Language Comprehension

Question 1

what is NOT evidence for the strong phonological model of reading?

Answer 1

Orthographic neighbours

Question 2

An individual with phonological dyslexia would:

Answer 2

Have difficulties reading words/non-words

Question 3

Which cue helps us deal with variability when perceiving speech?

Answer 3

Coarticulation

Question 4

what are the 2 main levels of sentence comprehension analysis?

Answer 4

1. Syntactical structure
   ○ Analyse the rules (e.g. word order) for the formation of grammatical sentences
   ○ Parsing= pulling apart of a sentence
   ○ Syntax= words order, rules for formation of grammatical sentences
   PARSING
2. Sentence meaning
   ○ Analyse the intended, as opposed to literal, meaning (e.g. irony, sarcasm)
   ○ Pragmatics= analysing the intended as opposed to the literal meaning.
   PRAGMATICS

Question 5

WHAT IS PARSING?

Answer 5

Separating things out and analysing them in pieces.
* Analyse the syntactic/grammatical structure of sentences

Question 6

what are the 4 different possibilities of when parsing is used?

Answer 6

1. Syntactic analysis occurs before semantic analysis
   § We explore grammatical structure before meaning of sentences
   2. Semantic analysis occurs before syntactic analysis
   § We explore the meaning of the sentence before grammatical analysis
   3. Syntactic and semantic analyses occur together
   § Both meaning and grammatical analysis occur together
   4. Syntax and semantics are closely related
   § They are pretty much the same thing so cant be explored separately.

Question 7

what ambiguous senteces?

Answer 7

• Don’t completely make sense, not as straight forward to understand.
  
  • Reveal information about the parsing process
  • Ambiguity at a global level
    ○ A whole sentence can have two or more meanings
  • Ambiguity at a local level
    ○ Various meanings possible at some point when parsing
    Particular aspect of the sentence that can change the meaning (where it is being parsed)

Question 8

what are prosodic cues?

Answer 8

• Make rapid use of prosodic cues to resolve ambiguity and facilitate understanding
  
  • Prosodic cues include:
    ○ Stress (or accent)
    § Stressing a particular word to emphasise it
    ○ Pauses
    § Natural pause in sentence to help it make sense
    ○ Intonation (rise/fall)
    § Loud and quite speech in a sentence
    ○ Rhythm
    § Some aspects quickly or slowly
    § Pace of speech
    ○ Word duration
    How long you hang onto a word in a sentence- emphasises them as a collective (if hanging on to multiple words)

Question 9

what are the two models of parsing?

Answer 9

• Divided into two categories
  
  1. Two-stage, serial processing models
     ○ (one step after the other)
     ○ e.g. Garden path model (Fraizier & Rayner, 1982)
  2. One-stage, parallel processing models
     ○ (multiple processes occur together)
     e.g. Constraint-based model (MacDonald et al, 1994)

Question 10

what is the garden path model?

Answer 10

• Misleading content/structure at the beginning of a sentence
  ○ Instantly make assumption of where the sentence is going
  ○ Reader enticed toward incorrect interpretation (i.e. led-down the garden path!)
  
  • Must retrace mental footsteps to find understandable alternative
    ○ When get to the second part of the sentence- retrace footpath to find the end of the sentence
    ○ Reinterpret the sentence
    * Detected by recording eye movements
    ○ Tells us where/when a reader has gone wrong and is re-reading a sentence
    ○ Read first part of the sentence, then the second, then go back to the beginning to make sense of it all.

Question 11

what type of processing is used in the garden path model?

Answer 11

• Two-stage, serial processing model
  ○ One step after the other

Question 12

what are the assumptions of the garden path model?

Answer 12

○ One syntactical structure (syntax) considered
○ Semantics (meaning) not involved initially
§ Just the grammatical structure
○ Simplest syntactical structure chosen using minimal attachment and late closure
○ If a sentence is incompatible with additional semantic information, interpretation revised (2nd stage)
§ Only when there is misinterpretation, do we begin to apply the semantic structure of the sentence to help us reinterpret what we originally interpreted.

Question 13

what is minimal attachment in the garden path model?

Answer 13

• Minimal attachment
  ○ Grammatical structure producing fewest nodes preferred
  § Nodes = major parts of sentence (e.g. nouns/verbs)
  
  • Few nouns or verbs a sentence has in a sentence, the better our brain understands it.
  • “by heart” doesn’t grammatically change the sentence which is why it is not considered as a node.
    Answer and knew are connected instantly in our brain
  • We prefer the first sentence because the noun and the verb link
  • Second requires more cognitive effort because there are more nodes than the first

Question 14

what are models of parsing within the graden path model?

Answer 14

• Late closure
  ○ New words encountered are attached to current phrase if grammatically permissible
  
  • Can track this with eye tracking movements

e.g.:
Grammatically, we put jog and mile together so works for the first sentence

The second sentence, we cant create “jog” and “mile” together as it creates ambiguity in the second sentence
Should have a pause after “jogs” so the sentence makes sense

Question 15

what are the strengths of the garden path model?

Answer 15

○ Provides a simple account
○ Use of principles reduced processing demands
§ As little cognitive demand on our processing of sentences as possible.
Syntax then meaning.

Question 16

what are the weaknesses of the garden path model?

Answer 16

○ Assumption that we do not use meanings of words initially is inconsistent with some evidence
§ We may actually use semantics initially.
○ Syntax then meaning can lead to ambiguities within sentences.
○ Do not always adhere to principles
○ No definitive test of model
○ Does not account for difference in languages that have a preference for early closure (e.g. Spanish, French)
Some concepts specific to English language- cant be generalised.

Question 17

what are the models of parsing for the constraint based model?

Answer 17

• One-stage, parallel processing model
  ○ Everything is happening at the same time
  
  • Makes the following assumptions
    ○ All sources of information (syntax, semantics, context) are available to parse
    ○ Constrain the number of possible interpretations
    § Analyse everything at the same time-
    ○ Competing syntactic analyses of a sentence activated at the same time
    § minimal number of interpretations.
    ○ Structure receiving most support from constraints is highly activated
    The one we tend to go to

Question 18

what are the strengths of the constraint based model?

Answer 18

○ Efficient that use all relevant information from the outset when interpreting sentences
§ Grammar and syntax at the same time
○ Able to account for more than one syntactic analysis at a time
Decide which is the best fit

Question 19

what are the weknesses of the constraint based model?

Answer 19

○ Unlike the garden path model, fails to make precise predictions about parsing
Don’t know the full extent to whether parsing happens because everything happens at the same time.

Question 20

what is the unrestricted race modle?

Answer 20

• Combines (best?) aspects of both garden path and constraint-based models
  
  • Makes the following three assumptions
    
    1. All sources of information used to identify syntactic structure of a sentence (constraint based model)
    2. All other structures are ignored, unless favoured structure disconfirmed by subsequent information (garden path model)
       If a chosen structure discarded, reanalysis undertaken before another structure chosen (garden path model)

Question 21

what are pragmatics?

Answer 21

• The study of intended (not literal) meaning
  ○ What they intend to say rather than what they are actually saying
• Figurative language = not to be taken literally
  ○ Metaphor
  ○ Irony
  Idiom

Question 22

how do we understand metaphors?

Answer 22

• Traditionally, assumed that understanding metaphorical statements is very effortful
  ○ Lots of cognitive effort
  
  • Two differing accounts
    
    1. Standard pragmatic model (Grice, 1975)
       Prediction model (Kintsch, 2000)

Question 23

what is the standard pragmatic model?

Answer 23

• Understanding metaphorical statements involves three stages
  1. Literal meaning first accessed
  2. Reader/listener decides if literal meaning makes sense
  3. If literal meaning inadequate, search for suitable non-literal meaning
  
  • Predicts metaphorical meaning accessed more slowly than literal one
    ○ Go straight to the literal meaning first
    But, some metaphors understood rapidly- so well rehearsed in our experience

Question 24

what is the prediction model?

Answer 24

• Understanding metaphorical statements involves two stages
  
  1. Latent semantic analysis
     ○ Represents the meanings of words based on relations with other words
     ○ Semantics= meaning
  2. Construction-integration
     ○ Use information from first stage to construct interpretation
     Construct interpretation from all knowledge gained

Question 25

what is common ground?

Answer 25

• Need to adopt the speaker’s perspective to comprehend what they are saying
  
  • Common ground = shared knowledge between speaker and listener
    ○ Work together to ensure mutual understanding
    Very attentionally demanding

Question 26

what are egocentric heuristics?

Answer 26

• Interpretation based on our own knowledge, rather than that shared with speaker
  ○ Use egocentric heuristics
  ○ When there is no shared understanding between you and the speaker
  
  • Often the cause of misunderstanding between listener and speaker
    Misinterpretation of language

Question 27

what are the 3 types of inferences?

Answer 27

• Three types of inference
  1. Logical
  ○ Depends on the meaning of words
  ○ Applying own meaning of words
  2. Bridging (or backward)
  ○ Establish coherence between current part of text and preceding text
  ○ New piece of information, applying meaning based on old information
  ○ Piecing two and two together
  3. Elaborative
  ○ Embellish, or add, details to text using knowledge to expand on information
  ○ Add details based on the knowledge you have to expand on info

Question 28

what are casual inferences?

Answer 28

• Two stages of forming causal inference
  1. Bonding
  ○ Automatic activation of words from preceding sentence
  ○ Bonding to similar words at semantic level together
  2. Resolution
  ○ Ensures interpretation is consistent with contextual information
  ○ As causal inference is built upon, there is a resolution of interpretation to ensure it is consistent with information already provided.

Question 29

what is an inference?

Answer 29

fill in the. blanks to make sense of something

Question 30

what is the schema theory?

Answer 30

helps with making inferences
* Description of a story is highly selective
* Relate information just read to relevant knowledge stored in long-term memory
* Knowledge stored in the form of schemas
○ Determine what we remember
Help us go to necessary info quickly soi they can be applied to an area of knowledge quickly
* Schemas can be defined as
○ ‘Packets’ of information about the world, events, people, actions etc.
* Contain information needed to understand language
* Allow the formation of expectations - minimal cognitive load possible.
○ Used to infer typical sequence of events
Make the world predictable, as our expectations are generally confirmed (but not always!)

Question 31

explain the importance of the title when provided with a shcema description?

Answer 31

• Hearing the passage in the absence of a title
  ○ Incomprehensible and not well-remembered
  
  • But, if provided title beforehand…
    ○ Easy to understand and greater recall
  • Scheme knowledge provided by title helped comprehension
    ○ If presented title after the passage, but before recall, less information remembered
    ○ Go to own interpretation of the scheme- overrides the info given
    (Bransford & Johnson, 1972)

Question 32

what are the strengths of the schema theory?

Answer 32

○ Schematic knowledge helps with text comprehension and general understanding
○ Accounts for errors and distortions
Beneficial in helping with our own understanding of experiences.

Question 33

what are the weaknesses of the schema theory?

Answer 33

○ Schema theories are hard to test
§ Hard to analyse under test conditions
○ When/how schemas are used is unclear
§ What stage do we unlock a schema- unknown
○ Exaggerate how error prone we are
Not always the case