Ch.2 - The Science of Language Flashcards
What is Psycholinguistics?
The scientific study of cognitive processes involved in comprehending and producing language
What is Latency?
-The difference in time between the presentation of stimulus and initiation of response
-a.k.a., reaction time (RT)
What is Accuracy and Error Rate?
-The percentage of correct responses
-percentage of incorrect responses
What is the Lexical Decision Task?
-participants see strings of letters, decide as quickly as possible if it is a word
-word trials present strings like STEM or TIME
-non-word examples include strings like MOBE or SPEM
What is a Nonword?
a pronounceable letter string that just happens not to be a word in English
(ex. Mongi or Degna)
What is Priming?
-the implicit memory process
-recall is enhanced due to previous exposure
Lexical Decision and Priming Example
- Participants heard: “The gynmast loved the professor from the northwestern city (1) who (2) complained about the bad coffee.
- Participants saw: “TEACHER” at (1) or (2)
- The pronoun was a ____________ ____________ for “professor”
memory trigger
Lexical Decision and Priming can test ___________ ___________ in patients with aphasia.
syntactic processing
What is immediate recall?
-having no time lapses between stimulus and response
-tests short-term memory
What is delayed recall?
-having a time-lapse of several minutes or more between stimulus and response
-tests long-term memory
What is free recall?
-repeating items in any order
What is serial recall?
-repeating items in exact order
What is the primacy and recency effects?
-the first and last items in a list are recalled best
-middle items least recalled
How does implicit learning take place?
outside of conscious awareness
In the artificial grammar learning task, Reber (1967)…
- had participants study lists of letter strings in the learning phase (pabikutibudodaropi)
- participants are told the strings are generated from artificial grammar
- participants indicate whether novel strings are grammatical or not in the test phase
- only respond yes or no
What is Saccade?
the quick movement of eyes while reading
What is Fixation?
the momentary gaze of eyes on a single location
What is Regression?
the movement of eyes back to a previously viewed location
What is the Brain Stem and what does it do?
the interior portion of brain, regulates body functions
What is the Cerebellum and what does it do?
walnut-sized section behind the brainstem, coordinates movement
What is the Corpus callosum and what does it do?
the band of fibers connecting the right and left hemispheres
What is the Cerebral cortex and what does it do?
the outer covering of the brain, manages mental functions giving rise to consciousness
What is the Occipital lobe and its function?
Lobe located at the back of the head that processes visual input
What is the Temporal lobe and its function?
Lobes on the sides of the head that processes auditory input and object recognition
What is the Parietal lobe?
Lobe of the brain located on the top of the head that processes body position and navigation through space
What is the Frontal lobe and its function?
Lobe of the brain located at the front of the head that manages motor movement, planning, and decision making
Lateralization is the idea that some cognitive functions are processed mainly in ____ hemisphere. Traditional language areas are processed in the ______ hemisphere.
one; left
What is Broca’s area and its function?
An area in the left frontal lobe that controls speech production
How is Broca’s aphasia characterized?
by halting, effortful speech but with good comprehension
What is Wernicke’s area and its function?
An area in the left temporal lobe that controls speech production
How is Wernicke’s aphasia characterized?
by “word salad” speech production with poor comprehension
Describe subcortical structures as a whole and name them
-A brain structure located below the cerebral cortex
1)Hippocampus
2) Amygdala
3) Basal Ganglia
What is the (1) Hippocampus? (subcortical structures)
-Found in the temporal lobe and controls memory and learning
What is the (2) Amygdala? (subcortical structures)
-Found in the temporal lobe and controls emotion and memory
What is the (3) Basal Ganglia? (subcortical structures)
-Found at the base of the forebrain and controls procedural learning and routine actions
What does an Electroencephalography (EEG) do?
- it records voltage fluctuations at the scalp
What is an event-related potential (ERP)?
- a waveform extracted from EEG that signifies cognitive process
What is the N400?
An ERP characterized by the negative peak signaling semantic anomaly
“I TAKE MY COFFEE WITH CREAM AND DOG”
What is Positron Emission Tomography (PET)?
- it tracks a mildly radioactive substance injected into the bloodstream
What is Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)?
- it uses magnetic properties to track backflow
