Exam 2 Flashcards
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Problem with Meaning
Why do we initially pick one
interpretation (often the wrong one)
rather than another?
Syntactic Ambiguity
the different meanings reflect different dependencies within the sentence “she said he tickled her yesterday”
Frequency effects (Certain structures are more frequently used than
others) : Garden Path Sentences
Why do we do this?
Picking the wrong interpretation of the sentence and having to backtracking, we do this without taking into account meaning
Ambiguity Resolution: structural accounts
Picking the most frequent structure when reading, always, without regard to the meaning of the actual sentence
Ambiguity Resolution: Incremental Interaction
Basing meaning off the context being input - as each word is input, so is its interpretation with respect to context
Referential context: Avoiding Garden Path…Using
the sentence structure in order to determine the meaning - then looking at the towel with the apple on it
Language in visual contexts:
“Put the apple on the towel in the box.”
Looking at the apple, then the towel, then the apple again, then the box -
Language in visual contexts:
“Put the apple that’s on the towel in the box.”
only looking at the apple on the towel, then putting it in the box - with the sentence being far less ambiguous than the one before, there is a faster response to that sentence than the other one
Incremental Interpretation..par
As each word within a sentence is inputted, we process it, then building a partial interpretation of the sentence
Prediction in Sentence Comprehension
The man and the girl: “will ride” - based on the pictures you can predict
“The boy will eat the cake”: based on the pictures”
Sentence processing is ________: interpret each new word, and the sentence thus far, to
the. __________
Incremental; Fullest Extent
Fullest Extent
Predicting what will come next but only based what has already been read
Writing Systems
Logograms: Chinese, Japanese
Syllabic: Japanese Kana
Alphabetical: English, Hebrew, Arabic
Convert text to meaning based on the….
Direct connections between words and meaning
Converting alphabetic language and infrequent words in English
Word to sound, sound to meaning
Dual-Route model of reading can be used to
.. to assess the reading profiles of people with developmental dyslexia
Direct/Surface Route is used for
Irregular and Frequent words
Phonological Route
mapping letters onto corresponding sounds for Infrequent and Non-Words
Phonological Dyslexia
prefer to use the direct route; not good with non-words, new words, tests on phonological awareness like speech minus “S” is peach with s; rhyming games
Surface Dyslexia
not good with irregular words, fine with phonological awareness tasks, rare dyslexia <20%.
Fixations: eye stays still
200-250msec determined by, length, freq, Syntactic Cat, predicta, cognitive load.
Saccades: when the eyes moves
25-30msec, length is language specific
English: 8 characters
Hebrew: 5.5 characters
Japanese: 3.5 characters
Chinese: 2 characters
Perceptual Span: information extracted
English: 15 characters to the right of the fixation
Perceptual Span Equation
saccadic length x 2 = span
Rayner (1975)
Within ~7 characters of the fixation point: subjects notice the change
More than ~12 characters from their fixation points: subjects don’t notice anything
The more similar the original misspelling to the final word,
the shorter the fixation durations on the final word
Why care about eye movement?
useful experimental too, diagnosing schizophrenia, Alzheimer type dementia, Parkinson’s
What drives eye movements?
physical properties of the stimulus:
- the number of letters in the word
Linguistic properties of the stimulus: - – Frequency, syntactic category, predictability
Semantic Knowledge: World Knowledge
Paris is in France
Semantic Knowledge: Object Knowledge
Cups are used for drinking - the purpose of the object
Semantic Knowledge: Language knowledge
Symbolism referring to the cup
Hints about how semantic memory is organized?
Categorical (taxonomic) priming:
cat-dog; stool - table)
Thematic (event-based) priming:
dog - bone; professor - classroom
Perceptual priming:
frisbee - pizza
Motoric priming:
key- screwdriver
Semantic Memory relating to parts of Memory system: Episodic memory
Things that have happened
Semantic Memory relating to parts of Memory system: Perceptual Information
your perception within an item, how it smells, feels, tastes, sounds it makes
Semantic Memory relating to parts of Memory system: Procedural Knowledge
performance of a task or activity, knowledge of how to do that
How is semantic memory acquired?
through experience with that item
What is the dominant theory about the
organization of semantic memory?
Sensorimotor-based (perceptual Symbols);
Overlap between the items like baseball and orange - orange triggers more taste and smell because it has that
Overlap between thinking and doing
Brain regions support physical action, also represent the meaning of actions. So damage here will have an effect on the individuals understanding of action words