Language 1 Flashcards
What is language?
Language is a system of symbols and rules that enable us to communicate
Symbols = written/spoken words
Rules = specify how the words are ordered to produce sentences
Why do we use language?
We use language for:
- Primarily for communication
- Thinking
- Recording info
- Expressing emotions
What aspects of language do psychologists study?
1) Cog. Psych = language processing (listening)
2) Neuroscience = neural substrates underlying the language system
3) Dev. Psych = language acquisition
4) Social Psych = communication between people/groups
5) Clinicians/therapists = language deficits and interventions
6) Applied Psych = language use in marketing/advertising
How do you accurately understand how the brain processes language?
Examine language processing in real-time (whilst people are reading/listening)
How do you examine language processing in real-time (whilst people are reading/listening)?
Eye-tracking or EEG
What is eye-tracking?
Monitoring participants’ eye-movement as they read text on a computer screen
What do eye movements consist of?
1) Fixations
2) Saccades
What are Fixations in eye-tracking?
Eye movements each about 250ms
What are Saccades in eye-tracking?
Where the eye jumps from one location to another
What are regressions in eye-tracking?
Backward eye movements, allowing the reader to look at previously read text (make up about 10-15% of all eye movements)
What is perceptual span in eye-tracking?
We can see about 4 characters to the left and 12-15 to the right of fixation
What do you call it when we can see about 4 characters to the left and 12-15 to the right of fixation?
Perceptual span
What do you call it when there are backward eye movements, allowing the reader to look at previously read text (makeup about 10-15% of all eye movements?
Regressions
What happens in eye-tracking?
1) Infrared light is shone into the eye
2) It generates 1 reflection from the pupil and 1 reflection from the cornea
3) The reflections are measured by the eye-tracking camera
4) By measuring how these reflections move relative to each other, we can calculate what the eye is looking at
How do we calculate what the eye is looking at?
By measuring how the reflection from the pupil and the reflection from the cornea move in relative to each other
What does eye-tracking tell us?
Which words people re-read based on the length of eye-fixation for particular words
How can you tell which words people re-read based on the length of eye fixation for particular words?
- Reflex complexity of processing
e.g. accessing word meanings and integrating them with the meanings of previously read words - Longer fixation times are associated with more complex processes
Which sentence induces an increased eye fixation time?
1) The concerned student calmed the child
2) The concerned steward calmed the child
(Rayner and Duffy)
- Increased fixation times for the 2nd sentence with “steward”
- Because the word steward is less frequently used compared to the word student
- More frequently used words = requires less fixation as we are more familiar with it
What does the immediacy hypothesis suggest?
The reader tries to comprehend a word as soon as it is encountered (they don’t delay processing)
What does the eye-mind hypothesis suggest?
There is no delay between looking at a word and the brain processing the word
Which hypothesis suggests there is no delay between looking at a word and the brain processing the word?
1) Immediacy
2) Eye-mind
Eye-mind hypothesis
Which hypothesis suggests the reader tries to comprehend a word as soon as it is encountered (they don’t delay processing)?
1) Immediacy
2) Eye-mind
Immediacy
Collectively, what do the Immediacy and Eye-mind hypotheses assume?
That the brain starts processing a word as soon as it is encountered and the eye only moves onto the next words once that processing is complete
What is EEG?
Electroencephalography
What does EEG measure?
The voltage changes on the scalp associated with the presentation of stimuli
(AKA electrical activity of the brain when it processes a stimulus, in this case, the stimulus is language)
What are Event-Related Potentials in the EEG? List 3 components
1) Polarity (positive or negative)
2) Latency in ms following the onset of a stimulus
3) N400 and P600 ERPs are the most interest to psycholinguists
What is the N400 ERP?
- The N400 wave is an event-related brain potential (ERP) measured using electroencephalography (EEG)
- N400 refers to negativity peaking at about 400 milliseconds after stimulus onset
- It has been used to investigate semantic processing, which may be dysfunctional in schizophrenia.
Who demonstrated that N400 reveals sensitivity to semantic incongruity?
Kutus and Hillyard
What did Kutus and Hillyard claim about the N400?
N400 reveals sensitivity to semantic incongruity (sensitivity to words that don’t make sense based on real world context)
e.g. I take coffee with cream and dog; the last word is semantically anomalous/does not fit with the rest of the sentence based on real-world context and results in N400
What is the P600 ERP?
- P600 is an event-related potential (ERP) component or peak in electrical brain activity measured by electroencephalography (EEG)
- It is a language-relevant ERP component and is thought to be elicited by hearing or reading grammatical errors and other syntactic anomalies
- P600 indexes syntactic violations
What is structural processing?
How people determine the syntactic relationships between elements in a text
Who reported P600 is associated with reading ‘to’?
Osterhout and Holcomb
What did Osterhout and Holcomb report about P600?
P600 is typically associated with the processing of grammatical errors, anomalies or incongruities.
e.g. the brokers persuaded to sell the stock was tall; the verb is initially interpreted as past tense (persuaded) rather than reduced relative (who was persuaded)
What is parsing?
How we understand the sentence structure (Computing the syntactic structure of sentences)
What is syntax?
Ordering words according to grammatical rules to build meaningful sentence
What is sentence parsing?
Determining relationships between different elements of a sentence and assigning them to syntactic categories
What term is used to describe “Determining relationships between different elements of a sentence and assigning them to syntactic categories”?
Sentence parsing
What term is used to describe “Ordering words according to grammatical rules to build meaningful sentences”?
Syntax
During parsing, what kind of knowledge do we use? (explicit/implicit)
Implicit (unconscious knowledge)
What is said about sentence structures and being able to understand them?
- Older children and adults are able to process both active and passive sentences
(we have little conscious difficulty understanding sentences with the same meaning but in different structures) - Younger children struggle with processing passive sentences as they are less exposed to it
Passive e.g. = The man was bitten by a dog
Active e.g. = The dog bit the man
Who thought of the locally ambiguous sentence, “The horse raced past the barn fell”?
Bever
What type of sentence contains an ambiguous phrase but has only one interpretation (ambiguity that is cleared up once you have heard the whole sentence)?
Locally ambiguous sentence
What is a locally ambiguous sentence?
A sentence that contains an ambiguous phrase but has only one interpretation (one that is cleared up once you have heard the whole sentence)
What is a globally ambiguous sentence?
A sentence that contains an ambiguous phrase and has multiple possible interpretations (one that remains ambiguous even after the entire sentence has been heard)
What type of sentence contains an ambiguous phrase and has multiple possible interpretations (one that remains ambiguous even after the entire sentence has been heard)?
Globally ambiguous sentence
“The spy saw the cop with the binoculars”
What type of sentence is this?
Global ambiguity
“When Fred passes, the ball always gets to its target” What type of sentence is this?
Local ambiguity
How does the language processing system decide whether globally ambiguous sentences have a Verb Phrase attachment of Noun Phrase attachment?
Use syntactic info to construct the simplest syntactic representation to comprehend the meaning of the sentence
Who proposed the Garden Path Model?
Frazier
Which model defines simplicity in terms of the simplest syntactic structure that can be constructed?
Garden Path Model
What is the Garden Path Model?
When we encounter ambiguous sentences, we often consider the simplest syntactic structure
When reaching a key point in the sentence, if the meaning attributed does not work, we must backtrack and rebuild the structure of the sentence.
After reparsing the sentence we can then arrive at the right explanation of the sentence
What are the 3 stages of the Garden Path Model?
1) Identify syntactic categories and build the initial structure
2) Assess outcome against context, semantic plausibility and real-world knowledge
3) Revise if neccessary
What is a discourse?
Spoken or written language that is more than just one line (unit of sentences; common in everyday life; we rarely hear/read one sentence in isolation)
What is discourse processing?
Linking together units of text (e.g. sentences) to construct a mental representation
What is the purpose of discourse processing?
To construct a mental representation to tell us what and how sentences are to be said/interpreted
Who proposed the construction integration model?
Van Dijk and Kintsch
Who proposed that understanding a discourse involves 3 levels of representation?
Van Dijk and Kintsch
What did Van Dijk and Kintsch propose?
1) proposed that understanding a discourse involves 3 levels of representation
2) Construction-integration model
What are the 3 levels of the Construction-integration model?
1) Surface form
2) Text base/Propositional
3) Situation model
What is the surface form level in the Construction-integration model?
It represents the text itself
What is the text-based/propositional level in the Construction-integration model?
It represents propositions formed from the text
What is the situational model level in the Construction-integration model?
It describes the situation/things that are happening in the text
Which of these sentences is a surface form level according to the construction-integration model?
1) The frog ate the bug
2) The bug was eaten by the frog
3) The frog had the bug for breakfast
4) The bug had the frog for breakfast
1) The frog ate the bug
2) The bug was eaten by the frog
3) The frog had the bug for breakfast
4) The bug had the frog for breakfast
- They all have similar meanings but unique structures and words in them
Which of these sentences is a text-base/propositional representation level according to the construction-integration model?
1) The frog ate the bug
2) The bug was eaten by the frog
3) The frog had the bug for breakfast
4) The bug had the frog for breakfast
1) The frog ate the bug
2) The bug was eaten by the frog
- In 1 and 2, it is clear that the frog ate the bug; no additional info to change the meaning of the sentences
Which of these sentences is a situation model level according to the construction-integration model?
1) The frog ate the bug
2) The bug was eaten by the frog
3) The frog had the bug for breakfast
4) The bug had the frog for breakfast
1) The frog ate the bug
2) The bug was eaten by the frog
3) The frog had the bug for breakfast
- Sentences 1, 2 and 3 all have the same meaning (the frog ate the bug)
- Sentence 4 has a reverse situation and has a completely different meaning than the other 3 sentences (the bug ate the frog)
Out of surface form, text base representation and situation model levels, which level do we forget rapidly and which levels do we tend to remember?
Tend to remember = (1) text base representation and (2) situation model
Rapidly forget = (1) surface form
What does Bransford, Barclay and Franks’ experiment on situation models tell us about how we avoid confusing sentences with similar structures?
We often confuse 2 sentences with similar structures if they are the same situation models (if the situation/things that are happening in both of the sentences are the same)
We are less confused if 2 sentences have different situation models (if the situation/things that are happening in both of the sentences are different)
What do the findings of Bransford, Barclay and Franks’ experiment on situation models suggest?
We tend to remember text as a situation model rather than a surface form
What are inferences?
Information that is not explicitly stated in the text but is represented in a situation model
What is this an example of?
Sentence: Three turtles rested on a floating log and a fish swam beneath them
??: The fish swam beneath the log
Inference
Because although it’s not explicitly stated that the fish swam beneath the log, you can tell that’s what the sentence was trying to imply
What are the 3 common types of inferences?
1) Logical
2) Bridging
3) Elaborative
What inference is based on formal rules and follows from the meanings of words?
Logical inferences
What are logical inferences?
An inference is based on formal rules and follows from the meanings of words
What type of inference is this?
Sentence: Julie had 7 oranges and gave 5 to Paul
Inference: Julie had 2 oranges left
Logical inference
What inference helps us make info coherent by linking new info to previously obtained info?
Bridging inference
What is Bridging inference?
Inference that helps us make info coherent by linking new info to previously obtained info
What type of inference is this?
Sentence: Mary unpacked some picnic supplies. The beer was warm
Inference: The beer was part of the picnic
Bridging inference
What inference involves extending what is in the text with real-world knowledge?
Elaborative inferences
What is Elaborative inference?
Inference that involves extending what is in the text with real-world knowledge
What type of inference is this?
Sentence: The delicate vase fell on the concrete floor
Inference: The vase most likely broke because it is “delicate” and the concrete floor is hard which breaks glass easily, according to real-world knowledge
Elaborative inferences
Who claimed that inferences people generated were influenced by how they felt about the characters in the stories they read?
Rapp and Gerrig
What did Rapp and Gerrig claim about inferences?
Inferences that people generate are often influenced by how they feel about the characters in the stories they read
Who proposed the Event-Indexing Model?
Zwaan, Langston and Graesser?
What did Zwaan, Langston and Graesser propose regarding situation models?
The Event-Indexing Model which accounts for how readers build situation models
What does the Event-Indexing Model claim?
That event are connected along dimensions of time, space, protagonist, causality and intentionality and that readers implicitly keep track of events along these dimensions
Who examined how readers keep track of spatial info during reading?
O’Brien and Albrecht
What did O’Brien and Albrecht contribute?
They examined how readers keep track of spatial info during reading
What did O’Brien and Albrecht’s study findings discover?
1) Reading times increased when one sentence is mismatched with the other
e.g. She stood outside the gym and felt a little sluggish. She decided to go outside and stretch her legs a little.
The sentence clashes in meaning because she was already outside before, why would she go outside again when she’s already outside?
2) Reading times increased when sentences are inconsistent with the physical properties of the character in the story
e.g. An old grandma runs as fast as lightning away from the dog
The sentence is weird when referring to real-world expectations because how can an old person run fast without hurting themselves/how do they have the energy and strength?
Who proposed the minimalist account of inference generation?
McKoon and Ratcliff
What did McKoon and Ratcliff propose which is not compatible with O’Brien and Albrecht’s data?
The minimalist account of inference generation
What did the minimalist account of inference generation claim?
The only inferences that readers generate online are those that are:
1) Necessary in order to maintain local coherence
2) Based on easily available info
Who proposed that shifts of time, space and protagonist can affect reading time?
Therriault, Rinck and Zwaan
What did Therriault, Rinck and Zwaan claim about how shifts of time, space and protagonist can affect reading time?
- Shifts in time and protagonist always cause an increase in reading times
- Longer reading times suggests a surprising event; readers may take longer to read over a text if they are surprised or unfamiliar with the event in the story
When do spatial shifts have their biggest effect according to Therriault, Rinck and Zwaan’s experiment?
Only when experimental instructions asked readers to focus on that aspect of the story
What does increased reading time suggest in Therriault, Rinck and Zwaan’s experiment?
The reader seems to create a new chapter in their situation model, takes time to comprehend, process and get used to it
Who examined how event boundaries (when 1 event ends and another begins) are mentally represented during reading?
Speer and Zacks
Describe Speer and Zacks’s experiment on the effects of shifts in time on reading times
1) Presented readers with words after time shifts (a moment later/an hour later)
2) The words related to the content was presented before the time shift
3) Ps were slower to respond to these words after long time shifts
What do the findings of Speer and Zacks’s experiment on the effects of shifts in time on reading times suggest?
That long-time shifts result in the info related to events before the time shift becoming less accessible to memory
What are Anaphors?
- Words referring to previously mentioned noun (phrases)
- Differ in ambiguity levels (how clear it is to which character the sentence refers to)
What is the term used to describe words referring to previously mentioned noun?
Anaphors
What is this an example of?
1) Jim bumped into Bill and HE fell over
2) Jim bumped into Bill and THE FOOL fell over
3) Jim bumped into Bill and BILL fell over
Anaphors; differ in levels of ambiguity/who or what the sentence is referring to
Do anaphors always have to refer to explicitly mentioned referents according to Haviland and Clark?
- Yes, for a quicker reading and processing time and to lessen confusion
- If no explicitly mentioned referent is given, people engage in inferential processing which takes time
- Explicit antecedents are necessary inferences for readers to have in order to understand the text
e.g. (1) Mary unpacked some picnic supplies
(2) Mary unpacked some beer
(3) The beer was warm
If Ps read (3) after reading (1) compared to after reading (2), they will get confused and read more slowly. Beer was not mentioned in (1) so Ps have to go through inferential processing to link that the beer is part of the picnic
Who claimed that for highly constraining contexts, situational anaphora can be easy to understand
Sanford and Garrod
Describe Sanford and Garrod’s study in investigating situational anaphora
There were 3 sentences
(1) Keith took his car to London
(2) Keith drove to London
(3) The car kept overheating
Findings=
- (3) was easier to read following (1) instead of following (2)
- Because “The car” in (3) is not explicitly mentioned in (2) but “his car” was mentioned in (1)
- But Ps are still able to link that “the car” in (3) arises from the role associated with the vehicles used to “drive to London” in (1) and (2)
Do anaphors work for pronouns?
No, because they need explicit antecedents
Why do anaphors not apply to pronouns?
Pronouns carry only number and gender info so they can usually match many possible referents in a text
Do we find it easy or difficult to interpret pronouns/who is the main character in a sentence or story?
We tend to find pronouns easy to interpret because they typically refer to characters that are in focus (Grosz and Sidner)
Who proposed the repeated name penalty?
Gordon et al.
What did Gordon et al. propose about repeated names?
- Repeated name penalty
- People rely on pronouns to understand what/who the sentence is referring to
- If the name of a character is repeated rather than using pronouns, reading and processing times are slower
- Pronouns help people process info faster because sentences with pronouns improve the flow
Who proposed the centering theory?
Grosz et al.
What theory did Grosz et al. propose?
Centering theory
What does the Centering theory suggest?
Attention shifts during discourse which explains the repeated name penalty
Which model explains the repeated name penalty?
Centering theory/model
How does the repeated name penalty arise?
It arises when the character in focus is referred to using a proper name rather than a pronoun
“How many animals of each type did Moses take on the Ark?”
Who founded “The Moses Illusion” where people tend to respond to “two” rather than realise it was Noah, not Moses, who was engaged in Ark-related activities?
Erickson and Mattson
How would Ps usually respond to this question, according to Erickson and Mattson?
“How many animals of each type did Moses take on the Ark?”
The Moses Illusion
Ps tend to respond to “two” rather than realise it was Noah, not Moses, who was engaged in Ark-related activities
What is shallow processing?
- Top Down processing (process info based on real-world experience)
- People use all the info they’ve encountered before to process info presented in front of them
- When extra-grammatical processes influence parsing more than grammatical processes
What can shallow processing lead to?
Misinterpretation of sentences
What is Parsing in simple terms?
When the brain processes/analyses the syntax or grammatical structure of a sentence
What type of processing involves extra-grammatical processes which influence parsing more than grammatical processes?
Shallow processing
Knowing how to spell a word rather than knowing the meaning of the word is an example of …?
Shallow processing
There are 2 sentences given:
1) After a plane crash, where should the survivors be buried
2) After a bicycle crash, where should the survivors be buried
Which sentence will Ps most likely detect anomaly?
2) After a bicycle crash, where should the survivors be buried
- Even though both sentences make no sense because why would “survivors” of these crashes be buried and not the “victims”
- But because mass death by bicycle crashes is uncommon, based on real-world knowledge, Ps are more likely to notice that sentence (2) is abnormal
