Cognitive Psychology: Language

Front 1

Is there social communication in rhesus monkeys?

Back 1

Yes, the young have to deal with social cues from the older monkeys.

Front 2

What makes human language unique?
(4)

Back 2

Transmits language creatively
Past Present Future tense
Rule based
Hierarchical

Front 3

What is similar in all languages?
(3)

Back 3

Nouns, verbs
Negativity
Statement vs Question

Front 4

Broca and Wernicke

Back 4

Specific areas in left hemisphere for making speech and comprehending language.

Front 5

Making speech is by....?

Back 5

Inferior Frontal Gyrus

Front 6

Comprehending Language is by...?

Back 6

Superior Temporal Gyrus

Front 7

Broca's Aphasia (3)

Back 7

Difficulty producing language
Comprehension intact
Incoherent use of words

(turtle...turtle...turtle...)

Front 8

Wernicke's Aphasia (2)

Back 8

Can speak and write with normal grammar, rate, intonation.
But.. inserts incorrect words, made up words, strings words randomly.

Front 9

B.F. Skinner idea of language

Back 9

Learned through reinforcement
Reward and Punishment

Front 10

Noam Chomsky

Back 10

Children form sentences they have never heard and that have never been reinforced

Psycholinguists

Front 11

Four Major Concerns of psycholinguists:

Back 11

Comprehension
Speech Production
Representation
Acquisition

Front 12

Phonemes

Back 12

Short sound segments that if replaced; change meaning of the word.

Front 13

Morphemes

Back 13

Smallest unit of language that can be defined.

Truck = 1
Bedroom = 2

Front 14

Word frequency effect:

Back 14

We process higher frequency words faster than lower frequency words. We decide to pay more attention to words that are unknown.

Front 15

How do we test frequency effect?

Back 15

We use eye gaze monitoring. We look at unfamiliar words longer.

Front 16

Lexical ambiguity

Back 16

Words with more than one meaning: Bug. (spies, computers, insect)

Front 17

Lexical Priming

Back 17

Priming in a sentence:

Rumor had it that, for years, the government building had been plagued with problems. The man was not surprised when he found several spiders, roaches and other bugs in the corner of the room.

Flash a photo; easier to define ANT as a bug because of sentence as opposed to SPY.

Front 18

Parsing

Back 18

Grouping of words into phrases or ideas.

Context

Cast iron sinks quickly vs Cast Iron sinks quickly, rust.

Front 19

Parsing Theory: Syntax-first approach

Back 19

Reading along the sentence.
Cast Iron sinks rust?
OH! Cast iron sinks rust quickly! That makes the sinks a noun not a verb.

Front 20

Parsing Theory: Interactionist approach

Back 20

Using after knowledge to interact with the sentence.
The spy saw the man with the binoculars.
(Wait, the man with the binoculars or he saw using the binoculars?)

Front 21

Parsing Theory: Environmental and syntactic cues

Back 21

Apple on the towel in the box.

See its not step by step, but locates the apple.

Can see the eye movements go from apple on napkin to apple on towel.

Front 22

Making inferences

Back 22

We fill in the gaps of a story with past knowledge.
"He was pounding the nail"

We assume he used a hammer.

Front 23

Types of Inference: (3)

Back 23

Anaphoric Inferences
Instrument Inferences
Causal Inferences
Social Inferences

Front 24

Anaphoric Inferences:

Back 24

Connecting an object in the first sentence to the pronoun in the next.

Prior knowledge helps.

Front 25

Instrument inferences:

Back 25

Inferring the tools and methods.

Writing with a quill.

Front 26

Causal Inferences:

Back 26

Events from first clause results in next.

Sharon took shower. Headache went away.

Front 27

Social Inferences

Back 27

Rhetorical sentences. Subtle control.

Brrr, im cold. (CLOSE THE WINDOW)

Front 28

How do we organize info?

Back 28

In a mental picture; story.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Front 29

Mental simulations

Back 29

The nail at the wrong angle makes it longer for us to say yes.

Same with bird flight or nest.

Front 30

How do simulations occur in the brain?

Back 30

Activating sensory and motor systems in the brain when we read the certain actions.

Front 31

How do we coordinate information transfer during verbal conversations?

Back 31

semantics

The “given – new contract”
Pattern of known information followed by new, related information

Ease into it.

Front 32

syntactic priming

Back 32

We will mimic the syntax of something we just heard.