Lecture 5: Language and Attention

Question 1

What is RJA?

Answer 1

responding to joint attention

Question 2

Is RJA exclusive to humans? Explain.

Answer 2

No. It is a passive way of paying attention to another agent and another being doing something, which other primates (i.e. apes) do as well.

Question 3

What is IJA?

Answer 3

Initiating joint attention

Question 4

Is IJA exclusive to humans? Explain.

Answer 4

IJA is more exclusive to humans than RJA. IJA requires a deeper understanding of attention and intention of others. Apes have very limited use of IJA.

Question 5

Describe the connection between frontal and posterior (back of the brain) attention systems and IJA and RJA. Give examples including autistic and blind children.

Answer 5

IJA requires more connection between FRONTAL and POSTERIOR attention systems than RJA.
The FRONTAL attention systems are EXECUTIVE = controlled attention (IJA is localized in the front parts of the brain).
The POSTERIOR systems are responsible for unconscious processing (RJA is localised in the posterior parts of the brain. They are also responsible for receptive joint attention).

Autistic children have poor connection between FRONTAL and POSTERIOR attention systems. They have worse IJA and social cognition and a harder time recognizing emotion in themselves and others. Language acquisition is more difficult for autistic children.

Blind children cannot rely on visual information for RJA. They learn to use other sensual exchanges with people.

Question 6

What does the social COGNITIVE MODEL state? Explain the experiments with the correct ages of the babies. What are the problems with this model?

Answer 6

The social cognitive model states that social cognition is necessary for the development of joint attention (RJA, IJA).

Social cognition is developed between 9 and 12 months.

9 months olds babies would look in the direction the experimenter turned their head regardless of whether they had their eyes open or closed.

10 months olds or older babies not, as they already understand that if the experimenter has their eyes closed there’s nothing to see there

Problem
9-month-olds (with social cognition) follow head tilt with closed eyes
6-month-olds (with no social cognition) develop RJA

Question 7

What do you know about the Broadmann areas in the brain?

Answer 7

Broadmann identified 52 areas in the brain of mammals. However, humans appear to have only 43. They miss areas associated with smell or hearing abilities that only animals possess. Broadman areas in human brains are still numbered 1-52, some numbers in the middle are missing.

Question 8

Is GREY or WHITE matter more relevant for this course? Explain

Answer 8

As the GREY matter in the CEREBRAL CORTEX is responsible for PERCEPTION and COGNITION and the WHITE matter (fat substance) only consists of SYNAPTIC CONNECTIONS, only GREY matter is relevant.

Question 9

How are the 2 attention components called? What do they do?

Answer 9

• Orienting (selects relevant information)

- Alerting (maintains a state of focus on the selected stimuli)

Question 10

How do early psycholinguists respond to the question “ Is language processing an automatic or conscious process?”

Answer 10

• Language processing is automatic
• Language is modular, (modular = there are specializations for certain domains). It processes its information first inside itself, and after that this output could be used by other cognitive mechanisms.
• No attention is required

Question 11

What do you know about the cerebral cortex?

Answer 11

• outer layer of the brain
• 2,5 mm thick
• grey matter
• responsible for cognition
• gurys = “hills”, sulcus = “valley” (for visual clarification google “cross-section fo the brain” or something like that)

Question 12

What are “saccades”?

Answer 12

Eyes in motion/ rapid shifts

Question 13

Describe the Serial Model of word processing.

Answer 13

• We process lines word-by-word; no words are skipped, we move onto the next one after we finished processing the current one
• When attention is shifted, that means processing is completed
• EZ model by Rayner et al, 2009)

Question 14

What is “triangulation”?

Answer 14

Infant, caregiver, object. Triangulation is term used in early language acquisition. Here, joint attention comes into play as the child initiates attention while interacting with the caregiver.

Question 15

Language processing ‘controlled’ or ‘automatic’ ?. (+modularity of language)

Answer 15

Mental processes are ‘automatic’ when they do not require attentional resources and can run on their own. According to early psycholinguists and cognitive psychologists, language processing is automatic and happens without interference, untouchable, not controllable.

‘controlled’ processes call for voluntary engagement and attention is needed

Language is modular, (modular = there are specializations for certain domains). It processes its information first inside itself, and after that this output could be used by other cognitive mechanisms.

Question 16

What are the names of the 4 brain lobes?

Answer 16

Temporal lobe (sides), Occipital lobe (back), frontal lobe (front), parietal lobe (middle).

Question 17

How are the electrodes of an EEG cap labeled?

Answer 17

5 regions: frontal, central, parental, occipital and temporal
C for horizontal line (from ear to ear), Z for vertical line (from forehead to neck).
The electrode right on top in the middle of your head is called “CZ”.
Odd numbers = left side.
Even numbers = right side.

Question 18

What is the problem with EEG? What is an alternative method to overcome this specific problem?

Answer 18

Poor spatial resolution. fMRI makes 3D measurements of the brain.

Question 19

What are the 3 different components EEG signals are categorized with?

Answer 19

Polarity ( +/P, -/N )
Latency (how much time after presenting the stimulus do we measure the signal? Measured in milliseconds)
Scalp distribution

Question 20

Do we have sufficient information after one single EEG measurement?

Answer 20

No; Micro-voltage fluctuation occurs all the time, so we present the same kind of stimulus material over and over again, then we average the brain response

Question 21

What is ERP?

Answer 21

Event-related potential; electrical signals in the brain responding to stimulus

Question 22

What is SLI, and how does it connect to attention?

Answer 22

SLI (Specific Language Impairment) is a developmental language disorder. It affects phonological, semantic and syntactic processing.

Besides their language problems, children with SLI develop normally.

SLI also causes a deficit in sustained attention.
In a study, they showed children (some of whom with SLI) a red square of a screen. The children had to react whenever the square became a circle. Children with SLI reacted more slowly and with more errors than the non-SLI group.

Question 23

How does Parkinson’s disease affect language in a patient?

Answer 23

Patients with Parkinson’s (neuro-degenerative disease that affects attention and memory networks) usually have a hard time focussing on words and retrieving them.
They are also unable to identify phonetic and semantic errors in a sentence.

Question 24

What do people with dyslexia suffer from?

Answer 24

hard time reading (Visual attention deficit)

Question 25

What can we say about fixations of eye gaze while reading concerning frequency of the word, grammatical category and phonological complexity ?

Answer 25

• Frequency of the word: if they are frequent, we read them quicker
• Grammatical category: words that do not have much meaning are skipped (to, and,…)
• Phonological complexity: the more sounds, the longer it takes to read them

Question 26

Describe the Parallel Model of word processing.

Answer 26

• Multiple words may be processed at the same time
• With full view vision, you don’t just see a word, you see more of them
• Simultaneous integration takes place
• SWIFT model, Engbert et al, 2005

Question 27

What is automatic spreading activation (ASA)?

Answer 27

Automatic spreading activation (ASA) (semantic priming) refers to the observation that a response to a target (e.g., dog) is faster when it is preceded by a semantically related prime (e.g., cat) compared to an unrelated prime (e.g., car).

Question 28

Is the processing of semantics in speech a controlled or automatic process?

Answer 28

Controlled

Question 29

Is the processing of syntactic in speech a controlled or automatic process?

Answer 29

Automatic

Question 30

What are the requirements for something to be modular? Does language meets them? Did those requirements change over time? Is language still seen as modular?

Answer 30

The requirements are being domain-specific and automatic, and yes, language meets those requirements.
However, nowadays we are less strict with our definition of modularity.
Example: one of the requirements of modularity is fixed neural architecture. However, language shares its architecture with other cognitive processes. Despite that, language is still seen as modular.