Psychology of Language Flashcards
What is language?
It is a system of communication
What is a key feature of language?
Motivation to share psychological states is key to language
What does not always require language?
Communication
What are key features of language?
Language :
- is universal
- comes in different forms/modalities
- is combinatorial, there is a relatively small inventory of basic elements e.g. few dozen speech sounds (phonemes)
What are linguistic symbols?
They are abstracted
What is the brain composed of?
Grey and white matter
What is grey matter?
It is neuronal cell bodies
What is white matter?
Axons, myelin, and glial cells
What is the cerebral cortex divided by?
It is divided by 2 hemispheres
What is each hemisphere in the cerebral cortex composed of?
Composed of 4 lobes;
frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital lobe
What does the “sylvian fissure” ( also called “lateral fissure”) do?
It divides the temporal lobe from the parietal and frontal lobe
What does each lobe have?
Each lobe has a characteristic set of gyri and sulci (folds of cortex)
What is the sulcus?
It is the crevis or inner part of the fold
What is the gyrus?
It is the outer part of the fold.
What are Brodmann areas?
They are the regions of the brain defined by layered composition of cells (cytoarchitecture)
Where is language centred in the brain?
Language is often left lateralised
What are the four main landmarks of functional neuroanatomy?
1 - auditory
2-action and motor control
3- planning, cognitive control
4- visual object recognition
What are the two general methods used to study brain behaviour relationships?
1- lesion method
2-neuroimaging
What is the lesion method?
The idea here is to look at patterns of deficits following brain damage, particularly associations between location of brain damage and the deficit patterns that result from the damage.
What is possible to create using virtual lesions?
we can temporarily disrupt processing in a particular brain area, which gives us precise control over the lesion location and an opportunity to test multiple lesion locations in a participant
What does neuroimaging involve?
Involves taking structural images (like x-rays) to show different kinds of brain tissue in different places.
What are examples of neuroimaging?
Voxel-based morphometry, lesion-symptom mapping, diffusion tensor imaging (white matter structure)
What is functional (or metabolic) imaging?
This is where we can track the compensatory flow of oxygenated blood as an indirect measure of which parts of the brain are engaged in a task.
How can electrical activity in the brain be recorded?
You can use EEG/MEG at the scalp or intracranial EEG in the case of neurosurgical patients
Who proposed the idea of forms, that concepts are metaphysical objects outside the human mind?
Plato
What are key concepts taken from Pluto’s idea?
Noting the difference between Prototypes and exemplars
What is an example of a prototype and exemplar?
Prototype - general concept of a chair
Exemplars - specific chairs encountered
What can concepts also be thought of as?
Concepts can be thought of as symbolic representations defined by a list of necessary and sufficient features.
What are concepts?
Concepts are a perceptual symbol system
What is simulation or re-enactment?
The process of perception and action features being activated during semantic cognition is called simulation or re-enactment
When can category-specific semantic deficits occur?
After a stroke when patients have a hard time with one particular conceptual category like animals
What is sensory-functional distinction?
It is when different categories rely on different features
e.g. animals and plants are primarily defined by sensory knowledge (colour, shape, taste etc.) whereas inanimate objects (e.g. tools) are defined more by their functions and associated actions
What categories will damage to action systems have a bigger effect on?
Categories that rely on action (e.g. tools)
What categories will damage to colour systems have a bigger effect on?
Categories that rely on colour (e.g. living things)
What does the Saphir-Whorf hypothesis propose?
Proposes that how we think is affected by the language we speak
What is lexical development focused on?
Lexical development is how kids learn words
How do children conquer this issue of understanding what sounds go with what meaning and what part of environment is relevant for this label?
The rely on multiple biases.
- One is whole object bias
- another is mutual exclusivity
- another is basic-level
How do kids identify verbs?
They use suffixes
What is syntactic bootstrapping?
Sentence structure gives some clues to verb meaning. -can also be uses for nonsense verbs
What is categorical perception?
That is we perceive speech sounds due to their categories without acoustic details
Speech perception is not just auditory. Humans use a variety of other info to supplement the acoustic info, especially context. What are two types of context.
1- visual context
2- lexical knowledge/context
What are the three effects associated with lexical knowledge/context?
1- word superiority effect
2- ganong effect
3- phoneme restoration
What is the word superiority effect?
This is where phonemes are recognised faster than in nonwords
What is the Ganong effect?
This is where ambiguous speech sounds tend to be heard in a word consistent way
What is Phoneme restoration?
This is where replacing a phoneme with a noise burst produces perception of noise and phoneme
What is an important consequence of top down lexical feedback?
Tuning speech categories/perception
What is syntax?
It is mechanism that allows sentence structure to convey meaning
In English what is a primary aspect of syntactic structure?
word order
What can rules be in syntax?
Rules can be useful pedagogical device
What is a syntax paradox?
If we think about language processing in terms of formal rules, we end up with a paradox called a syntax paradox
What is one of the first grammatical things that kids learn?
They learn that some words are actions (verbs) and some are objects (nouns)
What is the distinction between actions and objects?
It is both semantic (actions are different from objects) and syntactic (how the words are used)
What did Toby Mintz find?
He analysed corpora of child directed speech and found “frequent frames”
What are frequent frames?
Frequent frames are a small number of contexts (frames) that provide very accurate categorizations of around 50% of words that a child hears
What is human language labelled as?
Quasi-compositional
What is sentence parsing?
Is when a sentence describes an event or situation with a hierarchical set of relations
What are the four principles of sentence parsing?
- it is interactive: influenced by context + other constraints
- it is incremental: syntactic parsing begins with 1st word
- it is parallel: multiple parses are considered
- it is competitive: grammatical ambiguity takes time to resolve, requires additional resources
What is a piece of key evidence for syntactic structures?
syntactic priming
What is syntactic priming an important aspect in?
It is an important aspect of:
- structural alignment between speakers
- connecting language processing with other cognitive processes
How is syntactic priming important in structural alignment between speakers?
The priming effects creates a feedback loop
i.e. using a passive construction will make it more likely that the person who you are talking to will use one etc.
How do we often think about speech production?
It is useful to think about speech production as one kind of skilled sequential action.
In the domain of action control, they are two important loops. What is the first loop?
First loop is when you make a motor plan → send the plan to the effectors (limbs) to execute the plan → monitor the execution with your sensors → and adjust as needed
What is an issue with the first loop?
If there is an error in the plan, then correction can only happen AFTER the error occurs, is perceived, and adjustment can be formulated and executed. This is far too slow.
What is the second loop of action control called?
A forward model
What does the second loop of action control stimulate and generate?
It stimulates the plan and generates a correction signal before the action is completed.
The planning and monitoring for speech production occurs at multiple levels. What are the two important ones?
- ) articulatory-phonological
2. ) lexical-syntactic
What is articulatory-phonological about?
It is about articulating the actual sounds coming out your mouth
What is lexical-syntactic about?
It is about the sequence of words you’re using to communicate the meaning of your sentence.
What does the articulatory system consist of?
It consists of two main components known as the source-filter model of speech production
What is the source-filter model of speech production?
It is an useful analytical model of how speech sounds are produced, which emphasizes the independence of the source of sound in the vocal tract form the filter that shapes that sound to have its specific qualities
What is the source in the source-filter model of speech production?
The source is air coming from your lings and vibration of the vocal folds. This is essentially fixed and defined by basic anatomy
What is the filter in the source-filter model of speech production?
The filter is the configuration of articulators (tongue, lips, jaw, soft palate[velum]) which you can control. By changing the configuration of these articulators you can produce different speech sounds.
Generally, how do we produce words?
We produce speech sounds in the context of saying words
What is the two step interactive model of word production as a diagram?
semantics
↕
words
↑ ↕
input phonology → output phonology
What are the two steps in the two step interactive model of word production?
step 1: identify the concept you want to name and select appropriate name → semantic-lexical mapping
step 2: planning out the sequence of phonemes and articulatory movements needed to produce it → lexical-phonological mapping
Where does key evidence for this two step model come from?
comes from the pattern of errors
What are semantic errors?
That would be saying DOG instead of CAT which is semantically similar to a cat
What is mixed errors?
That would be saying RAT instead of CAT which is both semantically and phonologically similar to cat
What is a semantic error an example of?
It is an example of error in the first step of the two step interactive model as lexical mapping would produce a different word that is semantically related to the target
What are errors in multi-word utterances sometimes called? and why is this?
Sometimes called ‘spoonerisms’ after William Archibald Spooner
What are the three different forms of error? and explain them.
1) exchange error - where 2 sounds from different words are swapped
2) preservation error - where sound from one word is carried into a subsequent word
3) anticipation error - where a sound from an upcoming word is produced too early
What is an important thing about errors in sentences?
They reveal how speech planning works e.g. you can only make an anticipatory or exchange error if you’ve planned a few words ahead
What are dysfluencies?
These are pauses in speech, sometimes filled with something like “uh” or “um” or “er”
What do dysfluencies suggest?
They suggest that planning is not complete
What is a standard way of measuring non fluency or agrammatism?
A standard measure is to elicit semi-structured speech by asking participant to tell a fairy tale.
What are syntax comprehension deficits associated with?
They are associated with posterior damage
What are syntax production deficits associated with?
They are associated with frontal damage
What is the posterior temporal-parietal area thought to be responsible for?
It is thought to be doing syntax parsing, that linear-to-hierarchical transformation is important for both sentence comprehension and production
What is the anterior (frontal) area is thought to be doing?
It is thought to be doing action planning, which is primarily relevant for sentence production.
What does damage to the anterior (frontal) area produce?
Damage here will produce non-fluent speech by impairing planning/sequencing/articulation but won’t necessarily impair syntax processing
Languages change over time. This change is driven by trying to balance two opposing forces. What are they?
1- learnability (simplicity)
2- expressive power (precision)
What is learnability?
Language learners fail to learn the really complex/difficult features and those features will disappear from the language
What is expressive power?
If we want to express lots of different information, then we need to learn the language structures that allow that expression
How does language structure emerge?
It emerges from these opposing forces( learnability and expressive forces) wanting to communicate precise information but also wanting the learning task to be easy
What is common ground an example of?
It is an example of social processes in language as mutual knowledge, beliefs, and assumptions simplify communication
What is interactive allignment?
These are short-term changes that can happen within a conversation
What are communication accomodation?
They are social, historical and cultural forces that push speakers to adopt particular speech styles, which can be either convergent or divergent, or converge to some other/external target
What is phonetic accomodation?
It is where you start to sound more similar
Speech signal carries two broad kinds of information. What are they?
Linguistic: phonemes, words, syntax etc.
Indexical/social: information about the speaker, such as age, gender, cultural/geographic associations
What are social markers used for?
They are used to identify group membership, which provides bias for intergroup bias
What is intergroup bias?
Intergroup bias is favouring your in-group and discriminating against members of other groups
Language is a very reliable social marker. Why?
1- it’s salient and readily discriminable
2- it has individual and group properties
3- it is universal
Phonetic/ phonological variation contributes most strongly to dialect and social marking. Why?
1- its more frequent : present on pretty much every word
2- its slower to acquire and more difficult to fake, so its more reliable marker on strength/ duration of association
3- if the lexicon and grammar become too different, then communication will just break down; but phonology can vary quite a bit before communication breaks down
What are the three social factors that influence language change?
1- conscious awareness: explicit decisions, policies about language use vs subconscious stylistic drift
2- overt prestige: known associations with standardness or aesthetic/ moral evaluations like being “nicer”
3- planning: whether the language change was planned or unplanned
