Psychology of Language Psych/CogSt 2150 - Ling 2215 Study Guide Chapters 7-9 + 11 + C&C (2001) Morten H. Christiansen (2017)
Chapter 7 Lexical Access Semantic networks with spreading activation Concepts = nodes Associations = links Concepts accessed through spreading activation Semantic priming: Fast and automatic Typicality effect: Some members better instances of a category than others E.g., robin vs. penguin Schemas: Tightly interconnected subpart of network Lexical ambiguity in sentence processing Selective access vs. multiple meaning access
Chapter 7 Spoken Word Recognition Factors in Spoken Word Recognition Frequency and phonological neighborhood effects The McGurk Effect: Integrating visual and auditory information. /ga/ visual + /ba/ auditory à da/ perceived Context Effects in Spoken Word Recognition Familiarity effects Sentence context, speaking rate, familiarity with speaker. Phonemic restoration effect Compensation for coarticulation The Motor Theory of Speech Perception: Speech perceived as abstract phonetic gestures. The Cohort Model Bottom-up activation of words, followed by elimination. The TRACE Model Bottom-up activation of phonetic features (à phonemes), combined with top-down feedback from words.
Chapter 7 Visual Word Recognition (I) The Nature of the Visual Stimulus Logographic, syllabic, and alphabetic writing systems. Shallow vs. deep orthography. The Analysis of Visual Features Word superiority effect. Easier to detect a letter when presented in a word than when presented alone. Agreement: Two Routes to Visual Word Recognition Semantic route (education: whole word approach) Phonological route (education: phonics approach) Disagreement: One or two sub-routes within the phonological route?
Access Routes to Word Recognition Phonology Dual Route Lexicon Letter-to-Phoneme Conversion Rules Semantics Phonology Orthography Semantic Route Orthography Phonological Route Output Units Phonology Processing of Visual Features Hidden Units Single Route Input Units Orthography
Chapter 7 Visual Word Recognition (II) Factors in Visual Word Recognition Frequency effect Frequency x Regularity Interaction Orthographic neighborhood effects Neighborhood Effects Interact with Frequency The Role of Context in Visual Word Recognition Top-down information from sentence (semantic) context. Model of Visual Word Recognition: A Connectionist Model (Seidenberg & McClelland, 1989) Both bottom-up and top-down + neighborhood effect Dyslexia and Word Recognition Phonological Dyslexia: high-frequency > low-frequency. Surface Dyslexia: regular > irregular.
Chapter 8 Understanding Sentences The Immediacy of Interpretation Each word is integrated into the context a.s.a.p. Two Approaches to Sentence Processing Modular approach: bottom-up only autonomous lexical access and parsing no initial context effects Interactive approach (constraint-based) bottom-up and top-down interactive lexical access and parsing + context effects. Methods for Studying Sentence Processing Off-line vs. on-line. Complexity Effects in Sentence Processing Grammatical sentences are not always rated better than ungrammatical sentences.
Chapter 8 Syntactic Ambiguity The Modular Perspective Violation of parsing strategies. Late closure: Attach to current phrasal/causal node. Minimal attachment: Create least tree with fewest nodes. The Interactive Perspective Violation of frequency and semantic expectations. Frequency of syntactic structures. Animacy expectations. Rapid integration of information in sentence processing. Head-mounted eyetracking: Disambiguation using visual context. Visual information can override minimal attachment. This ability takes time to develop in children
Chapter 8 Expertise and Sentence Processing The importance of the input for developing language processing skills Engaged interactions can overcome effects of SES Memory-based vs. experience-based approaches to language processing Individual differences in relative clause processing Differences in working memory? Biological differences in working memory capacity Differences in experience with language? Interaction between individual differences in processing architecture and linguistic experience Frequency x regularity interaction ORs have an irregular word order and require direct exposure
Chapter 9 Language Production Syntactic Level Errors: Whole word slips. Syntactic category constraint: N à N V à V Syntactic frame: Slots for words Morphemic Level Errors: Stem/inflection mismatch. Stranding error. Phonemic Level Errors: Phoneme slips. Consonant-vowel constraint: C à C V à V Phonotactic constraint:: Errors = legal words Positional constraint: Initial & final phonemes: exchange Phonological frame: Slots for phonemes Syntactic Priming as Implicit Learning: Connectionist model: Integration of comprehension and production.
Chapter 11 Conversation and Writing Speech Production in Context: Conversation Features of conversation Personnel, common ground, action sequences, adjacency pair, contribution. Informational demands Discourse record, mental models, intonation units. Procedural demands Locally managed conversations, pre-sequences (signposts), adjusting for misunderstandings. Conversational styles: Gender/cultural differences. The Production of Written Language Three phases of the writing process Planning, translating, reviewing. Characteristics of poor writers planning/revision, + local coherence, global coherence. Characteristics of proficient writers Writing = problem solving, + planning/revision + global coherence.
What to Read? Chapter 7 Pages 233-277 Method 7.1, Digging Deeper Optional: Lang at Large 7.1-3, Box 7.1-5 Chapter 8 Pages 279-323 Box 8.1, Method 8.1 Optional: Box. 8.2-5, Lang at Large 8.1-3, Digging Deeper Chapter 9 Pages 329-352 Box 9.2 Optional: Box 9.1, Box 9.3, Method 9.1, Lang at Large 9.1 Chapter 11 Pages 459-466 Christiansen & Chater (2001) Pages 31-37 + 43-48 + 48-51 + 51-53 + 54-60