3.7: Lexical Access Flashcards
What are the three types of Lexical Access Tasks?
Lexical Descision Tasks
Naming Tasks
Perceptual Identification
What is Lexical access?
How we retrieve words
What are Lexical Descision Tasks? When can this be difficult?
Is this a word?
It’s hard to quickly say is this a word when words are fired at us quickly because we must first access the word in order to make a decision
What are Naming Tasks?
Name items as fast as you can
Similar to Lexical Decision Task but is more natural (We don’t really interact with non words in real life)
What is Perceptual Identification?
Looking at Words in noise or that have been degraded
What are we measuring in all three types of lexical decision tasks?
RTs
Errors
What four variables can affect Lexical Access?
Word Frequency
Word Familiarity
Imageability/Concreteness
Context
What is Word Frequency?
How often words appear in print
Token Frequency
In lexical access tasks, as frequency decreases, performance ______.
Will decline
What words are usually less affected by brain injury: high frequency or low frequency? Are open class and closed class words affected in a similar manner?
High frequency
No. This frequency effect is only found for open-class words (nouns, adject, etc.)
What is Word Familiarity?
How familiar a person is with a word
Is word familiarity the same thing as word frequency?
No. A low frequency word can still be very familiar
Does familiarity vary along with someone’s society or culture?
Yes
Are highly familiar words more easily accessed?
Yes
What is the benefit to Repetition Priming?
People are faster to respond to previously accessed items (repeated words)
What is Imageability/Concreteness?
Concrete words (table, book, dog)
Ones where it is easy to produce an image
Are concrete words usually accessed faster than abstract words?
Yes
Are concrete words less often affected by brain damage?
Yes
Is is easy to produce an image for abstract words? (fate, hope, idea)
No
How does Context help lexical access?
It primes us for the appropriate meaning
What is a Simultaneous Bilingual?
One who acquires both (all) languages at or near birth
What is a Sequential Bilingual?
One who acquires on language at birth and a second language during childhood or later in life
What is a Balanced Bilingual?
One who communicates in two or more langages with equal proficiency
What is an Unbalanced Bilingual?
One who is more proficient in one language
What is a Language Learner?
Emergent
One who is learning a language
What is a Highly Proficient Speaker?
Advanced
One who has studied a language for a long time
What is a Near Native Speaker?
Not a native speaker but speaks fluently
What is a Native Speaker?
Grew up speaking a language from birth
How is Word Frequency affected in Bilinguals?
A highly frequent word might appear less frequent
How is Word Familiarity affected in Bilinguals?
Level of fluency will determine Bilinguals how familiar words are
How is Imageability/Concreteness affected in Bilinguals?
Concrete words usually have one word
Abstract words may have multiple translations due to the semantics
What is a Bilingual General Lexical Decision Task?
You have to decide if something is a word in either langauge
What is a Bilingual Specific Lexical Decision Task?
Your decision can only be based in one language
What are Cognates?
Words that have similar spelling & meaning across languages
What are Interlingual Homographs?
Words that have the same spelling but different meanings across languages
What did Libben & Titone study in 2009 regarding bilinguals?
How they processed cognates and interlingual homographs
He used eyetracking
(Cognates: He ate the meal like a ferocious animal)
(Interlingual homographs: My grandmother baked a delicious PIE)
What did Libben & Titone find in their 2009 study regarding bilinguals? Why?
Irregardless of context, people started more at the interlingual homographs
Both meanings are activated so there is a conflict that must be resolved
