Lecture 9 Flashcards
1
Q
Psycholinguistics
A
The study of relationship between linguistic behaviour and psychological processes
2
Q
How do we study language
A
- Self-paced reading = see one word at a time, press space bar to go to next word and reading times are analysed
- Eye tracking = interested in fixation times
- EEG
3
Q
Moving window paradigm
A
- Example of eye tracking study
- As ppt looks at text
- Saccade = movement of eyes from one word to other
- In saccadic movement don’t process anything
- Info only processed in fixation
4
Q
Semantic memory and meaning
A
- How we understand words and order them
- Have nodes and a lot of association along content of node
Approaches:
- Need to know definitions to understand meanings –> problem = it can be never ending
- Derive our knowledge from what we see –> problem = not everything can be seen
5
Q
Semantic networks
A
- Network of unitary nodes and links between them
- Good for hierarchies
- Properties are inherited
- Predicts sentence verification times
6
Q
Evidence for semantic networks
A
- Sentence verification data
- Task = presented with sentence and have to report whether its true or false –> reaction times recorded e.g. if given ‘robin is a bird’, fast reaction as only one link made but if given ‘robin is an animal’ –> reaction slower as 2 links need to be made
- Other factors that influence processing are familiarity and typicallity
7
Q
Problems with network
A
-Need sufficient conditions to create a definition
8
Q
N400 effect study
A
Study:
- Presented sentences such as ‘The Dutch trains are yellow and very crowded’ = had no processing problems as was true
- Then said ‘Dutch trains are sour’ = had processing problems due to word sour
- Then said ‘Dutch trains are white’ = false due to world knowledge
- EEG measurements N400 suggests a mismatch –> found sentence 2 and 3 had N400 effect
9
Q
Parsing
A
- Analyses a sentence and figures out the links between the words in the sentence
- Parsa: The focus during sentence processing
- Syntactic analysis = analysis of sentence structure
Main approaches:
- Syntactic analysis precedes semantic analysis
- Semantic analysis occurs prior to syntactic analysis = not commonly found
- Syntactic and semantic analysis occur simultaneously
10
Q
Garden path model
A
- Syntactical analysis comes first
- Semantic analysis is needed after
- Semantic only occurs if there’s a problem with the syntactic method (try and attach next word with previous word)
11
Q
Constraint-based model
A
- Semantic and syntactic info at same time
- Grammatical knowledge contains interpretations
12
Q
Cognitive neuroscience
A
- Tested with an EEG
- Read or listened to the “the day was breezy, so the boy went outside to fly”
- Predicts percentage of how probable words occur in a certain context
- If people read “boy went outside to fly an aeroplane” - not very probable
- If read “boy went outside to fly a kite” - very probable
- Semantic info is rapidly available (constrain-based model)
13
Q
Meaning and knowledge inn context = EEG example
A
- Story was read about animated peanut
- Had to manipulate one of those words “peanut was salted/in love”
- In this context peanut was animate so could be in love
- Salted had an N400 effect
14
Q
Eye tracking example
A
- Read story about incredible hulk picking up lory
- Then read story about Terry picking up lory
- Testing whether ppts were happy to accept the stories
- No processing difficulties in sentences including the hulk
15
Q
Inferences
A
- If given sentence ‘If Mary heard the ice cream van. She remembered the pocket money. She rushed inside the house’
- If someone couldn’t make inferences they couldn’t connect the sentences together
Types of inferences:
- Logical inferences = based on meaning of words
- Bridging inferences = establish coherence between parts of texts
- Elaborative inferences = make use of world knowledge
- Emotional inference study:
- -> Story written to make you feel angry towards Tom for stealing money
- -> 2 conditions: matching (hearing that made Tom feel guilty) and mismatching (hearing that made Tom feel proud)
- ->Needed to know that proud was an inappropriate adjective word to use so was processed slower
16
Q
Inferences approaches
A
Constructionist approach:
-Make inferences automatically
Minimalist approach:
-Constraint on number of inferences automatically generated e.g. global inference is when you integrate all info in a text
17
Q
Individual differences
A
- Influence of working memory capacity
- Influence of reading skills
18
Q
Aphasia
A
-Impairment of language comprehension and production
19
Q
Broca’s aphasia
A
- Frontal lobe damage
- Non-fluent aphasia
- Impaired language production
- Comprehension intact
- Poor grammar
20
Q
Wernicke’s aphasia
A
- Temporal lobe damage
- Fluent aphasia
- Impaired language comprehension
- Lack of meaning
- Vaguely grammatical
21
Q
Anomia
A
- Impairment concerning ability to name objects
- Can describe objects but cant name them
- Fluent aphasia
22
Q
Agrammatism
A
- Patients can find word but cant put them together in correct structure
- Linked to damage in Broca’s area
23
Q
Brain regions for syntactic processing
A
- Phase structures = occurs in the frontal operculum and anterior superior temporal gyrus
- Figuring out relationship between sentence elements = Broca’s area
- Integration of lexical and syntactic info = posterior superior temporal gyrus
24
Q
Study comparing aphasic patients with controlled patients
A
- 3 pictures: woman hugging man, man hugging woman and distractor picture not hugging
- Given quote “woman is hugged by the man” –> had to decide which picture matched it
- Task involved Broca and Wernicke’s area
- Controls performed accurately
- Patients with damage to one of the areas performed poorly
- Syntactic processing reliant on pathways linking language regions
25
Q
Study looking subject relative clauses and object relative clauses
A
- Subject relative clause = If lawyer criticised doctor, the lawyer is a subject and doctor is the object
- Object relative clause = lawyer that the doctor criticised, lawyer becomes the object and the doctor becomes the subject
- Complex task which aphasic patients cant do
