Language 1

Question 1

Learning Outcomes from last year:

Answer 1

• Understand and describe the building blocks of language processing for production using appropriate terminology
• Understand and describe the processes required for speech production
• Explain how the evidence supports current assumptions
• Understand and describe the methods used to assess language production

Question 2

Learning Outcomes for THIS YEAR:

Answer 2

• Understand and describe Levelt et al’s (1999) and Dell’s (1986) models of speech production
• Explain how the evidence supports Levelt et al’s (1999) model
• Explain how the evidence supports Dell’s (1986) model
• Evaluate the evidence that speech processing is interactive or discrete
• Understand and describe the methods used to assess language production

Question 3

What is speaking?

Answer 3

Speaking is a process we do in order to communicate - to transmit thought to someone else. We have to formulate our thoughts into language in order tell someone else what we are thinking about. So, we need to understand the syntax and the structure of the language in order to get that in the right order. The person who hears specific phonemes that we use to express that concept, then, can understand what we are talking about – to develop their own mental representation of the concept we are trying to communicate.

Question 4

How do we communicate?

Answer 4

> Evidence from speech errors suggests that we plan whole phrases before we start to speak

> Models based on theories of speech production have attempted to account for the processes required to speak

Question 5

Neural networks and language

Answer 5

Models of language are based on neural networks. Nodes represent groups of neurons that are firing in response to stimuli.

Representationalism –> talking about mental representations in the mind stored as patterns of activation in groups of neurons – nodes represent this.

Activation of nodes means that we have kicked the nodes over the threshold for activation – is now active and ready for use. This activation spreads across the network.

Corresponds to being consciously aware of information.

Question 6

Kahoot Quiz: Recap of last year

Which of the following are not building blocks of language?

Semantics, syntax, morphology, speech hesitations

Answer 6

Speech hesitations - method of measure not a building block

Question 7

Kahoot Quiz: Recap of last year

What is a morpheme?

Answer 7

It is the smallest unit of language that contains meaning

Cow = 1 
Cows = 2

Question 8

Kahoot Quiz: Recap of last year

Which of the following words contains 2 morphemes?

Under, fungus, cats, corner

Answer 8

cats has 2 where the rest have 1

Question 9

Kahoot Quiz: Recap of last year

What is syntax?

Answer 9

The rules and structure of a language

Question 10

Kahoot Quiz: Recap of last year

What is a phoneme?

A unit in a writing system
A letter
A sound system of language
A unit of sound

Answer 10

A unit of sound

Question 11

Kahoot Quiz: Recap of last year

What is orthography?

A spoken system for language
A written system for language
A written unit
A unit of sound

Answer 11

A written system for language

Question 12

Kahoot Quiz: Recap of last year

What is a grapheme?

A unit in a writing system
The written system of language
A unit of sound
The sound system of language

Answer 12

A unit in a writing system

Question 13

Kahoot Quiz: Recap of last year

What is phonology?

A written unit
A spoken system for language
A unit of sound
A written system for language

Answer 13

A spoken system for language

Question 14

Kahoot Quiz: Recap of last year

Which statement represents the relationship between graphemes and phonemes in English?

1 grapheme is represented by 1 phoneme

1 grapheme can be represented by more than 1 phoneme

Answer 14

1 grapheme can be represented by more than 1 phoneme (this is not a transparent language)

Question 15

Kahoot Quiz: Recap of last year

In a spreading activation model semantically related items…

Will be inhibited
Will be selected (could also be this one)
Will be activated
Will be hidden

Answer 15

Will be activated

Question 16

Kahoot Quiz: Recap of last year

What is a person likely to write for AN_TO_Y, if you “prime” them with anchovy?

Nothing
Anchovy
Anatomy

Answer 16

Nothing (creates a tip of the tongue moment where you know what you want to write but you can’t retrieve it because you have something in the way that’s really similar, stopping you from retrieving the word you want)

Question 17

Kahoot Quiz: Recap of last year

Speech errors tell us…?

That speech production is flawed
The order in which speech is produced
How speech can go wrong
The order of speech is flexible

Answer 17

The order in which speech is produced

Question 18

Kahoot Quiz: Recap of last year

Hesitations in the onset of speech tell us…?

How tired a person is
How practised a person is at speaking
How difficult the speech planning process is
How good a person is at communicating

Answer 18

How difficult the speech planning process is

Question 19

Models of Speech Production

(1) DELL (1986) SPREADING ACTIVATION THEORY

The Theory

Answer 19

Referred to as a cascaded interactive model. Dell predicts/assumes that we have three basic levels of processing; semantic level, syntax morphology, phoneme.

Semantic level - where we bring up the concepts that we want to talk about

Syntax morphology - where we plug in the syntax, add the specific morphemes/ morphology that we need in order to express the concept

Phoneme - Assess the phonemes that we will use to articulate the statement/ word/ phrase

Each level of this process is facilitated by spreading activation

Question 20

Models of Speech Production

(1) DELL (1986) SPREADING ACTIVATION THEORY

Spreading activation

Answer 20

Spreading activation is a concept where if you’re thinking of something, you will spread activation out to semantically related concepts (connect related dots in your mind)

Dell predicts that this is happening semantically (in terms of meaning of words) but also, spreading activation is happening at the phonological level, so you will also spread activation out to words that sound like the thing you are trying to say.

Question 21

Models of Speech Production

(1) DELL (1986) SPREADING ACTIVATION THEORY

The model is interactive

Answer 21

The model is interactive as Dell assumes that activation can go down but also up through the model…

For example, you could have an influence from phonologcally related items that have been activated at the phoneme level, and they could influence back up through the system the selection of the concept at the semantic level but generally information is cascading down through these levels in a progressive fashion.

Question 22

Models of Speech Production

(1) DELL (1986) SPREADING ACTIVATION THEORY

The model is active in parallel

Answer 22

Dell also suggests that information through the system is active in parallel, so everything is active at the same time. So the mental lexicon contains information regarding a word’s meaning, pronunciation, syntactic characteristics, and so on.

Like a dictionary of words that link to the semantic concepts and the syntax that you use to express the concepts. It’s all interlinked in Dell’s model.

So for example, if you’re trying to think of the word text, it all comes up at once, so activation is spreading across the semantic level, phonologial level, related in semantics, related in sound, the syntax and the structures that you need in order to express the concept… all active at once, all the time.

Question 23

Models of Speech Production

(1) DELL (1986) SPREADING ACTIVATION THEORY

How do we select the concepts/words etc that we want to express in such a complicated system?

Answer 23

Dell say’s that the concept with the greatest activation, that fits the target category in your syntactic structure, is the one that will be selected.

So, if we are thinking about a fork, for example, we might spread activation out to related concepts – like spoon, knife, prong etc. The thing that has the most activation would be the fork, so this will be the concept that is selected.

Question 24

Models of Speech Production

(1) DELL (1986) SPREADING ACTIVATION THEORY

How do we select the concepts/words etc that we want to express in such a complicated system?

Fork worked example

Answer 24

1. So if we want to say “the fork”…

• We select the “fork” from the mental lexicon
• We prepare the syntactic structures we need in order to say that, in this case it’s an article and a word form (word form = morpheme – so fork is a morpheme)
• We activate the phonemes that correspond to “the” and “fork”

2. If we wanted to say “the forks”…

• We select “forks” from mental lexicon
• We prepare the syntactic structures needed, so we need an article and word form (morpheme) and plural marker (“s”)
• We activate the phonemes that correspond to “the forks”

3. If we wanted to say something more complicated like “the prongs of a fork”…

• We select the phrase from the mental lexicon
• We prepare the syntactic structures we need so we need –> an article (prong), plural (s), possessive (of a), article (fork)
• We then activate the phonemes that give us that statement

ACCORDING TO DELL ALL THESE STEPS HAPPEN AT ONCE

Question 25

Models of Speech Production

(1) DELL (1986) SPREADING ACTIVATION THEORY

Thing to remember about Dell’s theory…

Answer 25

According to Dell we are spreading activation across the mental lexicon both semantically (to items related by meaning) and phonologically (items related by sound).

Question 26

Models of Speech Production

(1) DELL (1986) SPREADING ACTIVATION THEORY

Dell’s Theory and Predictions

Answer 26

*** Dell (1986)

Theory:

• Spreading activation results in activation of related items at all levels of processing
• Processing items that overlap in semantics and/or phonology will result in higher error rates than processing items that do not overlap

Predictions:
- As all of this spreading activation is occurring all at once, processing items that overlap in terms of meaning and sound, should mean we make a lot of errors - easy to switch in the wrong thing. - BUT… we don’t make that many errors in real life… slightly problematic for this model of speech production.

Question 27

Models of Speech Production

(1) DELL (1986) SPREADING ACTIVATION THEORY

Research Evidence in Support of Dell’s Theory

Ferriera and Griffin (2003) Phonological Priming

Answer 27

**Procedure and Predictions:

Participants asked to read the sentences, one at a time, but not to say the end word, then asked to name the picture (the pope). Then the next sentence, name the picture and so on.

The second sentence activates the concept of a “nun” which is semantically related to the picture of the pope, which should make is harder to say “pope” when asked to identify the picture.

The first sentence activates the word “none”, this is not semantically or phonologically related to related to the picture of the pope. But is phonologically related to the word “nun” which is related to the picture of the pope semantically, so should make it harder to inhibit the word “nun” when naming the picture.

The third sentence isn’t related to the picture at all.

It should be easier to inhibit the word “match” when identifying the picture of the pope (compared to the other 2 sentences) because it’s not phonologically or semantically related.

**Findings:

Successfully inhibit ‘match’ to say ‘priest’ but fail to inhibit ‘nun/none’ and say ‘priest’

Semantically and phonologically related items are active at the same time and can be selected for output

This data suggests it is harder to inhibit saying the wrong word when it is semantically and/or phonologically related to the picture that’s shown - supports Dell’s model

Question 28

Models of Speech Production

(1) DELL (1986) SPREADING ACTIVATION THEORY

Research Evidence in Support of Dell’s Theory

Speech Errors in Dell’s Model

Answer 28

In terms of the speech errors we looked at last year, Dell’s model accounts for them really well. Errors where you switch words in, exchange and blend things as so many related concepts are active in the lexicon all at once are accounted for.

> Errors may occur due to more than one concept receiving the same amount of activation e.g. ‘spoon’ being selected INSTEAD OF ‘fork’.

> Errors may also occur due to more than one concept receiving the same amount of activation and ‘spoon’ and ‘fork’ BOTH being selected e.g. saying “spork”.

Both concepts become active resulting in a cascade of processing to the level of phonology. Resulting in ‘the spoon’ instead of ‘the fork’
or ‘spork’!

**Anticipation error becomes an exchange.

You want to say “the prongs of a fork”, but everything is active at once and you could end up saying “the forks of a prong”.

Described as an anticipation error becoming an exchange because what Dell proposed is that what happens is… You’ve got fork and prong active, you’ve said fork instead of prong, once you’ve slotted fork into the beginning of a sentence you can’t put it at the end of the sentence too because you can’t reactivate it, so you have prong left, so you say it at the end instead.

This model can account really easily for these kind of speech errors.

Question 29

Models of Speech Production

(2) LEVELT ET AL., (1999) WEAVER++

How is Levelt’s theory different to Dell’s?

Answer 29

WEAVER: “Word-form Encoding by Activation and VERification”

Similar model to Dell but “discrete”, so where Dell’s model proposed that activation was happening all at once, in paralel and in more than one direction…

Levelt proposes that activation can only go in one direction and a process must be complete before another can begin

Levels:

• Conceptual level
• LEMMA
• Morphemes
• Phonemes

Question 30

Models of Speech Production

(2) LEVELT ET AL., (1999) WEAVER++

The Theory outline

Answer 30

Discrete – activation is “feed forward” can only move from meaning to sound

> LEMMA – function that codes some of the syntax and the word form (morpheme)

> Morphemes/morphological level – put different
morphemes together, so the morpheme in the
LEMMA would come down here and be added to
morphemes that mark plural, or tense etc

> Phoneme level – activate the phonemes that
we use to express the word

Question 31

Models of Speech Production

(2) LEVELT ET AL., (1999) WEAVER++

Competitive process

Answer 31

The idea that on a conceptual level the selection process of words happens via spreading activation is the same as Dell’s model

However, Levelt says selection of items at each level is based on competition between items.

So, at the beginning there is semantic spreading of activation between words with similar meaning, but after we’ve selected what it is we are going to say then inhibitory signals go out to all the other concepts that were activated in the semantic space, in order to stop us making speech errors.

Question 32

Models of Speech Production

(2) LEVELT ET AL., (1999) WEAVER++

Comparing the theories and predictions of Dell vs Levelt

Inhibition or facilitation of semantically similar items during spreading activation

Answer 32

Levelt et al., (1999)
Processing of items which are semantically similar will be inhibitive
- When hearing the word “doctor” activation is spread to “nurse” but is inhibited, when you hear “nurse” you have to release that inhibition in order to activate it. If “nurse” was followed by “sheep” the activation would be quicker, because they aren’t semantically related

Dell (1986)
Processing of items which are semantically similar will be facilitative
- Priming experiments from last year showed when people presented with a words like “nurse” and “doctor”, they were quicker to process doctor, than if it was “nurse, sheep”, this means semantically similar words can act as facilitators for processing.

Question 33

Models of Speech Production

(2) LEVELT ET AL., (1999) WEAVER++

Levelt says that during spreading activation semantically similar words inhibit activation

Evidence: Wheeldon & Monsell (1994)

Answer 33

Wheeldon & Monsell (1994)

If you are producing a word then naming something semantically related, you should be slower to say the semantically similar word - because you’ve activated one word you’ve inhibited semantically similar words

Levelt would say you should be slower to say these related words.

Dell would say you should be quicker to say these related words.

***Results and Conclusions:
The data from this experiment supports Levelt - similar words are harder to say quickly because they activate similar networks

Question 34

Interim Conclusions:

Answer 34

So far in the lecture we have seen…

> Evidence that phonological competitors interfere with word production does not fit with Levelt et al.’s (1999) discrete model.
- Supports Dell’s idea that semantically and phonologically related info is active when trying to process words

> Evidence that selection of concepts is competitive does not fit with Dell’s (1986) spreading activation model.
- Supports Levelt’s model that you inhibit semantically related info once you’ve selected a word for production

Question 35

Models of Speech Production

(2) LEVELT ET AL., (1999) WEAVER++

We have seen how speech errors are explained within the framework of Dell’s model, how do Levelt et al. accout for these effects?

Answer 35

Levelt says…

• Errors may occur if the wrong concept is selected and processed to the phonological level (if the concepts are really similar)
• Two concepts that are both viable options for the utterance could be selected and processed to the phonological level (if both are things that could both be feasibly put into the phrase)

Conclusions:
> Speech errors can be accounted for by Dell’s model but do not appear to fit with Levelt et al.’s model
> Where Dell’s model easily accounts for Speech errors Levelt et al.’s model has to suggest that these are ‘special cases’ to explain these effects

Question 36

Models of Speech Production

(2) LEVELT ET AL., (1999) WEAVER++

Evidence for Levelt’s Model - Lemma stage

Answer 36

Lemma’s (dictionary form of a word) contain syntactic information

Tip of the tongue state
> Italian speakers in tip-of-the tongue states where they can’t quite grasp the word they want to say, they know the grammatical gender of the word (Vigliocco et al. 1997)

This provides strong support for the lemma stage of the model

Question 37

Models of Speech Production

(2) LEVELT ET AL., (1999) WEAVER++

Is processing interactive or discrete?

(Is everything activated all the time or do you have to process language in stages?)

Answer 37

According to Levelt phonological similarity should not affect processing of competing items but a number of researchers have found evidence that it does …

If processing of spoken words is discrete and feedforwards (Levelt) phonological processing should only occur for items that have been selected and should not be affected by ‘non target’ information.

If processing of spoken words is interactive and parallel (Dell, 1986) phonological processing is likely to occur for all items that are related by semantics and/or phonology to the target item.