Cognitive Psychology Exam #3 Content: Basic Issues in Language and Speech Processing | Chapter 9

language, psycholinguistics, language production, comprehension, etc

Why do we study language? (4)

1. how we get language from a string of information
2. how we mov from thoughts to spoken language
3. how we acquire language
4. how human language differs from animal communication

What are psycholinguistics?

the psychological study of language

What is language comprehension?

how we perceive and understand speech/writing, language

What is language production?

Constructing an utterance from an idea --> complete sentence.

Name two language disorders.

1. Dyslexia
2. Broca's Aphasia

Language is...

A set of symbols from rules combined meaningfully

Characteristics of Language (5)

1. words and rules
2. words = symbols
3. words you know = mental lexicon
4. sounds --> words --> meaning
5. relies on both top-down and bottom-up processing

Language consists of... (5)

1. Form
2. Morphology
3. Syntax
4. Semantics
5. Pragmatics

Form

Phonology and orthography; consonants, vowels; how those letters look

Morphology

Word formation

Syntax

grammar

Semantics

meanings (think of your cognitive economy and semantic network; you interpret sentences in a pretty complex manner)

pragmatics

Language for use

What are some gender differences in language and speech production? (4)

1. Women tend to use indirect speech more often (if you don't mind...)
2. Women use more tag questions and hedges in conversation (the exam was really difficult, wasn't it?)
3. Men interrupt more often
4. Myth: there is a significant difference in word production between men and women

Why is language so interpretable? Give an example.

"Can you open the door?" (who opens the door? when do they open the door?)

What is Wernicke's aphasia?

An individual's language is intact, but their comprehension is not. (there is a breakdown in semantics, but phonology [sounds] and syntax [grammar] are intact)

Broca's Aphasia

comprehend language but unable to produce it (breakdown in syntax; semantics and phonology intact)

What is the process of acquiring language during development? (3 mo, 6 mo, 1 yr, 15 mo, 1-2 yrs) (5)

1. 2 months: cooing
2. 6 months: babbling
3. 12 months: learn to discriminate sounds in native language
4. 10-15 months: first word
5. 1-2 years: multi-word utterances

Comprehension processes are not the same for...

written and spoken language

What do written and spoken language rely on, respectively?

the auditory and visual systems

Are interpretation errors greater for auditory or visual systems?

Auditory

What is coarticulation? Give an example.

an interpretation error; "stuff he knows" versus "stuffy nose"

What is the invariance problem?

identifying common phonemes (distinct sound units) in a signal

What is the McGurk effect?

the McGurk effect illustrates that listeners use both audio and visual modes in the process of speech interpretation

What is categorical perception? Give an example.

1. Phonemes are processed as discrete categories (not a continuum like others sounds-- what other sounds are you processing right now?)
Ex: distinguishing between phonemes present in infants

What is the phoneme restoration effect?

top-down processing helps to comprehend fragmented language using prior known language knowledge

Reading is an (implicit/explicit) process.

Implicit (automatic [after you've been doing it for a while])

What are some methods of studying word recognition? (3)

1. Lexical decision tasks (RT measure for a real word vs fake one)
2. Semantic categorization tasks (a horse = an animal)
3. eye movement studies (Monitor eye movements while participants silently read passages)

Eye Movements While Reading: Results (2)

1. movements were not smooth, not all left to right, nor were they random.
2. Fixations and saccades

Fixations

time spent focusing on given location while reading

Saccades

eye movements while reading (between fixations)

Name the mechanics of Reading and Eye Movement

1. eye tracking
2. saccades
3. fixations
4. word skipping
5. regressive saccades

What is eye tracking? (Mechanics of Reading: Eye mvmt)

measure patterns of eye movement during reading

Saccades are...

discrete, fast eye movements of 6-8 words

What is the purpose of a fixation?

Brief pause helps to process visual information

When do eye movements occur? (when, how many, duration; 4)

1. When content words are present
2. 65% of words in a given text are fixated upon
3. fixation length
4.age in which word is required

Where do eye movements occur?

1. fixation landing spot
2. word length
3. word skipping
4. regressive saccades (if a word is difficult)
5. good readers regress faster

For English, what does the perceptual span and spacing look like on average?

perceptual span is ~3 letters to the left and ~15 letters to the right

What does perceptual span allow for?

parafoveal information to assist your lexical access to words

Perceptual span supports...

word recognition; the blank space between words is most important for parafoveal recognition)

Inner speech

Can you recognize a word without hearing it?

What is the direct access view?

Orthography is the key to word recognition.

What is the indirect access view?

phonological representation is needed prior to word recognition.