language

language

a system of communication using sounds or symbols that allows us to express our feelings, thoughts, ideas, and experiences

properties of human language

flexibility - can communicate subtle differences and the same thing in multiple ways

ability to communicate abstract ideas

creativity - can produce and understand completely new utterances or make up words to convey meaning

higher-order structure- one meaning is often part of a larger meaning

psycholinguistics

the study of how language is processed in the brain, encompassing aspects such as language acquisition, comprehension, and production

phoneme

smallest unit of speech sound

phoneme research

liberman et al 1957 - how did these studies use voice onset time (VOT) to study categorical perception?

research has shown that phonemes are categories of sound

physical chacteristics of B vs. P

coarticulation issue

refers to the phenomenon where the articulation of phonemes overlaps in speech, making it difficult to isolate individual sounds

phoneme restoration effect

shows how listeners can fill in missing sounds based on context, highlighting top down processing in speech perception (warren 1970)

mcgurk effect - how does it demonstrate that speech perception is multimodal

demonstrates that speech perception is multimodal by showing that visual information (lip movements) can influence auditory perception of speech sounds

how has other research shown that there is a physiological link between vision and speech? - calvert et al. 1997, von kriegstein et al., 2005

speech perception is multimodal, meaning it is influenced by other senses

calvert - showed that the same brain areas are activated for lip reading and speech perception

von kriegstein - found that the FFA is activated when paying attention to sounds of familiar voices

morpheme

smallest meaning units (root words, prefixes, suffixes)

how does variability in a sound signal (pitch, accent) affect our perception? what are some other factors that illustrate how difficult speech perception is?

can affect speech perception by making it difficult to recognize words consistently

other factors include background noise, speaker variability, and contextual clues

speech segmentation

the perception of individual words in conversation

segmentation problem

there are no physical breaks in the acoustic sound signal, or breaks don’t necessarily correspond to the breaks we perceive between words

how did pollack and picket (1964) demonstrate how challenging it is to parse out individual words from speech? how is segmentation affected by top-down processing (context meaning, prior knowledge)?

methods- try to identify words from own speech

results- could only identify about half of their own words

showed that listeners struggle to identify individual words in natural speech

top down processing affects perception of the incoming speech stimulus

segmentation is affected by context, meaning, and our knowledge of word structure

lexical ambiguity

occurs when a word has multiple meanings

differences between exhaustive access and context dependent access - swinney (1979) - methods and results and key takeaways

exhaustive access refers to the idea that all meanings are activated upon hearing a word

context dependent access suggests that only relevant meanings are activated based on context

swinney 1979- presented an ambiguous word within a sentence; sentence suggested one of the possible meanings; bugs

• demonstrated how context influences word recognition

syntax - how do some languages differ in sentence structure

putting words together into phrases and sentences

set of rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of sentences in a language, including word order and sentence formation

can differ by varying order of subject, verb, and object

what are some common aspects of language?

phonology (sound systems), morphology (word formation), syntax (sentence structure), semantics (meaning), and pragmantics (contextual use)

explain how ambiguity can affect our comprehension of sentences - one example

ambiguity can lead to multiple interpretations of a sentence, making it difficult to understand the intended meaning

i saw the man with the telescope - could be seeing a man that had a telescope or seeing a man with a telescope i used

how did bransford and johnson (1973) demonstrate that schemas can affect language comprehension?

showed that providing a context or schema before presenting information improved comprehension and recall, indicating that prior knowledge helps in understanding language

what are some ways in which adults differ when it comes to language learning?

phonology- children acquire phonology more easily

grammar- children have more flexible approach to grammar

vocabulary- children build vocab more rapidly through exposure

pragmatics- children develop pragmatics through social interactions

adults may rely more on explicit instruction and have more fixed understanding of grammar