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psychology 2b > language > Flashcards

language Flashcards

1
Q

what are the four main features of language?

A

symbolic
discrete
productive
combinatorial

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2
Q

what do we use language for?

A 
communication 
expression of emotion
social interaction
control the environment 
expression of social identity
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3
Q

4 aspects of language studied by psycholinguists

A

production
comprehension
acquisition
disorders

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4
Q

what does symbolic mean?

A

an element that bears no intrinsic resemblance to its referent

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5
Q

what does iconic mean?

A

an element that bears resemblance to its referent

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6
Q

advantages of language being symbolic

A

allows us to represent abstract concepts

can use words flexibly

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7
Q

disadvantages of language being symbolic

A

requires social interaction to learn

we need instruction and imitation

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8
Q

how is human language discrete?

A

it is made up of a finite number of elements
finite phonemes (sounds)
finite morphemes (smallest language unite that has meaning or grammatical function)
finite grammatical rules

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9
Q

how is human language productive?

A

can combine existing elements in new ways without limit as long as you follow the rules

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10
Q

what is recursion?

A

repetition of a rule or structure in a hierarchical way

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11
Q

what is the difference between linguistic competence and performance?

A 
competence = knowing the rules 
performance = what we actually produce/can comprehend
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12
Q

what is parsing?

A

determining the syntactic structure of a sentence

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13
Q

what is syntax-first account of processing language?

A

build a syntactic structure first and then process meaning of sentence

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14
Q

what is the process of minimal attachment?

A

you build the simplest syntactic structure possible

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15
Q

what is a garden path sentence?

A

sentence that leads you to incorrectly interpret the sentence and have to reassess further on in the sentence

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16
Q

what is an interactionist account of language comprehension?

A

suggests that syntax does not have a special role

people use whatever information is available to them at each point

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17
Q

what is an online measure of how people comprehend utterances?

A

measures interpretations ‘as they go’

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18
Q

what are offline measures of how people comprehend utterances?

A

measure final interpretation

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19
Q

what are the methods to measures of comprehension? (4)

A

self-paces reading
eye tracking (reading)
eye tracking (visual scene)
EEG

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20
Q

what is a saccade? (in eye tracking?)

A

a rapid jump between location

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21
Q

what is a N400?

A

negative spike in ERP
happens 400ms after onset of stimulus
when something is presented that they don’t expect

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22
Q

do we anticipate language? evidence.

A

evidence = boy looking at the cake after hearing ‘eat’
suggest we predict what kind of thing will be mentioned
but cannot completely predict as language is infinite

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23
Q

how do people make predictions?

A

they imagine what they would say

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24
Q

what is bottom-up processing?

A

it relies strictly on data
upwards processing from auditory input to meaning
phoneme determine morpheme - determine words - determine phrase - determine sentences - determine conversation

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25
Q

what is top-down processing?

A

use information from higher levels to process lower levels

use our knowledge and expectations to process & predict

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26
Q

what is word superiority effect?

A

people are quicker to recognise a letter if it is part of a read word rather than a pseudo word

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27
Q

washing machine experiment

A 
people were given a paragraph describing how to use a washing machine
some were given context
some weren't
those with context - recalled 5.8 ideas
without context - recalled 2.8 ideas
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28
Q

what effect does genre have on comprehension?

A

we comprehend text in a different way depending on the genre
news story - remember the gist
literacy story - remember the phrasing

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29
Q

what is inferencing?

A

reading between the lines

adding information to our situational model that is not explicitly said

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30
Q

three types of inferences

A

logical
bridging backwards
elaborative forward

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31
Q

what are logical inferences?

give an example.

A

inferences that are logically implied by the meaning of the words

e. g. infer a widow is a woman
e. g. infer a bachelor is a man

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32
Q

what are bridging backwards inferences?

give an example.

A

where we relate new information to old information

e.g. a king’s son is previously mentioned, we infer the the later mentioned ‘prince’ is that son

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33
Q

what are elaborative inferences?

give an example.

A

using our world knowledge to extend what is said

e.g. hear ‘the actress fell from the 14th floor’ we infer that she dies

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34
Q

name three types of bridging inference

A

anaphoric/referential
instrumental
causal

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35
Q

what are anaphoric/referential inferences?

A

link an entity in one sentence to an entity in a previous sentence

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36
Q

what are instrumental inferences?

give an example.

A

making an inference based on what we know an object can do

e.g. know someone swept the floor. assume the later mentioned broom did the sweeping

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37
Q

what are causal inferences?

give an example.

A

infer that something in a previous sentence caused something in the next sentence
e.g. Sharron took an aspirin. her headache went away (infer that the aspirin made the headache go away)

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38
Q

what is a situational model?

A

a mental representation of the state of affairs described in the text

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39
Q

what is the iconicity assumption?

A

readers assume that the described order matches chronological order
–> the order events come in a sentence is the order they happened

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40
Q

what role does perspective play in comprehension?

A

we take the narrators perspective

we share what the narrator can or cannot see

41
Q

what is a semantic illusion?

A

when we fail to notice that linguistic input does not make sense

42
Q

when do semantic illusions occur

A
  1. when people aren’t warned
  2. when people are warned
  3. when people are asked to detect them
43
Q

what is the ‘Moses illusion’ referring to?

A

people are asked
‘how many of each animal did Moses put on the arc’
80% don’t notice that Moses is incorrect here

44
Q

what causes an increase in likelihood of illusion?

A

how much the imposter word and correct word overlap semantically
the number of words in the context that are associated with the real word
more related information to process

45
Q

how can we explain semantic illusions?

why do they occur

A

goal of comprehension is to construct a coherent mental representations - we try to be efficient by taking short cuts when we think we can
cooperative speaker hypothesis - we answer the question we assume they meant to ask
shallow processing - process words less deeply when they are a good fit to the situation

46
Q

examples of ways to direct focus

A

put a word at the end
pause after a word
put it in bold

47
Q

what are redundancy errors?

A

people fail to notice redundant words

e.g. if both many and often are used, people tend not to notice and skip over one of them

48
Q

what is a passive sentence?

A

when the subject has something done to it

49
Q

what is Gorsjean’s definition of bilingualism?

A

bilingualism is the use of two or more languages in one’s everyday life

50
Q

what is monolingual speech mode?

A

situations where only one language is being used

51
Q

what is language mode?

A

two languages can be used separately or together for different purposes/people

52
Q

what is bilingual speech mode?

A

both languages are being used

53
Q

what are some effects of bilingual speech mode?

A

code switching

word borrowing

54
Q

what are the three types of bilingualism?

A

simultaneous
early sequential
late

55
Q

what are the quantitative and qualitative difference between monolingual and bilingual infants?

A 
quantitative = reduced exposure from each language
qualitative = have to learn to detect the differences between the two languages
56
Q

at what age can infants discriminate between similar sounding languages?

A

4-5 months

57
Q

what is a phonetic repertoire and when is it developed?

A

the sounds you need to make up a language

developed at 6-12 months

58
Q

what method do monolingual children use when linking words to objects?

A

mutual exclusivity

59
Q

what areas of language are affected by bilingualism?

A

vocabulary size and verbal fluency

60
Q

what are verbal fluency tasks?

A

participants have to name as many words in a certain category as possible in a time period

61
Q

what advantages do bilinguals have?

A

enhanced executive control
delayed onset of dementia symptoms
can detect grammatical sentences even when they dont semantically make sense

62
Q

what are some properties of executive function?

A

control attention
inhibit distraction
expand working memory
switch between tasks without having to start again

63
Q

what is cognitive reserve?

A

the protection against cognitive decline that comes from engagement in stimulating intellectual, social and physical activities

64
Q

what is aphasia?

A

language disorder due to brain damage

65
Q

traditional aphasia/language in brain areas model

A

wernicke-lichtheim-geschwind

66
Q

what is the WLG model

A

made inferences about the relationship between brain and behaviour based on lesion studies and autopsies
thought there were three main areas in language
Broca’s area (production)
Wernicke’s area (comprehension)
arcuate fasciculus (join them together)
language function is lateralised in the brain (left side)

67
Q

where is Broca’s area?

A

left frontal lobe

68
Q

what is Broca’s area responsible for?

A

language production

69
Q

where is Wernicke’s area?

A

left temporal lobe

70
Q

what is Wernicke’s area responsible for?

A

language comprehension

71
Q

what are the symptoms of Broca’s aphasia?

A

comprehension is intact
production in non-fluent (word forms and grammatical constructions particularly simplified)
repetition impaired

72
Q

what are the symptoms of Wernicke’s aphasia?

A

impaired comprehension and repetition
excessive and empty speech
paraphasia

73
Q

what is paraphasia?

A

wrong combination of words and morphemes

74
Q

what is neologisms?

A

making up new words

75
Q

what are the problems with WLG?

A

over simplification
actually many areas involved in language
language is processed in the right hemisphere too

76
Q

what language functions are processed in right hemisphere?

A

pragmatics

77
Q

why is voxel-based lesion mapping good?

A

it keeps the richness of lesion location and linguistic ability

78
Q

what is network topology?

A

looking at the size and shape of the parts of the brain

79
Q

what is left frontal lobe damage associated with?

A

fluency deficits

80
Q

what is left temporal lobe damage associated with?

A

comprehension deficits

81
Q

how many irregular verbs?

A

180

82
Q

what is anomia?

A

impairment in word finding - end up using grammatical rules too much

83
Q

what is aggramatism?

A

impairment in producing fluent grammatical sequences

84
Q

what effects does Alzheimer’s have on grammar?

A

more problems with irregular verbs due to damage in temporal lobe

85
Q

Do Parkinson’s patients have more problems with regular or irregular verbs?

A

regular

86
Q

what problems do Huntington’s patients have with grammar?

A

produce extra suffixes

cannot suppress applying the rule

87
Q

what does damage to Broca’s area mean for sign language?

A

very simple signs, mostly nouns, little inflection

88
Q

what does damage to Wernicke’s area mean for sign language?

A

regular output fluency but lots of meaningless signs and paragrammatical errors

89
Q

what is a speech act?

A

utterances that serve a function in communication

90
Q

five purposes of speech acts

A 
representative
declarative
directive
expressive
commissive
91
Q

what is an indirect speech act?

A

the speaker’s intention is not revealed through their words and the listener has to infer what they mean

92
Q

what are grice’s maxims?

A

quality
quantity
relevance
manner

93
Q

what are conversational implicatures?

A

type of inference that allows us to work out what the speaker intends to convey that they don’t directly express in their utterance

94
Q

what is audience design?

A

when you change the content and form of your utterance based on who the addressee is and what they know

95
Q

what is common ground?

A

information that you and the addressee share

96
Q

how do we come to have common ground?

A

physical co-presence
community membership
linguistic co-presence

97
Q

when do speakers use more specific names over base level names?

A

when the context requires it

when they have linguistic common ground

98
Q

what causes pragmatic impairments?

give examples

A 
developmental difficulties (e.g. autism)
RHD damage (e.g. from stroke)

psychology 2b (4 decks)

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