Language comprehension (understanding)

Question 1

A homograph is a word that is

Answer 1

Spelt the same as another word but doesn’t have the same meaning

Question 2

Speech is ambiguous because

Answer 2

The speech stream is a continuous stream of sound

Question 3

If you are unable to hear all the sounds in the word you will

Answer 3

Fill in the gaps by activating mental representations of the words

Question 4

The mental lexicon is accessed…

Answer 4

via activation of mental representations

Question 5

Does ‘frequency’ affect the speed with which a mental representation of a word is accessed?

Answer 5

yes

Question 6

Does ‘neighbourhood density’ affect the speed with which a mental representation of a word is accessed?

Answer 6

yes

Question 7

Does ‘semantic association’ affect the speed with which a mental representation of a word is accessed?

Answer 7

yes

Question 8

Does ‘speech onset’ affect the speed with which a mental representation of a word is accessed?

Answer 8

no

Question 9

If the following sentence is presented ‘she touched the bark of the oa_’ priming should be found for ‘tree’ because it is related to ‘oak’, but will priming also be found for ‘porridge’ because it is related to oat?

Answer 9

yes (/probably)

Question 10

What is phoneme restoration?

Answer 10

If gap in word = dont hear all then find hard to fill in blank e.g. if someone coughed, but can understand the word as we already know it
= strong evidence for the mental lexicon= access the phonological representation of word

Question 11

What are homophones?

Answer 11

words that sound the same e.g. muscle and mussel

Question 12

What are homographs?

Answer 12

Words that are spelt the same e.g. bow (tie) and bow (arrow)

Question 13

What are homonyms?

Answer 13

Words that sound are are spelt the same e.g. bank £££££££££££££ and bank river

Question 14

What are homophones, homographs and homonyms an example of?

Answer 14

Word level ambiguity

Question 15

What is coarticulation?

Answer 15

They way a word changes because of its environment
- depending on what word is coming up next the sound of the preceding word can change e.g. pass me thin book= mouth has to close before b for book= sounds more like an m
but look at the thin carpet= mouth stays open so is clearer
the phoneme /n/ is pronounced differently is an allophone

Question 16

What can categorical perception help us do?

Answer 16

speak
= can distinguish between two sounds easily because we are involved to do so
- not unique to humans, can train animals to do so e.g. chinchillas
= inherent in us

Question 17

Does categorical perception help us understand speech streams?

Answer 17

yes, helps unpick whats going on as we can discriminate between particular sounds, and language evolved to use the sounds

Question 18

What did Werker test with children?

Answer 18

whether they had categorical perception,
could discriminate sounds in children = ba,da in hindi that english speaking adults couldnt
= lose this ability by 10m

Question 19

Why is there ambiguity in speech streams?

Answer 19

• Because its impossible to know where one word ends and another one starts
• There are no logical breaks
• With some soundwaves when it looks like there is a break there isnt actually a break

Question 20

How are words recognised in the mental lexicon?

Answer 20

frequency and length of a word will make them quicker/slower to be accessed in lexicon
- low frequency = harder to find = slower

Question 21

What is neighbourhood density?

Answer 21

Words that sound similar
- when we have a lot= become active in the mental lexicon
when semantic activation, also activates words that are phonetically related e.g. tiger and tie
Luce and pisoni 98 =if lots of neighbours = slow

Question 22

What basis do we access lexical items?

Answer 22

• Acoustic input
• Lexical characteristics e.g. frequency, neighbourhood density
• Prediction
  Lexical items with similar phonology or semantics are activated

Question 23

Is lexical activation like a dictionary ?

Answer 23

not at all

Question 24

What is the process of access/activation of lexicons?

Answer 24

1st have to activate word in mental lexicons, then select word and integrate it into the structure to understand what the sentence may be

Question 25

What is the impact of context?

Answer 25

• Helps us predict
• word monitoring= marslen-wilson and taylor 80
  = THE COHORT MODEL
  = listen to speech stream and monitor partic word
  = when its presented they also have to say the word
• clock time when start to speak= speech onset
  when sentence made sense = said motorway before hear end of word
  when didnt make sense= lot slower
  = EVIDENCE in mental lexicons that when hearing speech= you’re working oujt what it means and given the ability to predict what is coming next
  = PREDICTS WHATS COMING UP NEXT AND ACTIVATES THEM IN THE MENTAL LEXICON

Question 26

What did Zwitserlood 1989 study?

Answer 26

lexical access
-Cross modal priming task
-Present prime word = auditory
-Target word= visual 
e.g. prime =captain
- 
FOUND :despite fact that sentence tells you what will be coming up at the end- priming for both ship and slave
THUS CONTEXT NOT AFFECTING PREDICTION AS MUCH AS WOULD EXPECT

Question 27

Why was the cohort model revised ?

Answer 27

To account for the non-effect of context- to allow for these effects
- Context influences integration of word into sentence, not lexical selection
- Means lexical selection = initial activation of words = so this is not affected by context = shown by Zwitserlood
- INITIAL ACTIVATION IS MOTIVATED BY BOTTOM UP PROCESSES
- Competitor effects leave one word more active than others
Active = in relation to activation of neurons

Question 28

What methods are used to assess language comprehension?

Answer 28

• word monitoring
• lexical decision task
• cross modal priming
• sentence priming

Question 29

What is the lexical decision task?

Answer 29

Pts say whether think words on screen are a real word or not
can be combined with a prime e.g. doctor, word is nurse
- prime word= designed to get the lexicon going, should mean the word nurse is already active before its presented
= should react quickly
-when isnt related= need to activate word from scratch = slower