Psychology 118 Speech and Language Study Guide

These flashcards cover key concepts related to speech, language, and communication from the Psychology 118 lecture notes.

Communication

The mutually beneficial passage of information.

Language

Communication using an agreed upon set of symbols, governed by defined rules of grammar, and can convey any meaning.

Speech

Verbal language.

Phoneme

A phone that is used in a specific language.

McGurk Effect

An effect where speech sounds are ambiguous, leading listeners to rely on the speaker's mouth to resolve ambiguity.

Prosodic characteristics

Aspects of speech like cadence and tone that can convey emotional or additional meanings.

Broca's Aphasia

Aphasia resulting from a lesion in the left inferior frontal gyrus, characterized by difficulty generating speech and using simple sentences.

Wernicke's Aphasia

Aphasia resulting from a lesion in the left posterior/superior temporal lobe, characterized by fluent but nonsensical speech and impaired comprehension.

Conduction Aphasia

Aphasia caused by a lesion interrupting the pathway between Wernicke's and Broca's areas, resulting in difficulty echoing back words.

Global Aphasia

Aphasia due to lesions spanning both Broca's and Wernicke's areas, causing deficits in both speech generation and comprehension.

N400

A negative ERP elicited 400 msec after a semantically inappropriate word choice.

P600

A positive ERP elicited 600 msec after a grammatical error.

Motor aprosodia

Inability to generate prosodic speech due to a lesion of the right inferior frontal gyrus.

Sensory aprosodia

Inability to interpret prosodic speech due to a lesion of the right posterior/superior temporal lobe.

Visual Word Form Area (VWFA)

Area in the left fusiform gyrus involved in reading; lesions here cause Alexia, or inability to read, while writing remains intact.

Alexia

Inability to read written language, typically due to damage in the Visual Word Form Area.