7. Semantic Representation of Language Flashcards
The chinese room problem -
shows that:
provides evidence that:
- person appears to understand chinese but dont have meaning/semantic understanding
- human minds are not like information processing systems.
What are the two competing theories of language meaning representation?
The amodal symbol theory and the embodied cognition theory
- meaning represented in abstract symbols
- eg seeing a chair activates a neural ‘code’
- code/symbols processed in a central language processing unit
The amodal symbol system
- meaning formed by attention to multisensory aspects eg of a chair
- will remember visual info, sensory (is it comfy), experiences etc
- a distributed neural system across sensory systems associated with its meaning
The embodied cognition theory
What is the symbol grounding problem?
symbols are arbitrary and therefore there are no rules to say they refer to a specific thing. Could be referencing many different meanings
Evidence for embodied cognition theory (objects)
Ps given sentence which includes object. Then given photo and asked if that object was mentioned. faster RT if orientation in picture matched that in story (priming of orientation tuned neurons)
According to embodied cognition theory, what happens when you think of an objects meaning?
you form mental imagery of the object across different sensory modalities eg what did it feel like, look like, smell like etc
Evidence for embodied cognition theory: if you read the sentence “I opened the drawer”, you would be faster to click a button that was nearer or farther from you?
Nearer, as when you open drawer you pull toward you
The motor system plays a role in our ability to comprehend meaning of sentences referring to an action. This is known as:
action-sentence compatibility effect (ACE)
If the embodied cognition theory is true, then meaning should be processed how in the brain?
- distributed activation across sensory modalities
What properties of objects have been shown to play a role in increasing RT via embodied cognition (picture matches sentence)
orientation, shape, colour, location
people reading about body movements in fMRI scanner leads to
activation of the respective part of the motor cortex.
in a TMS study, participants listened to sentences describing hand and foot movements. MEP was measured. What did they find? What is the potential explanation?
- MEP higher in the hand when listening to the foot sentence
- engaging the muscle system, interfering with MEP
what did Speer find when Ps listened to stories with different actions
different parts of the brain coded for different aspects of meaning in language (distributed system)
PD patients struggle to understand what types of action when in sentence?
Literal and metaphorical
