5- How We Read Flashcards
What essentially is reading?
Understanding language visually as we allocate attention
What do visual illusions show?
How our brain creates predictions
What can we often easily distinguish between?
Grammatical from ungrammatical sentences
How might ungrammatical sentences often see as initially?
Acceptable ones
What was the previous measure of studying syntax?
Linguists looking at sentences to decide whether they looked grammatical or not
What was the problem with previous measures of studying syntax?
Not very reliable
Who conducted an actual experiment of studying syntax?
Mahowald et al, 2016
What was involved in Mahowald et al’s experiment?
100 randomly sampled comparisons from Linguistic Inquiry journal
What were the main findings from Mahowald et al’s experiment?
Not a significant result
What was the conclusion from Mahowald et al’s experiment?
Linguists need data and previous measures weren’t a good measure
What is the role of photoreceptors?
To turn light into electrical current
Where does the electrical current travel after photoreceptors?
It goes down the optic nerve into the brain
Where is the blind spot?
Where the optic nerve is
Why is the blind spot a blind spot?
There are no photoreceptors
What does the brain do with the electrical current?
Computes it into visual information so we can see
Is the distribution of photoreceptors even?
No
Where is vision clearest?
In the fovea where photoreceptor density is highest
How much of our visual experience is high acuity and how much is blurry?
5% is high acuity and 95% is blurry
Why is most of our visual experience not blurry? (2 reasons)
Because our brain is very good at focusing on the 5% to give a clear visual experience, and we look around a lot to try and reduce the blur
Where is vision blurriest?
Where there are less photoreceptors
Where is the periphery?
Away from the fovea
