roof of mouth (fish, church)

palatal

What is the term for this source of consonant articulation: back part of mouth (gasp, cap)

velar

What is the term for this source of consonant articulation: closing of air in throat (button, glutton)

glottal

True or false: Speech perception is categorical, not continuous.

True

The aspect of speech sound that is the primary factor to determine a voiced vs voiceless phoneme is… (think of b vs p)

Voiced onset time

What is voiced onset time?

Delay between release of air and beginning of vocal cord vibration (voicing)

Is categorical perception associated with consonants or vowels?

Consonants

What is the McGurk Effect?

Visual of pronunciation affects how we hear pronuncation

What is the motor theory? What is evidence for and against it?

Perceive speech according to how we imagine ourselves producing it. Helps produce sounds when learning foreign language. McGurk. Infants incapable of speech are better at discrimination between phonemes than adults are. Mouth moves different for consonant-vowel combos