Chapter 11: Language Flashcards

1
Q

A system of communication using sound or symbols which enables us to express emotions, thoughts, ideas, and experiences

A

Language

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2
Q

Why is the simple definition of language given not adequate?

A

Doesn’t consider animal communication or body language

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3
Q

What are the two key components of language?

A

Hierarchical and rule-based

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4
Q

Why is language hierarchical?

A

Consists of small components arranged in a way that makes a larger unit

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5
Q

Why is language rule-based?

A

Some of the smaller components follow rules that must be obeyed in order to create meaning

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6
Q

Give an example describing how language is a universal need

A

Deaf children living in communities that don’t have sign language invent one themselves

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7
Q

Describe how languages are “unique but the same”

A

Unique: they use different sounds and words, with different rules from each other

Same: they use nouns, verbs, make things negative, ask questions, refer to past and present

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8
Q

What was Chomsky’s perspective on language?

A

Proposed that language is encoded into human genes

Cognitive aspect that relates to the mind

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9
Q

What was Skinner’s perspective on language?

A

Posits that language can be explained in terms of reinforcements

Nothing to do with the mind

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10
Q

The field of psychology that concerns itself with the study of language and how it related to psychology.

A

Psycholinguistics

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11
Q

What are the four major concerns of psycholinguistics?

A

Comprehension, representation, speech production, acquisition

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12
Q

All the words we know/mental dictionary

A

Lexicon

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13
Q

The meaning of words and language

A

Semantics

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14
Q

Describe the word frequency effect

A

We are more likely to respond faster to high-frequency words (words that appear more often in usage of a language) and more likely to respond slower to low-frequency words (words that appear less often in a language)

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15
Q

The lexical decision task is a way to demonstrate which effect?

A

The word frequency effect

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16
Q

Describe the lexical decision task

A

Decide as quickly as possible whether strings of letters are words or nonwords

Can couple this data with eye tracking data:
Longer Gaze and Fixation times on the low-frequency words, Shorter Gaze and Fixation times on the high-frequency words

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17
Q

How are differences in pronunciation navigated?

A

Using the context around the word and fill in the blank based on previous knowledge

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18
Q

The perception of individual words even though there are often no pauses between words.

A

Speech segmentation

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19
Q

How is speech segmentation achieved?

A

Statistical probability (without realizing)

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20
Q

What four factors are related to our ability to understand spoken words?

A

How frequently we have encountered a word in the past

The context where the word appears

Our knowledge of statistical regularities of our language

Our knowledge of word meanings

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21
Q

Words that have multiple meanings

A

Lexical ambiguity

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22
Q

How do we navigate lexical ambiguity?

A

Look for context surrounding the word

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23
Q

Occurs when a word is followed by another word with a similar meaning.

A

Lexical priming

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24
Q

Describe Tanenhaus’ lexical priming task

A

Presented two sentences with the word rose followed by a probe: Flower

Verb-Noun condition (V-N): They all rose

Noun-Noun condition (N-N): She held a rose

Found the priming effect for flower resulted in faster response times for the N-N condition

25
Q

Relative frequency of meaning influences what meaning you will assume

A

Meaning dominance

26
Q

When one word’s meaning is more commonly used than other

A

Biased dominance

27
Q

When a word’s meaning is equally as likely as another meaning

A

Balanced dominance

28
Q

A strategy where we group words together in a sentence to give meaning

A

Parsing

29
Q

Sentence that begins to mean one thing, then ends up meaning something else

A

Garden path sentences

30
Q

What do garden path sentences illustrate?

A

Temporal ambiguity

31
Q

Organization of previous sentences may interfere with the following sentences

A

Temporal ambiguity

32
Q

Describe the garden-path model of parsing

A

As people read a sentence their grouping of words is influenced by heuristics

33
Q

A rule that can be applied rapidly to make a decision/ Mental shortcut that works most of the time

A

Heuristic

34
Q

According to the constraint-based approach, which other factors influence parsing besides syntax?

A

Word meaning: If a word has multiple meanings that work in the same situation, it can change the parsing

Story context: Lack of context in a story increases sentence ambiguity/parsing

Scene context: Objects in a scene influence how we interpret a sentence

Memory load and prior experience with language

35
Q

When a word in a sentence is the subject of both the main clause and the embedded clause

A

Subject-relative construction

36
Q

When a word in a sentence is the subject of only as the main clause and not the embedded clause

A

Object-relative construction

37
Q

What our interpretations of a text means using our knowledge without information provided by the text.

A

Inferences

38
Q

What are the two roles of inference?

A

Narrative: Creation of connections between parts of a story, how it progresses and how it references the past

Coherence: Representations in the mind the creates relations between the text and the main topic of the story

39
Q

What are three types of inference?

A

Anaphoric inference
Instrument inference
Causal inference

40
Q

Inferring things such as “he” or “she” or “that” to a previous sentence.

A

Anaphoric inference

41
Q

Inferring certain objects that are likely being used in a story, without prior mention of it

A

Instrument inference

42
Q

When you infer something happens because of a previous clause in a sentence

A

Causal inference

43
Q

The mechanism that simulates movement, objects, characteristics, and actions in a story

A

Situation model

44
Q

How did Stanfield and Zwaan’s experiment support the situation model?

A

Presented a sentence and then asked participants to indicate the object being depicted in the scenario.

Showing different orientations of a nail when presented with the sentence: “He hammered the nail into the wall.”

Participants responded more quickly when the picture matched the orientation they expected based on the story

45
Q

Describe the given-new contract

A

Preface a sentence with information someone already knows

Follow it up with new information

46
Q

How does common ground guide conversations?

A

Having shared information, or teaching someone so they share the same information allows for conversations to go a lot smoother, as the other person will understand what’s going on.

47
Q

Describe the referential communication task

A

Task where two people have a conversation and exchange information that involves reference

48
Q

What three things does creating common ground result in?

A

Entrainment
Syntactic coordination
Syntactic priming

49
Q

Synchronization between two partners

A

Entrainment

50
Q

Coordination of similar grammatical construction

A

Syntactic coordination

51
Q

Hearing a statement with a particular construction before you form your own increases the chances you use it yourself

A

Syntactic priming

52
Q

The ability to understand what others feel, think, or believe

A

Theory of mind

53
Q

How does theory of mind relate to conversations?

A

Helps us determine meaning

54
Q

Pattern of intonation and rhythm in a spoken language

A

Prosody

55
Q

How the notes of a melody are organized around the note associated with the composition’s key

A

Tonic

56
Q

What difficulty does Broca’s aphasia produce?

A

Difficulty in understanding sentences with complex syntax

57
Q

How does the response of a patient with Broca’s aphasia impact our understanding of language and music?

A

Can detect musical cords that are off key but not syntax in sentences

Music and Language are connected, but different

58
Q

Problems with music perception, including discrimination between melodies and recognizing common tunes

A

Congenital amusia

59
Q

How does the response of a patient with congenital amusia impact our understanding of language and music?

A

A patient with congenital amusia’s language abilities are not affected

Music and Language are connected, but different