Topic 11: Reading, Grammatical Processing, Language and memory communication

Question 1

Priming

Answer 1

Refers to the tendency to repeat or more easily process a current sentence that is similar to something you were just processing. People respond faster and more accurately to a word if its preceded by a related or identical word, compared to an unrelated word. Consider the following example.

a) My beautiful dress is made out of SILK.
b) What does the cow drink? (correct answer MILK)

Above you can see how the answer for B was already primed in A.

Question 2

Lexical Decision (Lexical Selection)

Answer 2

Selects appropriate lemmas from the mental lexicon. It creates a syntactic structure of the message. Since lemmas include information on the latter, the two are intertwined. The lexical decision task is the task in which individuals decide as rapidly as possible whether a letter string forms a word. e.g Caeefe, Cake, Caze, Casfse. In this string the lexical decision would decide that the second string forms a real word.

Question 3

Thematic relations

Answer 3

Used to explain the role that a noun phrase (substantiv) plays with respect to the action or state described by the governing verb, commonly the sentence main verb.

There are different thematic relations: e.g. agent, experiencer, theme, patient etc.
Consider the example below:

                     a) Susan ate an apple In this example, Susan is the doer of eating (agent) The apple is the item eaten (patient).

Question 4

Morton’s reading model (Logogen model)

Answer 4

Morton’s logogen model is a model of speech recognition that uses units called “logogens” to explain how humans comprehend spoken or written words. Logogens are a vast number of specialized recognition words, each able to recognise one specific word, such as their apprarance, sound and meaning
. This model provides for the effects of context on word recognition.

A critical element of this theory is the involvement of lexicons, or specialized aspects of memory that include semantic and phonemic information about each item that is contained in memory. A given lexicon consists of many smaller, abstract items known as logogens. As well as aspects of memory that includes semantic and honemic information about each item that is contained in memory.

Question 5

Dyslexia

Answer 5

• Dyslexia, also known as reading disorder, is characterised by trouble with reading despite normal intelligence.
• Different people are affected to varying degrees.
• Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, reading quickly, writing words, “sounding out” words in the head, pronouncing words when reading aloud and understanding what one reads.
• Treatment involves adjusting teaching methods to meet the person’s needs.

Question 6

Aphasia

Answer 6

• Aphasia is an inability to comprehend and formulate language because of damage to specific brain regions (neurological damage).
• Brocca’s aphasia is the inability to produce words that makes sense, it is due to damage on the Brocca’s area in the frontal lobe.
• Wernicke’s aphasia is the type of aphasia when the affected individual have trouble understanding spoken and/or written language. Due to damage in the temporal lobe.
• Causes: Stroke, head trauma, cancer affecting the brain.

Question 7

Morphosyntax

Answer 7

The internal structure or words (language) and the way words are put together to form a phrases or sentences:

             a) Hannah Hit Laura  - Means that "Laura was hit", however in some languages like Russian, the structure could be different.

Question 8

Codemodel message

Answer 8

Language works as a code, e.g. I have a thought in my head, and I have a code for this that I know that you know. And then I [send this message through my vocal cords] and then you decode the knowledge of this sentence.

Question 9

Grice-Model

Answer 9

• The Grice inferential model assumes that the meaning is not embedded in the code.
• It emphasises the role of intentions and recognition of intentions in communication. Inferences in decoding the real meaning of utterances (context matters)

Question 10

Connectionist models of reading:

Answer 10

• The Triangle model is one connectionist model.
• This general approach is known as the distributed connectionist approach or the triangle model.
• The three sides of the triangle are orthography (spelling), phonology (sound), and semantics (meaning).
• There are two routes from spelling to sound: (1) a direct pathway from orthography to phonology; and (2) an indirect pathway from orthography to phonology that proceeds via word meanings
• Generally receives good support.

Question 11

Sperber & Wilson’s model (Relevance theory)

Answer 11

Emphasize the role of intentions, and they subdivided the intentions into two groups, informative (cognitive) and communicative intentions. Consider the example
a) She was ready

This could mean that Mary was ready to be talen to pre-school, however its easy to imagine other scenario’s as well like “lady gaga was ready to enter the stage”.

According to the relevance theory we interpret things in a way that we interpret as most relevant for the context, and what we know about the person who talks (communicates).

Question 12

Relevance

Answer 12

• Relevance can be seen as a cognitive principle and as a principle of communication:

Cognitive: human info processing system will process the most relevant information available with minimising the efforts. The most useful information is extracted with the least amount of effort. This is context dependent.

Communication: On the communicator’s part he or she provide information that affords the newest conclusions (cognitive effect) to be drawn and processed with minimal effort. On the addressee’s part, he or she infer the meaning by keeping the principle of relevance in mind- expectation of relevance.

Question 13

Echolalia

Answer 13

Echolalia is a speech disorder, defined as the repetitions of vocalizations made by another person. It is automatic and effortless. Echolalia may be an immediate reaction to a stimulus it may also be a delayed reaction.

• Immediate echolalia: e.g. ask a patient if they are hungry, they echo back “are you hungry?” followed by a pause, and then a response “yes I am hungry”.
• Delayed echolalia: repeats words, phrases or multule sentences after a delay that can be anywhere from hours to years later.
• Mitigated echolalia: Refers to a repetition where the original stimulus is altered e.g. “where are you going?” and the patient echoes back “where am I going?”.
• Ambient echolalia: Refers to repetition of environmental stimuli such as a TV program running in the background.
• Clinical aspect: Echolalia can be an indicator of communication disorders in autism, but it may also occur in other disorders such as aphasia, schizophrenia, dementia, epilepsy, tourette’s syndrome, stroke patients etc.
• Non clinical: in a non pathological setting, this is common in young children who are first learning to speak, as it is a form of imitation, a necessary component of learning.