PSYC 336 - remaining content

kamide et al. (2003): findings

• a visual world paradigm

• shown different images of objects

• tracked eye-gaze after hearing one of the sentences

• ex. the man will ride the motorbike

more likely to look at the object before the word is uttered

• they integrated information

• can generate predictions about the most likely way to finish the sentence

kamide et al. (2003): japanese findings

• visual world paradigm with different objects being shown

• sentences included case markers

  • -ni for indirect object

  • -o for direct object

participants only looked to hamburger only if hearing “-ni”

event related brain potentials

brain responses that are directly linked to events

• measured through EEG

N400

a negative voltage peak about 400ms

• related to semantic processing

• activated when listening to syntactically correct but semantically wrong sentences

delong et al. (2005) findings

• participants read sentences with words presented as text one at at a time

• ex. the day was breezy so the boy went outside to fly a kite/airplane

sentences with low predictability → greater N400

suprisal

inversely related to the statistical predictability of an event

• low suprisal = something is very expected

• high suprisal = something is not expected

• correlated with size of N400

true or false:

high suprisal in sentences will cause more brain activation in left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and left anterior temporal lobe (ATL)

• both of these regions are involved in processing syntactic structure

true

true or false:

“the horse raced past the barn and fell” will have higher suprisal than “the hose raced past the barn fell”

• this is because the 1st sentence is something very expected and the 2nd sentence is something not very expected

• higher suprisal is associated with higher expectedness

false

what is a crucial difference between using ERP analysis and eye tracking to evaluate subject's’ moment-by-moment experiences of spoken language?

ERP experiments allow researchers to test more abstract or complex language, whereas eye-tracking studies are limited to stimuli that can be easily represented in pictures

borovsky et al. (2012): findings

• examined age, vocabulary size, and anticipatory looking time

• 3-10 year old children were slower to look than adults

• children and adults with larger vocaulary sizes were faster in anticipatory looks

isabelle, 4, has the vocabulary of a 5-year-old. Sam, 5, has an average vocabulary for his age. In a study of language processing based on predictive eye movement, ____________.

the children would orient to relevant visual cues at similar speeds

example of subject relative clause

the senator who ______ spotted the reporter shouted.

example of object relative clause (more difficult to process than subject relative clause)

the senator who the reporter spotted ______ shouted.

memory failure account of object relative clauses

create more memory demands so they take a longer time to process than subject relative clauses

• semantic similarity of the noun also creates burden

according to the memory failure account, which sentence will be harder to process?

A. the senator who the president summoned arrived.

B. the helicopter that the president summoned arrived.

A

faulty predictions/experience-based account of object relative clauses

parser predicts upcoming structure based on prior experience with language

• subject relative clauses come up more frequently

based on _____ accounts, readers should exprience the greatest processing difficulty upon encountering ___ in the object relative clause of the sentence:

“the beauty queen who the judge disqualified broke into tears”

experience-based; “the judge”

reading span test

the subject reads a sequence of sentences

• asked to write down the last word of the sentence

just & carpenter (1992): findings

• participants completed reading span test

• tracked processing time when reading object relative clauses and subject relative clauses

• low-span participants were slower at reading object relative clauses

• same as high-span but differences were more subtle

cognitive control

goal-directed cognitive processes responsible for directing attention and supervising behavioural repsonses to stimuli

stroop test findings when there’s damage to LIFG (left inferior frontal gyrus)

• asked to name color of font than a word

  • ex. green vs. green

especially slow and error prone

trueswell et al. (1999)- findings

• “put the frog on the napkin in the box”

5 year olds only performed the right action less than 50% of the time

• hard time processing the syntactic structure

• suggests children have poor cognitive control

Hussey (2017) findings

• participants trained with n-back test of either low or high conflict

high conflict n-back task:

• better able to read garden path sentences

• helpful for sentences involving cognitive control

low conflict n-back task

• no improvement in reading garden path sentences

according to just and carpenter (1992), subjects who score poorly on the reading span test should __________.

have considerably more difficulty interpreting object relative clauses than subject relative clauses

kuhl et al. (2003) findings

• examined whether babies can learn sound contrasts which occur outside their language

• as well as learning through videos or audios

lost sensitivity to non-native contrasts by 10-12 months

• social interaction enhances infants’ learning of non-native sound contrasts

social gating

learners are espcially attuned to information presentented in social context

why is social interaction helpful?

• attention

• rich set of social cues

• highly receptive mindset

• pedagogical stance

  • babies pay more attention since they believe they’re learning something

which finding would provide evidence to suggest social gating occurs in non-human animals

bird only learn songs from other birds, not from songs presented over speakers

sabbagh and baldwin (2001) findings

• 3 and 4 year old children interacted with either a knowledgeable or ignorant speaker

• knowledeable speakers were reliable and able to identify correct objects

children learn more from the knowledgeable speaker

• more likely to produce the word “blicket” by themselves

three mountain task - findings

• children are asked to describe what they see in front of them and what the adult may see from the other side of the mountain

children under 7 cannot understand the other’s POV

theory of mind

ability to grasp nature of mental states and to recognize that different people may have different mental states under different conditions

rose scott (2017) findings

• false belief task in which person B messes with the marbles of person A

infants looked longer to the inconsistent test trials

• this is because they know something is wrong

deutsch and pechman (1982) findings

• children are shown multiple objects

• to unambiguously refer to just one object, child had to refer to at least two of its properties

• age 3: 87% of descriptions failed to provide info

• age 9: improved with age BUT still 22% ambiguous

• if partner points out ambiguity, they are able to provide informative answers

what does it mean the objects are in common ground?

only one of the speakers can see it

what does it mean when the object is in privileged ground

both of the speakers can see it

consider the referential communication expriemnt by Deutsch and pechmann (1982). if subjects were shown a display that included a large pink block, a large blue block, and a small pink block.

a 3-year old would ____ say “the large pink block” and a nine-year old would ____ when referring to the large pink block.

almost never; sometimes say “the large block”

true or false:

if a referential communication task is made simple enough by reducing cognitive loads, even 2.5 year olds attempted to provide disambiguating information

true

what are the “soft” and “hard” meanings of "“the day is not over”

hard: it is not midnight yet, this day has not ended

soft: i am going to do something bad before the end of today

• implicature

conversational implicature

the part of the meaning that cannot be conveyed directly rhough the linguistic code

• soft meaning

maxims of cooperative conversation

• quality

• relation

• quantity

• manner

maxim of quality

hearers assume that the speaker will make truthful statements

• violations: obviously false statements taken as metaphorical or sarcastic

maxim of relation

hearers assume that the speaker’s utterances is relevant in the context of their converastion

maxim of quantity

hearers assume that the speaker will provide sufficient information without delving into unnecessary details

maxim of manner

hearers typically assume that speakers will use reasonably straight forward, unambiguous ways to communicate

• ex. violation: “relocate my physical self to my place of employment”

scalar implicature

vague expressions are applied because stronger ones would be inaccurate

• ex. some vs. all

a scalar implicature arises when the sentence ___ is understood to mean ____.

donna enjoys eating some vegetables; that donna does not enjoy eating all vegetables

noveck (2011) findings

• true or false: “SOME girrafes have long necks”

• adults tended to say that this statement is false

  • adopting pragmatic meaning of “some” → “not all”

• most 7-11 year olds accepted this statement

  • adopting semantic meaning of “some”

stiller et. al (2015) findings

• participants listen to the statement “my friend has glasses”

• asked to point to the character

• 2,5-2.5 year olds randomly split between middle and rightmost characters

• 3.5 year olds and up chose the glasses-only character

bott and noveck (2004)

• participants were asked to judge based on semantic or pragmatic meaning

• “some girrafes have long necks”

those who were asked to judge based on pragmatic (underlying) meaning took longer to respond

• made more errors when there was time pressure

de neys and schaeken (2007) findings

• subjects saw a pattern of dots and were asked to memorize

• dot pattern could be either easy or difficult to remember

• participants were then asked to judge the truthfulness of sentence

• afterwards, they had to reproduce dot pattern

participants were more likely to judge the sentence pragmatically when they were in the easy condition

• limiting cognitive resources with hard conditions makes them less likely to judge on pragmatics

ferreira (2005) findings

• how likely do speakers use just the bare nouns (ex. ‘bat’ instead of ‘small bat’?)

they were more likely to use just the bare nouns when there is no ambiguity

• no ambiguity>linguistic ambiguity>non-linguistic ambiguity

brown and dell (1987) findings

• participants read short stories and retold the same stories to a listener

• ½ were with predictable instruments

• ½ stories were with unpredictable instruments

participants were more likely to mention instruments when they were unsual even when they saw the instrument in the picture

• not sensitive to hearer’s comprehension demands

back channel responses

behavioural cues produced by a hearer that provide the speaker with information about the hearer’s degree of comprehension

which behaviour produces the strongest evidence for audience design in language production

a speaker provides more detail in referring to a person his conversational partner has never met in referring to a mutual friend

brennan and clark (1996) findings

• the director instructed the other participant on how to arrange the card

• two objects were of the same kind (ex. dogs)

• what happens when this ambiguity is removed?

• the director still uses the detailed expression

  • entered conceptual pact to describe the object in this way

• reverts back to basic-level term when interacting with a new speaker

collaborative theorists account of conversations

• conversation partners maintain a representation of common ground

• have to track and update information about each other’s mental states, knowledge, and beliefs

• relates to theory of mind

egocentric theorist perspective of conversations

priming plays an important role (previously used words/expressions are primed and more likely to be re-used)

• minimizes the role of representing conversational partners’ mental states

describe collaborative and egocentric accounts for this prediction:

how quickly people make use of information about the common ground

collaborative: sensitive to partner’s mental states in the earliest moment of language production and comprehension

---

ego centric: only automatic processes (about the semantic meaning) influence early stage of language production and comprehension

describe collaborative and egocentric accounts for this prediction:

how much previousy used expression is linked to a specific partner

collaborative: conceptual pacts does not necessarily apply to a new conversation partner

---

egocentric: previously used expression will be re-used frequently with a new conversation partner

during a study, a participant hears their partner refer to a novel object as “thingy.” the participant is paired with a new partner, Jamie, who was not present during the first conversation. what is true?

a collaborative theorist would predict that the participant will have no special expectations about how jamie will refer to the novel object

cerebrum

higher cognitive function including language

corpus callosum

divides brain into two hemispheres

lateralization

certain cognitive functions or abilities to be specialized to one side of the brain

• left hemisphere is dominant for language

true or false:

language deficits more common in right-hemisphere brain damage

false

wada test

quick-acting anesthetic injection to temporarily shut down one side of the brain

• patient is asked to perform language tasks

• if affected, suggests that patient is lateralized on anesthetized side

hemispherectomy

removing all of the cerebral cortex on one side of the brain

• used to treat drug resistant epilepsy when seizures come from one damaged hemisphere

how will language develop with only one hemisphere?

brain plasticity allows for right hemisphere to take over tasks that the left hemisphere is typically responsible for

• crowding hypothesis

crowding hypothesis

since right hemisphere takes over language functions, it will be less able to carry out non-verbal, visual-spatial skills

which of the following statements best reflects the effects of hemispherectomy on langauge lateralization and brain plasticity

in children, the remaining hemisphere can often reoganize to support langauge functions, illustrating neuroplasticity

true or false:

when the hemisphere gets decorticated on the left, there is less overall performance, particularly for syntax processing

true

paul broca examined patients name leborgne and lelong

• findings

• patients could either produce one word or only a few words

• both had large areas of missing tissue in the inferior part of the left frontal lobes

which of the following statements accurately describes broca’s aphasia

speech is non-fluent, effortful, and often telegraphic while comprehensions is relatively preserved

carl wernicke’s findings

• patients suffering could speak and hear, but had difficulty understanding both spoken and written langauge

• lesions posterior portion of the brain

wernicke-lichtheim-geschwind (WLG) model of neural organization

3 cortical structures responsible for core processes in language production and comprehension

• broca’s area

• wernicke’s area

• arcuate fasciculus

broca’s aphasia

• chief underlying deficit appears to be in processes that plan and produces syntactically well-formed utterances

• non-fluent effortful non-grammatical speech

• central grammatical deficit

wernicke’s aphasia

• chief underlying deficit appears to be in processes that map concepts to sound-codes

• fluent, but non-sensical

• little comprehension

• conceptual representations and output planning mechanisms in broca’s area are still intact

• phonological codes are not matched to concepts

conduction aphasia

• damaged arcuate fasciculus

• chief underlying deficit appears to be in communication between posterior language processing area and broca’s area

arcuate fasciculus

relays semantic and lexical information about words from wernicke’s area to broca’s area

limitations of WLG model: anatomical issues

• broca’s aphasia results from damage extending far outside the broca’s area

• wernicke’s aphasia symptoms and damage to wernicke’s area do not always go hand in hand

• no agreement about location and size of areas

limitations of WLG model: it’s not a complete model of which brain regions are involved in language processing

• brain damage outside the classical language areas also produce language and communication disorders

• damage to the R hemisphere can also affect language processing

limitations of WLG model: symptoms seem to be driven by size of brain damage, not location

• WLG emphasis location

why is the WLG model considered insufficient for fully explaining language processing

it assumes langauge is confined to just a few regions, ignoring distributed networks neuroplasticity

dichotic listening experiment findings:

• when people hear two different syllable in each ear

• usually report hearing right ear sound more clearly

• right ear → sends sound to left hemisphere

• left hemisphere → main area for language

• individuals with lesions in the left temporal lobe have difficulty perceiving auditory signals in the R ear

semantic categorization task results

• dichotic listening experiment

participants show a right ear advantage

left hemisphere is more efficient at detecting semantic categories

emotion categorization task

• dichotic listening experiment

participants show a left ear advantage indicating that right hemisphere is more efficient at detecting emotional prosody

neuroimaging technique: EEG/ERP

measures charges in electrical voltage through electrodes placed on the scalp

• excellent temporal resolution and low spatial resolution

• studies cover the lifespan

• sensitive to movement

• noiseless

• inexpensive

neuroimaging technique: MEG

uses magnetometers to measure magenetic field changes

• excellent temporal and okay spatial resolution

• studies on adults and young children

• head tracking for movement calibration

• noiseless

• expensive

neuroimaging technique: fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging)

detects changes in blood oxygen levels and direction of blood flow in various areas of the brain

• hemodynamic changes

• low temporal resolution and excellent spatial resolution

• studies on adults

• extremely sensitive to movement

• noise protectors needed

• expensive and noninvasive

neuroimaging technique: fNIRS (functional near-infrared spectroscopy)

use near-infrared lights to measure hemodynamic changes

• good temporal and spatial resolution

• studies on infants in the first 2 years

• sensitive to movement

• noiseless

when hearing a semantically incorrect sentence, what will event related potentials reveal??

N400 spikes to reflect semantic processing

when hearing a syntactically incorrect sentence, what will event related potentials reveal??

P600: syntactic processing

• spikes to reflect syntactic processing

BOLD: blood oxygenation level dependent

signals increased blood flow and cerebral blood volume

structural MRI

brain anatomical structure

diffusion tensor imaging (DTI)

white matter structures

dyslexia

deficits in word reading fluency, decoding, accuracy, and spelling

• dysfunctions in the left-hemisphere reading system: inferior frontal, temporo-parietal, and occipito-temporal areas

fMRI results in dyslexia

• less efficient connectivity between regions responsible for reading

• greater reliance on right-hemisphere networks instead of typical left-hemisphere language areas during reading tasks

true or false:

speech disfluencies can be found throughout the phrases, the majority of them do not occur at the boundaries of clauses or long phrases

false

smith and wheeldon (1999) findings

• participants were asked to describe what occured in the pictures

took longer to say" “the dog and the foot moved up”

• sentences are more complex

which sentence will take longer to utter?

“the girl with brown hair fed the dog” than “the girl fed the dog with brown spots”

steps in speech production

1. conceptualization

2. formulation

   1. lexical selection

   2. sound representation

3. articulation