Language - Cognitive Psychology

language

our spoken, written, or gestured works and the way we combine them to communicate meaning. a system of symbols that are used to communicate ideas among two or more individuals

vocal-auditory canal

use of vocalization to communicate

arbitrariness

no connection between symbol and what it signifies

cultural transmission

handed down from generation to generation

spontaneous usage

no training or force is necessary to make individuals communicate

turn-taking

communication follows social rules

duality

use of different sounds and orders of sounds to communicate

displacement

ability to communicate about objects and events that are distant in time and place

structure-dependence

use of grammar, or structured “chunks”

creativity

ability to create novel utterances

psycholinguistics

the study of psychological processes involved in producing and comprehending language. linguistic performance

linguistics

the study of language in its pure form. linguistic competence

grammar

rules that dictate the legal combination of the units of language

design features of language

characteristics not shared by most communication systems

semanticity

symbols of language refer to meaningful aspects of the real world

productivity

language allows for communication about things not in the present moment

human speech is possible because of

a descended larynx, does not develop in a human until 6 months to a year

a descended larynx allows an animal to

create a deep rumbling roar which would normally only be possible by a much larger animal

aphasia

a loss or impairment of the ability to produce and/or comprehend language due to brain damage

clinical method

involves first determining a behavior disorder in a living patient and then, after the patient had died, locating the part of the brain responsible for the behavior disorder

Broca’s area

the speech area on the left frontal lobe of the cortex (the inferior frontal gyrus). responsible for language production

Wernicke’s area

the area on the left temporal lobe of the cortex associated with speech comprehension. responsible for language comprehension

Broca’s Aphasia (aka expressive aphasia)

affected people frequently speak in short phrases that are produced with great effort. difficulty producing speech. affected people often omit small words such as “is,” “and,” and “the”

individuals with Broca’s aphasia are

able to understand the speech of others to varying degrees

individuals with Broca’s aphasia often have

right-sided weakness or paralysis of the arm and leg because the frontal lobe is also important for body movement

Wernicke’s Aphasia (aka receptive aphasia)

people speak in long sentences that have no meaning, add unnecessary words, and even create new “words”

individuals with Wernicke’s aphasia usually have

great difficulty understanding speech and are therefore often unaware of their mistakes

pure word deafness

all understanding impaired, but expressive channels intact

conduction aphasia

speech, writing, and silent reading intact, but repetition, reading aloud, and dictation impaired

transcortical motor aphasia

understanding of speech, writing, repetition and reading intact, but impaired voluntary speech and writing

transcortical sensory aphasia

impaired comprehension of speech and writing, but reading aloud and speech spared

apraxia

loss of the ability to execute or carry out learned (familiar) movements, despite having the desire and the physical ability to perform the movements (one form is apraxia of speech)

semantics

the study of meaning. must explain how words are mentally represented

propositions

abstract codes for the concepts and schemas referred to in a sentence

morpheme

minimal unit of speech used repeatedly in a language to code a specific meaning

phoneme

the theoretical representation of a sound. a sound of a language as represented (or imagined) without reference to its position in a word or phrase

coarticulation

phonemes sound different depending on neighboring phonemes

categorical perception

refers to our tendency to perceive phonemes in a relatively broad (i.e., categorical) fashion

perception of word boundaries is largely a phenomenon of

top-down processing

phonemic restoration effect

perceptual processes tend to “fill in” missing speech sounds

mental lexicon

dictionary of long-term memory that humans rely on for speaking, listening, reading, and writing

grammar

the complete set of rules by which people speak and write correctly

syntax

the grammatical rules that specify how words and other morphemes are arranged to yield acceptable sentences

pragmatics

manner in which speakers communicate their intentions depending on the social context. hardest part of new language learning as it involves extensive understanding of culture as well

speech act

a sentence uttered to express a speaker’s intention in a way that the listener will recognize

cooperative principle

an implicit contractual agreement in which participants agree to say things that are appropriate to the conversation and to end the conversation at a mutually agreeable point

people with autism often do not understand the cooperative principle, thus

revealing the social nature of language

conversational implicatures

inferences made by a participant in a conversation in order to understand the speaker

prosody

the use of pitch and language to express meaning. allows for completely different meanings from the same sentence

discrimination of facial expression and prosody is normal in patients with left hemisphere damage but impaired in patients with

right hemisphere damage

dysphemistic swearing

exact opposite of euphemism. forces listener to think about negative thing

abusive swearing

for abuse and intimidation or insulting of others

idiomatic swearing

swearing without really referring to the thing, just using the words to arouse interest, to be macho/cool, and express to peers that the setting is informal

emphatic swearing

to emphasize something with swearing

cathartic swearing

when something bad happens like coffee spilling, people curse

motherese (aka baby talk)

melodic and exaggerated manner in which adults speak to infants. aids in the development of speech perception

joint focus of attention

the situation that occurs when both people in a language interaction are focusing their attention on the same object or event at the same time

cooing occurs around

two months

true babbling begins at around

6 months

protowords evident by

9-10 months

babbling stage

the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language. beginning at 3-4 months

one-word stage

the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly in single words. from about age 1-2

two-word stage

the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly two-word sentences. begins about age 2

telegraphic speech

early speech stage in which the child speaks like a telegram, using mostly nouns and verbs and omitting “auxiliary” words

the findings on “wild children” seem to conclude that there is a

critical period for learning

children learn word meanings through parents’

modeling and labeling of events

children also use fast mapping where

they learn a partial meaning of a word after one exposure

overextensions

use a given word in a broader context than appropriate

underextensions

use too narrowly

constraints

assumptions children automatically make about the possible meanings of a new word; they can work together to help children determine word meanings

whole object constraint

the assumptions that a new word refers to a whole object rather than its individual parts of features

mutual exclusivity constraint

the assumption that a new word applies to only one object

lexical contrast constraint

the assumption that a new word has a different meaning than previously acquired words

taxonomic constraint

the assumption that objects that share certain features can have both a common name and more specific individual names

holophrases serve

several communication functions, including demands, requests, desires, and questions

parents are much more likely to correct a statement

when it is untrue than when it’s grammatically incorrect

Noam Chomsky developed the idea that

every human is born with universal, “wired in” linguistic structures

there are six possible combinations of subject, verb, object. English uses

SVO

deaf infants will create

their own “symbols” for language even if never taught. the development of these symbols will follow the sequence whereby normal infants learn to speak

some children do not hear speech during infancy but when exposed, development occurs

in the same sequence as normal (and at a similar rate). these children are never able to master grammar

identity hypothesis

holds that thought is equivalent to language in the form of covert speech. language = thought

John Watson proposed that (minute) hand movements might

take the place of subvocalization in some individuals

Smith (1947) agreed to be paralyzed by curare (losing muscular control) and while paralyzed

he could still think

modularity hypothesis

holds that language is served by a separate module that is independent of the cognitive resources on which thought depends. language ≠ thought

module

a set of processes that are automatic, fast, encapsulated apart from other cognitive systems, and instantiated in a localized area of the brain

William’s syndrome

severe intellectual disability in all cognitive abilities except language; supports the modularity hypothesis

general resource hypothesis

holds that language and thought are shaped by the constraints of general cognitive resources such as memory and attention. language is a function of thought

linguistic relativity hypothesis (Whorf)

holds that thought is shaped by the properties of language. thought is a function of language. syntax of a language might constrain how people think

communication

someone has an idea they wish to communicate, they put it into words and utters (or writes) them, someone else hears (or reads) the sound, recognizes the words, and grasps the speaker’s intent

slips of the tongue

the substitution of words in speech. the substitution is contrary to the conscious wishes of the person speaking or writing, and in fact sometimes is subversive of these wishes

linguistic theory tells us that there is a hierarchy of units below the level of the sentence

phrase, word, morpheme, syllable, syllable-part (such as onset or rhyme), phoneme, phonological feature

substitution slip

(of one element for another of the same type)

exchange slip

(of two elements of the same type within an utterance)

shift slip

(of an element from one place to another within the utterance)

perseveration slip

(re-use of an element a second time, after the ‘correct’ use)

anticipation slip

(re-use of an element, before the ‘correct’ use)

logogram

a written character which represents a word or morpheme

syllabaries

a set of written symbols that represent (or approximate) syllables

alphabets

a small set of symbols, each of which roughly represents or historically represents a phoneme of the language

ideographic writing

a writing system in which each symbol represents an idea or object directly rather than a particualr word or speech sound. hieroglyphics