Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM

Browse over 1 million classes created by top students, professors, publishers, and experts.


See full index

Psyc 251 > Topic 7: Language > Flashcards

Topic 7: Language Flashcards

1
Q

language

A

a systematic means of communicating information by the use of conventionalized sounds, gestures, marks, or signals having understood meaning

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

what is the function of human language?

A

to influence people’s behaviour by changing what they know, think, believe, or desire

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

what is the problem with language?

A

how to efficiently and expressively communicate information

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

what is the importance of language?

A

it is the basis for society; allows us to interact with each other in a way that goes beyond our immediate surroundings

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

what is the challenge of language?

A

the power of language lies in the seemingly conflicting needs for it to be shared between people and yet capable of expressing novel ideas

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

Language:

a) ____ information quickly
b) facilitates an _____ social network
c) ____ knowledge outside individuals
d) allows wisdom to ______ over generations
e) ____ to any time or place, real or imaginary
f) enables creative expression due to _____ and ______

A

a) communicates
b) interactive
c) stores
d) accure
e) refers
f) generatively; compositionality

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

phonemes

A
  • smallest unit of speech
  • different phonemes in different languages
  • 10-150 per language
  • language specific rules (phonology)
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

morphemes (5)

A
  • smallest unit that signals meaning
  • combination of phonemes
  • prefixes, suffixes, roots, or words
  • many thousand per language (morphology)
  • language specific rules
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

words (4)

A
  • smallest stand-alone unit of meaning
  • combinations of one or more morphemes
  • tens or hundreds of thousands per language
  • language specific rules (syntax)
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

phrases (4)

A
  • organized groupings of one or more words
  • role in grammar of sentences
  • almost limitless number
  • language specific rules (syntax)
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

sentences (4)

A
  • set of words/phrases that (in principle) tells a complete thought
  • can express a statement, question, exclamation, request, command, or suggestion
  • almost limitless number
  • sentences can be combined to form larger linguistic units (e.g. paragraphs)
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

what are Chomsky’s main principles?

A

language can’t be based solely on imitation, therefore we must learn a set of rules (grammar) that can be applied in a generative way; language must be determine by an inborn biological program

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

grammar

A
  • rules for language structure including morphology and syntax
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

morphology

A

rules for combining morphemes into words

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

syntax

A

rules for combining words into phrases into sentences

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

semantics

A

how meaning is derived from morphemes, words, phrases, and sentences

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

generative grammar

A

rules specify what orders and combinations word roles can occur in (e.g. noun phrase/verb phrase)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

what are two problems about relying on phrase structure alone?

A
  • one phrase structure, but two meanings

- two phrase structures, but one meaning

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

surface structure

A

phrase structure that applies tp order in which words are actually spoken

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

deep structure

A

fundamentally, underlying phrase structure that conveys meaning

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

transformational grammar

A

rules that transform among surface structures having the same deep structure

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
22
Q

ambiguity in language

A

multiple interpretations for the same thing; can provide insight into cognitive processing of language

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
23
Q

homonyms and homophones

A

homonyms: words represented by the same spelling, but have multiple meanings
homophones

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
24
Q

lexical ambiguity

A

when a word has two different meanings

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
25
Q

syntactic ambiguity

A

when words can be grouped together into more than one phrase structure

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
26
Q

referential ambiguity

A

when the same word/phrase can refer to two different things within a sentence

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
27
Q

explain each source of ambiguous meanings (genes; past experiences; internal states; environmental context; proximal stimulus)

A
  • genes: their genetic code; learned on the timescale of evolution
  • past experience: the language the participants have been exposed to in the past; learned on the timescale of a human life
  • internal state: their active goals, intentions, and feelings as they read the sentences; learned on the timescale of current episode
  • environmental context: the other words on the screen as they read the sentence; learned now
  • proximal stimulus: the ambiguous word itself
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
28
Q

McGurk effect

A

shows that our brain uses both auditory and visual information to comprehend spoken speech (how they physically act when speaking and what they’re saying)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
29
Q

when do children start to show preferences for their native phonemes

A

6 months

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
30
Q

when do children stop stop responding to phonetic elements of non-native language?

A

by 1 year

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
31
Q

when is a child’s critical period?

A

0-7 years

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
32
Q

T/F language-specific speech perception follows speech production

A

False

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
33
Q

phones vs. phonemes

A 
phones = actual sounds
phonemes = perceived sounds
34
Q

perceptual magnet effect/categorical speech perception

A

perceiving sound as it’s intended exemplar, even if it is not exactly that exemplar (e.g. categorizing a spectrum of in-between phones as the intended phoneme

35
Q

three major challenges of learning words

A

1) detecting words in stream of speech
2) figuring out rules for combining morphemes
3) figuring out what words mean

36
Q

three stages of past tense acquisition

A

1) small number of irregular verbs
2) learning “-ed” rule; regularization (rop->ropped); overregularization (give -> gived)
3) correcting overregularization

37
Q

connectionist theory

A
  • when someone is presented with a word, other words come to mind
  • connectivity of neural networks whose connection weight vary according to experience
38
Q

neural networks

A

artificial network o interconnected nodes whose connections change in strength as a means of solving problem

39
Q

poverty of the stimulus

A

children are not exposed to enough examples to learn grammar without a head start

40
Q

T/F We all have a hard-wired “language acquisition device”

A

true

41
Q

T/F each languages has its own specific rules and parameter setting

A

False: same general set of rules with different parameter settings

42
Q

T/F Learning a new language requires learning parameter settings

A

true! (e.g. SOV vs SVO)

43
Q

statistical pattern recognition

A

children are able to learn grammar solely from examples; the general machinery in the brain for detecting patterns is sufficient to learn the rules of language as we actually practice them

44
Q

Broca’s area

A

area in the ventral posterior region of the left frontal lobe that helps mediate language expression

45
Q

Broca’s aphasia (motor aphasia/production aphasia)

A

language deficit arising from damage to Broca’s area in the frontal love, and characterized by difficulty in the production of speech

46
Q

common effects of Broca’s aphasia

A
  • speech is laboured, slow, and nonfluent with awkward articulation
  • phonemic errors
  • written output shows same errors as speech
  • beter fluency for memorized phrases
  • singing may be more fluent than speech
  • comprehension is relatively spared
  • problems with language planning and production
47
Q

T/F Broca’s Aphasia is a result of a motor issue

A

false

48
Q

Patients with Broca’s aphasia often have greatest difficulty with ____, ____, and ____

A

verbs, articles, and pronouns

49
Q

Patients with Broca’s amnesia have problems understanding and using ____

A

syntax

50
Q

speech comprehension is fundamentally a ____ process

A

perceptual

51
Q

which lobe is responsible for the production of language and which is responsible for the comprehension of language?

A

pro- frontal (where motor functions are carried out)

com- temporal (where auditory functions are carried out)

52
Q

aphasia

A

difficulty producing or comprehending speech, even if vocal apparatus is fine

53
Q

Wernicke’s area

A

in the superior and posterior region of the left temporal lobe that helps mediate language comprehension

54
Q

Wernicke’s aphasia (receptive aphasia/sensory aphasia)

A

language deficit arising from damage to Werknicke’s area in the posterior temporal lobe and characterized by an inability to link objects or dead and the words that signify them and to subjectively comprehend this relationships

55
Q

speech difference in Broca’s aphasia and Wernicke’s aphasia

A

B - broken up, slow, not fluent, etc.
W - often superficially fluent and well sturucted but make little or no sense because words and meaning are not correctly linked

56
Q

common effects on Wenicke’s aphasia

A
  • speech is phonetically and grammatically normal but meaningless
  • generally fluent, unlabored, well articulate
  • normal intonation
  • words used inappropriately, nonsense “word salad”
  • meaning expressing in roundabout way
  • comprehension is severely impaired
  • problems translating auditory input into phonological forms that can then access semantics
  • problems with language comprehension
  • problems with understanding and using semantics
57
Q

what happened to the N400 component when a word was semantically inappropriate/unexpected (nonsensical) vs. when it the word had a larger font (and still sensical)

A

enhanced response to unexpected - because it wasn’t enhanced with the different size, we know it’s not just a response to anything different with it, but specifically language related

58
Q

what does the N400 wave reflect

A

stumbling over and reprocessing of language information that does not make sense (semantics)

59
Q

words used frequently in speech elicit _____ N400 waves than uncommon words do, suggesting that processing familiar language information requires _____ neural engagement

A

smaller; less

60
Q

homogenous worse elect a ____ N400 wave when embedded in a sentence that clarifies the intended meaning

A

smaller

61
Q

P600 wave has a positive shift following a ______ violation

A

syntactic/grammar

62
Q

what were the results of the syntax/semantics ERP study?

A

Left anterior negativity or LAN (syntax) is more anterior whereas N400 (semantics) more posterior

63
Q

for a typical split brain patient, showing an image on their _____ visual field will allow them to verbally describe what they see

A

right

64
Q

which hemisphere can name objects

A

left

65
Q

average percent of a) right handedness; b) left handedness; c) mixed handed or cross-dominant

A

a) 70-90%
b) ~10%
c) ~20%

66
Q

split brain patients have a severed _______

A

corpus callosum

67
Q

left hemisphere is primarily specialized for……..

right hemisphere is primarily specialized for……..

A
  • for more explicit aspects of the verbal and symbolic processing important in communication
  • processing visuospatial and emotional information
68
Q

T/F there is no superiority between hemispheres, and being left or right handed does not make that hemisphere more developed

A

true

69
Q

language lateralization

A

most right-handed individuals were left-hemisphere dominant (95%) and only 15% of left handed individuals were right-hemisphere dominant (70% left dominant and 15% mixed)

70
Q

prosody

A

intonation, tone, stress, and rhythm; used for emotion state, form, irony/sarcasm, emphases, contrast, and focus

71
Q

aprosodia

A
  • difficulty processing prosody
72
Q

difference between productive aprosodia and receptive aprosodia

A

Pro - monotonic; robotic speech lacking emotional tone; associated with damage to the right hemisphere Broca’s equivalent
Receptive - difficulty detecting and understanding emotional tone in speech; associated with damage to the right hemisphere Wernick’s equivalent

73
Q

interactive activation theory

A

integrate bottom up and top down processes

- letter and word perception

74
Q

garden path sentence

A

grammatically correct sentence that starts in a way that a reader’s most likely interpretation will be infarct based on past experiences

75
Q

interactive language network

A

cortical language circuit by Friederici, which consists of two ventral and two dorsal pathways in the inferior frontal gyrus, the superior frontal gyrus, and the middle temporal gyrus

76
Q

fMRI

A

functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; measures changes in magnetization using electromagnetic radiation and nuclear magnetic resonance

77
Q

how does an fMRI work?

A

neural activity –> increased blood flow – change in magnetic field –> fMRI BOLD signal

78
Q

benefits of fMRI

A
  • spatial resolution is in mm
  • good temporal resolution (seconds)
  • non-invaise
  • low-risk (risks include flying unsecured metallic objects)
79
Q

what were the steps taken in Mitchell et al.’s study on the relationship between concepts as the building blocks of meaning

A
  1. search online to find verbs that co-occur with nouns (text analysis)
  2. identify brain areas whose activation is associated with different verbs
  3. predict activation for nouns as summation of activation for related verbs
    4) test predictions for nouns
80
Q

what were the conclusions of Mitchell et al’s study on the relationship between concepts as the building blocks of meaning

A
  • concepts are represented by highly distributed patterns of activation across the brain
  • perceptual and motor brain areas involved in presenting meaning
  • the association between concepts (measured by co-occurence of words) can be used to predict brain activations for those concepts

Psyc 251 (7 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2024 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions