Language and cognition

Question 1

Cognitivism

Answer 1

focus on mental processes and representations. Information processing: humans = limited capacity information processors. - input/processing/memory/output

Question 2

working memory

Answer 2

A cognitive workbench. Complex system dependent upon attention resources and governed by a central executive. The central executive regulates attention (limited capacity) to the buffers. Phonological loop., visual-spatial sketchpad, episodic buffer

Question 3

Central executive

Answer 3

phonological loop, visa-spatial sketchpad, episodic buffer. This model proposes different memory buffers for different modalities; information decays rapidly

Question 4

Evidence for central executive

Answer 4

modality-specific interference versus cross-modality interference. Word length effect. If tapping the same modality, performance goes down. If different, no effect. WM capacity correlated with Stroop task performance

Question 5

Worming memory in reading

Answer 5

espcecially important for word learning and morphology. Negatively correlated with math anxiety; positively correlated with language/reading

Question 6

Different types of long term memory

Answer 6

procedural memory and declarative memory (episodic and semantic). In language use, all components of memory come together.

Question 7

Semantic memory and the lexicon

Answer 7

concepts interconnected. Nodes/each with a resting state and activation threshold. Associations = links. Concepts accessed through spreading activation. Quantify connections (x,y,z) and see how often they occur.

Question 8

Evidence for network of interconnected concepts

Answer 8

importance of priming studies, indicate that when you hear/read a word, you partially activate “connected” words. Make decision faster if banana after fruit.

Question 9

Decay is ____ and ____ for network of interconnected concepts

Answer 9

temporal and spatial

Question 10

Not all connections are facilitatory. Inhibition

Answer 10

from word form/sound similarity (the neighbouhood densityy is the number of similar sounding words. Oe phoneme difference rule. Testing neighbours, slower to respond if more neighbours. Have longer processing time for words that have more neighbours

Question 11

Types of connections

Answer 11

semantic, phonological, lexical, morphology, syntax

Question 12

Types of syntactical relations

Answer 12

paradigmatic relation (can substitute for each other in phrase/sentence.
Syntagmatic relation: occur together in phrases/sentances

Question 13

Semantic networks may relate to neurological organization. Evidence

Answer 13

Selective impairment in adult neurogenic patients. Issues identifying one particular group of things (animals, fruits, etc.) and nothing else

Question 14

Central issues in language processing (4)

Answer 14

1) serial versus parallel processing
2) top-down and bottom-up processes
3) Automatic versus controlled processe
4) Modularity

Question 15

Serial veruss parallel processing

Answer 15

Serial isn’t accurate. Parallel distributed processing (PDP). Parallel ~simultaneously. Simultaneous rather than.or in addition to spreading activation.
~distributed: information stored as a pattern of activity rather then as a single node.
- the triangle model - influential working model of word recognition; parallel activation for letters, sounds, words, meaning. Parallel processing -encodes statistical relations between patterns of letters and their pronunciation/ Helps us understand anomia (cat probably made up of 10s of thousand of neurons. More complicated than branc model)

Question 16

Automatic versus controlled processes

Answer 16

continuum from highly controlled to entirely automatic. Automatic - unconscious, unintentional

Question 17

Modularity

Answer 17

independence of language system from though. Independence of language knowledge systems from each other - related to localized function in the brain. Evidence for modularity is the development phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics