Cognitive Psychology: Language production Flashcards

1
Q

How did Genie’s language develop different from other children in general?

A

She had a vocab of over 200 words before she began combining them, much later than infants.The word types evident in her vocal vocabulary also deviated from the normal pattern (placed emphasis on words colours and numbers, shape and size terms and basic (dog) superordinate (animal) and subordinate (labrador) category words, she seemed to seek words that allowed her to differentiate between objects (pen, pencil) rather than overclassification (pen for pen, pencil, crayon etc)

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2
Q

Where did Genie suffer the most in language development?

A

Syntax or grammar

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3
Q

What is meant by the term syntax?

A

The rules governing the way words can be combined to create meaningful sentences

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4
Q

What is meant by content words?

A

Words that provide meaning to a sentence

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5
Q

What three key issues in language acquisition is highlighted in Genie’s case?

A
  • There may be a critical or sensitive period for language acquisition, particularly for grammar
  • The dissociation between the acquisition of vocabulary and the flexible use of this vocabulary to form novel sentences
  • Language acquisition relies on interplay between input from the environment and biological makeup
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6
Q

What is meant by language production

A

The cognitive processes we use to translate a thought into a form of language (writing, speaking, sign language.)

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7
Q

What is meant by social cognition?

A

The ways in which people make sense of themselves and of others in order to function effectively in a social world.

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8
Q

WHat is meant by semantics?

A

The level of meaning in a language

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9
Q

What is meant by morphology?

A

The rules by which words are constructed and modifies

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10
Q

What is phonology?

A

The sound units within a language

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11
Q

What reason has been given for the relative lack of knowledge in speech formation as opposed to understanding?

A

It’s difficult to control experimental stimuli in order to study language production.while in studying comprehension we can manipulate words and sentences etc and measure it’s effects on comprehension..

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12
Q

give another term for speech formation being a top process?

A

It is conceptually driven (top down processes reflect the influence of higher order cognitive processes such as thoughts, beliefs and expectations.)

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13
Q

What name is given to our store of knowledge about words and their uses?

A

Mental lexicon

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14
Q

What are linguistic universals?

A

Features that are shared by all languages

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15
Q

What do all languages have according to Aitchison?

A

consonants and vowels,combine basic sounds into larger units, nouns, verbs, combine words in meaningful ways, can express who did what to whom, can express sentences as negatives, can express sentences as questions, are structure dependent (syntax), allow recursion (the use of a rule within itself)

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16
Q

What problems arise with Aitchison’s list?

A

Sign language doesn’t have vowels or consonants, some languages don’t reliably distinguish between nouns and verbs,

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17
Q

describe a type of language that may use other sounds than consonants and vowels

A

Tonal languages use changes in tone to alter the meaning of the word

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18
Q

Give examples of determinative words

A

a, the, every, several, this etc; describe a definiteness or quantity

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19
Q

Name as many of Hockett’s 16 design features for spoken language as you can

A

Vocal-auditory communication channel, broadcast transmission and directional reception (transmitted from the mouth and localised in space by the receiver), rapid fading, interchangeability (sender and receiver), feedback, specialisation (energy expended does not change the meaning), semanticity (has meaning), arbitrariness (except onomatopoeia), discreteness (composed of smaller units), displacement (displaced in time or space), productivity (novel sentences), cultural transmission (learned through interaction with more experienced users), duality (meaningful units through smaller meaningless), prevarication (can lie, nah lack obvious meaning), reflexiveness (can call about language) and learnability

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20
Q

What is meant by functional reference?

A

The use of animals of a specific call to stand for a specific object or threat

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21
Q

What is meant by the term phones in phonetics? What is phonetics?

A

Phones are the basic speech sounds, phonetics is the study of speech sounds

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22
Q

What’s the difference between a phoneme and an allophone?

A

Phonemes are the smallest meaningful sound units within a language, allophones are phonetic variants of the same phoneme

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23
Q

What is meant by phonotactic rules?

A

The stipulate which combinations of sounds are permitted in a language

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24
Q

What is a minimal pair?

A

Words that differ by just one phoneme

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25
Q

What are morphemes and morphology?

A

The meaning units of a language, the level of linguistic analysis concerned with morphemes and their role within words.

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26
Q

What is the difference between a free and bound morpheme, give an example

A

A free morpheme is a morpheme that can stand alone as a word (car) while a bound morpheme is a morpheme that cannot form a word on its own, but forms a word when attached to a free morpheme (the s in cars)

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27
Q

What is the function of derivational morphemes? give an example

A

Create new words with new meaning when added to a stem, they can also change the grammatical category of the word eg ify,ish,able,ment

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28
Q

What are words added to the beginning and end of words to alter the word called

A

suffixes and prefixes

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29
Q

What type of words do these apply to

A

content words

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30
Q

What are function words?

A

Provide grammatical structure that shows how contentwords relate to each other within a sentence

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31
Q

What morphemes attach to function words

A

none

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32
Q

What two aspects of the language system allow us to use words grammatically?

A

Syntax and morphology

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33
Q

Why is syntax used more often than grammar?

A

To differentiate it from prescriptive grammar which reflects conventions for sentence construction and is based on tradition and language prestige rather than actual language use

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34
Q

What is meant by NP and VP and what is their role in a sentence

A

A noun phrase is often the subject of a sentence while a verb phrase conveys the action of the sentence

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35
Q

What word order do languages such as english, german and french follow?

A

SVO (subject, verb, object)

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36
Q

What is meant by the object of the sentence?

A

word or words that receive the action, or is acted on by the subject.

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37
Q

What is the other most common word order?

A

SOV

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38
Q

What two word orders are most rare

A

OVS, OSV

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39
Q

What is meant by recursion?

A

The repeated application of a rule and, using recursion, the same rule can be applied again and again to extend sentences indefinitely by embedding phrases within sentences.

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40
Q

What is meant by discourse?

A

Multi sentence speech and includes dialogue, conversation and narrative

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41
Q

What is pragmatics?

A

The understandings of the communicative functions of language and the conventions that govern language use

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42
Q

Name some features of conversational turn taking

A

One person speaks at a time; person speaking changes; duration of a turn is not predefined; the order of turns also varies; transitions between turns are coordinated; overlap is minimized.

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43
Q

Briefly describe the experiment by strivers et al. regarding turn taking in conversation

A

Exploring whether linguistic turn taking is universal or if there is differences, 10 languages from hunter-gatherer to industrial, 2-6 per group with spontaneous conversations. Similarities emerged supporting a universal minimal gap, minimal overlap, factors that predicted response time were faster; headshake/nod= faster response, same with questions with a gaze.

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44
Q

What 4 conversation rules or maxims describing effective conversations were identified by Grice?

A
  • Maxim of quantity; Provide enough information to be understood but not too much information
  • Maxim of quality; The speaker should provide accurate information
  • Maxim of relevance; the speaker should provide information that is relevant to the current topic of conversation
  • Maxim of manner- Ambiguity and vagueness should be avoided
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45
Q

What are possible outcomes/ functions of violations of these 4 maxims?

A

Causes ore cognitive processes to determine the response, person may backtrack or repair the conversation or may be done deliberately to attempt humour (hyperbole etc)

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46
Q

Name some sources of Data about errors?

A

Examining temporary breakdowns in the systems functioning which occur from time to time under normal conditions, induced in the library when people have to articulate very quickly, study of acquired brain injury affecting speech and language processing

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47
Q

What is meant by aphasia?

A

The term given to a group of speech disorders that occur following brain injury

48
Q

What is a disfluency?

A

A hesitation or pause in the normal fluency of speech

49
Q

Is filled or silent disfluency more common?

A

Silent

50
Q

Why may a science lecturer pause less than a humanities lecturer?

A

Because of specific terminology; if there is less words to choose from, word choice is facilitated

51
Q

What is meant by a clause?

A

Part of a sentence containing a noun and a verb

52
Q

What behaviour can reflect lying?

A

Higher voice pitch, more hesitations and speech errors, speeks more slowly and uses fewer illustrators ( hand gestures) and shows decreased leg and foot movement. A liars account will have fewer details.

53
Q

Why are these behaviours in lying produced?

A

Increased cognitive load

54
Q

What are slips of the tongue or other actions originally thought to reflect unconscious motives known as

A

Parapraxes

55
Q

What is meant by anticipation in regards to speech errors?

A

Substitutions of sound in anticipation of a sound that occurs later in the phrase (Cuff of coffee)

56
Q

What is meant by Perseverance in regards to speech errors?

A

the repetition of a sound from a previous part of the utterance (deliderate)

57
Q

Give an example of transposition errors in regards to speech errors?

A

you hissed my mystery lectures

58
Q

What is meant by a blend in regards to speech errors?

A

A non word is made based on two semantically related words (mownly- mostly/mainly)

59
Q

What’s the difference between omissions and additions?

A

Additions a sound is added (adiditions) while omissions one is left out (missions)

60
Q

What are semantic substitutions

A

Retrieval of semantically related but incorrect words (Its so hot(cold))

61
Q

What are phonological substitutions (malapropisms)

A

A phonologically similar word is selected in error

62
Q

What is meant by Lexical bias?

A

The tendency for phonological speech errors resulting in real words

63
Q

Content words exchange with ______ and function words exchange with ________

A

Content words; function words

64
Q

Name some methods of collecting these errors

A

Usually from spontaneous speech, either by recording speech or participants recording their own errors in diaries.Also can be induced experimentally incl SLIP (Spoonerisms of Laboratory-Induced Predisposition).

65
Q

What is meant by the tip of the tongue state? (TOT)

A

A temporary inability to access an unknown word

66
Q

Stated 7 properties of the TOT state?

A
  • It is universal
  • occurs about once a week
  • Increases in frequency with age
  • frequently affects proper names
  • often involves an available initial letter
  • Is often accompanied by other words
  • Is resolved on over half of occasions
67
Q

Who are more prone to TOT? What could this suggest?

A

Bilingual people suggesting competing lexicals could influence it.

68
Q

Describe an experiment which suggests disadvantages to bilingualism

A

Two groups of 30; bilingual (english/spanish) and non bilingual. Had to name as many words in semantic categories and beginning with certain two letters (fa) as they could. Non bilinguals performed better in both tasks.

69
Q

What is a lemma?

A

An abstract word form that contains syntactic and semantic information about the word

70
Q

What is a lexeme?

A

The basic lexical unit that gives the word’s morpho-phonological properties

71
Q

What are the four stages to speech production

A
  1. Conceptualisation; poorly understood process by which thought forms
  2. Formulation of linguistic plan; from concept to language, in the lexicalization sub stage the words are selected from the lexicon , therefore the concept must connect with a lemma
  3. Articulation of the plan; sounds are accessed, lexeme is specified
  4. Output is monitored
72
Q

What do serial or modular theories of speech production propose?

A

speech production progresses through a series of stages or levels, with different types of processing at each level.

73
Q

Name the 5 levels in order in Garret’s model of language production

A
  • Conceptual/ Inferential level
  • Functional level
  • Positional level
  • Phonological level
  • Articulation level
74
Q

When would word exchange errors likely take place and why?

A

At functional level because the sentence structure is formed but the word locations have not been allocated

75
Q

Why, according to this model might verbs not cross with nouns and nouns not cross with verbs?

A

Because they already have their syntactic role but not positional

76
Q

What errors are not explained by Garrett’s model?

A

Non-plan internal errors; when the intrusion is external to the planned content of the utterance, this is not explained because his stages are supposedly independent

77
Q

How does Levelt’s model differ from Garrett’s and Dell’s in its approach to speech production

A

It focuses more on latency data (reaction times to picture naming) and lexical access than errors. It also focuses more on single words that whole sentences

78
Q

Name the 6 stages of Levelt’s model of speech production

A
  • Conceptual preparation
  • Lexical selection
  • Morphological encoding
  • Phonological encoding
  • Phonetic encoding
  • Articulation
79
Q

When may a TOT state occur in Levelt’s model?

A

Between lexical selection and morphological encoding - a lemma has been activated but the specific phonological form (lexeme) is not yet available

80
Q

What are the drawbacks of Levelt’s model of speech production?How did Levelt explain this?

A

As a modular account, feedback between levels is limited.However some errors suggest there is feedback, for example saying rat instead of cat. This suggests eroors between lower and upper levels. Levelt claimed this was a failure in the monitoring process.

81
Q

Why is Dell’s model of speech production said to be parallel and interactive?

A

Information can be processed at different level’s at the same time (parallel) and activation at one level can affect activation at another level.

82
Q

Name the 4 levels of Dell’s model

A
  • Semantic level
  • Syntactic level
  • morphological level
  • Phonological level
83
Q

Give the six steps involved in word selection according to Dell

A
  1. Semantic units are activated by an external source
  2. Activation spreads through the network
  3. The word unit with the highest level of activation is selected and linked with the syntactic frame of the sentence in the appropriate slot. Once it has been placed the activation reduces to zero.
  4. When the time is right the phonological frame activates. If a single word is to be produced, selection of the word produces the phonological information.
  5. Activation continues to spread butphonological units linked to the selected word becomes more highly activated.
  6. The most active phonological units are selected and these are linked to the phonological frame for the word.
84
Q

What gap is there in Dell’s model?

A

It doesn’t address the semantic level

85
Q

Where are most of the key language areas in the brain for most people?

A

Left cerebral hemisphere

86
Q

What are neurolinguistics?

A

The study of the relationship of brain function to language processing

87
Q

What is meant if a cognitive function is lateralized?

A

One cortical hemisphere is dominant for that function

88
Q

In J Hydes study on gender differences what did many of the studies suffer in?

A

Small sample sizes

89
Q

In J Hydes study of gender differences where were strong differences found?

A

Motor skills, some measures of sexuality and aggression.

90
Q

Are auditory connections contralateral?

A

They are both contralateral and ipsilateral (same side) however the contralateral connections are dominant

91
Q

What bias is shown in the dichotic listening task in regard to the side of the ear, what may this be restricted to

A

Right side appears more dominant in collecting information, this may be restricted to consonant sounds

92
Q

What evidence is there to support that semantic and syntactic information is stored separately in the brain?

A

ERP’s were used to track brain activity in participants as they read normal, semantically strange and syntactically strange sentences. Different areas lit up for semantically and syntactically strange sentences.

93
Q

What is TMS

A

Transcranial magnetic stimulation is a non invasive method of stimulating particular cortices

94
Q

What role does the right hemisphere play in language?

A

The emotional aspects of speech, prosody and aspects of non-literal speech. (sarcasm, figurative language and indirect requests.)

95
Q

What relationship does the right hemisphere have with tonal relationships

A

In tonal languages the left hemisphere processes the tone while in non tonal languages the right side processes the tone.

96
Q

Where does speech production result from in the brain

A

Language areas located around the sylvian fissure of the left hemisphere; the peri-sylvian language region

97
Q

What is electrocortical stimulation?

A

electrocortical stimulation of the surface of the cortex allows a surgeon to locate and avoid damage to brain regions associated with a particular cognitive function.

98
Q

What is the Wernickes-Geshwind model?

A

A simplified model of language function used as the basis for classifying aphasia disorders

99
Q

What is meant by crossed aphasia?

A

Language dysfunction following right hemisphere damage in right handed people

100
Q

What terms refer to aphasia in reading and writing?

A

Agraphia- writing, Alexia- reading

101
Q

What is meant by pure, fluent and non-fluent aphasia?

A

Pure- one particular facet of language (such as repeating sentences) is affected with the rest intact. Fluent- fluent but empty speech. Non-fluent- reduced speech input, slow but effortful.

102
Q

Where in the brain does damage cause fluent and non fluent aphasia, generally?

A

Anterior regions (near Broca’s area) causes non fluent while damage to posterior (near wernicke’s area) causes fluent. However this varies considerably.

103
Q

Where in the brain does Broca’s area occupy?

A

Left inferior frontal gyrus

104
Q

How is Broca’s aphasia characterised?

A

Non-fluent speech, reduced speech output and problems with grammar processing.

105
Q

Are there any comprehension problems with Broca’s aphasia?

A

Yes, some

106
Q

What is meant by the term global aphasia?

A

An acquired language disorder involving extreme impairment of language function.

107
Q

Are content words or function words most affected in Broca’s aphasia?

A

Function

108
Q

What element of speech may people with Broca’s aphasia struggle to comprehend

A

Complex syntax

109
Q

How is Wernicke’s aphasia categorised?

A

Fluent but meaningless output and trouble repitition errors

110
Q

When speaking what specific type of speech error are they prone to?

A

phonemic paraphasias; substitution errors where a similar sounding word (or non word) is produced instead of the target word.

111
Q

Are content words or function words most affected in Wernicke’s aphasia?

A

Content

112
Q

What is meant by conduction aphasia? Where in the brain is damage associated with this disorder?

A

When the patient has a specific difficulty affecting the repetition of speech. This is associated with damage to the arcuate fasciculus (connecting fibres)

113
Q

What is meant by anomic aphasia?

A

When a patient has specific difficulty with word retrieval but has not lost the word or its meaning

114
Q

What can cause anomic aphasia?

A

Relatively small lesions in the language areas or transient conditions that reduce blood supply to these area’s

115
Q

According to Hayes and Flower what are the three main domains affecting the writing process?

A

Task environment, long term memory and the immediate cognitive aspects of the writing process.

116
Q

According to Peverly what are the key skills tested involved in taking lecture notes?

A

Info must be held in verbal working memory, key points must be must be selected from this info, those key points must be transcribed before they’re forgotten; this requires efficient writing