file 9 Flashcards
psycholinguistics
the study of how the human mind processes language in the perception, production, storage, and acquisition of language
neurolinguistics
the study of the neural and electrochemical bases of language development and use
temporal lobe
area in the brain associated with the perception and recognition of auditory stimuli
frontal lobe
area of the brain concerned with higher thinking and language production
occipital lobe
area of the brain associated with many aspects of vision
parietal lobe
area of the brain that is least involved with language perception and production
corpus collosum
bundle of nerve fibers in the brain that is the major connection between the two hemispheres; partially severed in split-brain patients
cortex
outer surface of the brain responsible for many of the brain’s cognitive abilities
language centers
parts of the cortex of the brain that are used in the production and comprehension of language
sylvian fissure
a large horizontal fold located at the middle of each hemisphere of the brain that separates the temporal lobe from the frontal lobe
superior temporal gyrus
upper portion of the temporal lobe; the left STG is involved in sound processing and mapping physical sounds to linguistic phones
wernicke’s area
older term for the sylvian parietotemporal area and posterior parts of the STG
inferior frontal gyrus
lower portion of the frontal lobe; the left IFG organizes articulatory representations of language and coordinates motor commands for speech
motor cortex
posterior portion of the frontal lobe; responsible for signaling voluntary muscle movements
visual cortex
area of the brain located in the posterior occipital lobe in each hemisphere; responsible for receiving and interpreting visual stimuli
arcuate fasciculus
a bundle of nerve fibers in the brain connecting the SPT with the IFG; primarily responsible for sharing the phonetic and phonological information between these centers
dorsal pathway
connects the SPT with the IFG via the arcuate fasciculus; primarily used to pass phonetic and phonological detail
ventral pathway
connects the SPT with the ITG via the extreme capsule; primarily used to pass semantic information
extreme capsule
bundle of nerve fibers in the brain connecting the SPT with the ITG
lateralization
specialization of the brain hemispheres for different cognitive functions
neural plasticity
the ability of the brain to adapt to damage in one region by reassigning processing functions to another region
contralateral
property of the brain such that one side of the body is controlled by the opposite hemisphere of the brain
dichotic listening task
experiment that presents two different sounds simultaneously one in each ear
split-brain patients
individual who’s corpus callosum has been surgically disconnected
hemispherectomy
an operation in which one hemisphere or part of one hemisphere is surgically removed from the brain
aphasias
acquired inability to perceive, process, or produce language because of physical damage to the brain
circumlocutions
description of a word’s meaning used when a speaker is unable to name the intended word
linguistic facial expressions
any gesture such as facial expressions or head movements made during a sign that are not made with the hands
Williams syndrome
a disorder due to deletion of genes on chromosome 7 that substantially impairs cognitive function, but has been argued to leave language processing relatively intact
speech production
the processes involved in producing speech in sign
anticipations
production error in which a later unit is substituted for a earlier unit, or in which a later unit is added earlier in an utterance
perseverations
production error in which an earlier unit is substituted for a later unit, or in which an earlier unit is added later in an utterance
malaproprism
performance error by which a speaker uses a semantically incorrect word in place of a phonetically similar word
lack of invariance
problem in speech perception because no sound is ever produced exactly the same way twice
speaker normalization
the modification of our expectations or judgement about linguistic input to account for what we know about the speaker
categorical perception
phenomenon by which people perceive entities differently after learning to categorize them
McGurk effect
effect illustrating that we rely not only on an acoustic signal in the perception of speech, but also on visual information
full listing hypothesis
hypothesis that every word is stored as a separate entry in the mental lexicon
spreading activation
activation that flows from words just accessed to other related words raising the resting activation those related words
cohort model
model of lexical access in which possible words in the mental lexicon are identified based on the initial sounds of the word
