Week 7 Flashcards
Psycholinguists
The study of language processing.
What is the lexical decision task and what does this type of experiment measure?
The participants is seated in front of a computer screen. A word (the ‘stimulus’) appears in the middle of the screen and the participant must judge as quickly as possible whether or not this word is a real word, by pressing a button labelled yes or no.
Two things are being measured:
1. The time it takes to respond
2. Whether or not the participant’s judgement is correct
Frequency effort
This finding comes from the experiment called lexical decision task. Results have shown that participants take about half a second to press ‘yes’ for a frequently used word like free, but almost three-quarters of a second for a less common word like fret. This finding is called the frequency effect.
What does the existence of a frequency effect suggest?
It suggests that the mental lexicon is organised in a way that frequent words are more strongly represented in memory.
What does the frequency effect also explain?
It offers a plausible explanation for why, in time, some irregular forms become regular while others stay irregular.
Past tense of go? Went (suppletion)
Past tense of slay? Slew? Slayed?
Since slay is an uncommon verb, speakers will rarely hear the correct past tense form (slew), which isn’t strongly represented in memory. Speakers are therefore likely to apply the regular past-tense formation rule instead.
The ‘bathtub effect’
Research has shown that the initial and final parts of a word are most strongly remembered. The middle parts of words are most difficult to recall.
Antidote > anecdote
Syllables > cylinders
Fire extinguisher > fire distinguisher
(When lying in a bath, your head is most prominent, then your feet, while the rest of your body is out of view).
Non-words
The word bilbow doesn’t exist. It’s an example of a non-word, but note that it could exist, because it has the right phonological shape.
What instance shows that participants take into account the phonological forms (or rather the phonotactic constraints) of their language (lexical decision tasks)?
That when a pronounceable non-word like blin shows a slower ‘no’ response than an unpronounceable non-word like lnib.
What is the priming effect, and what does this suggest?
When the response time for dog is shorter when participants have first been exposed to cat.
This is the priming effect; the mental representation of dog is primed (warmed up) by activation of the semantically related word cat (a word like pen doesn’t have this effect on dog).
This suggests that words in the mental lexicon are related in terms of networks. If a word in a network is activated, this activation spreads to other words in the network.
Networks
The shorter reaction time to dog compared to cat (first mentioned) suggests that words in the mental lexicon are related in terms of networks.
If a word in a network is activated, this activation spreads to other words in the network.
Where have priming effects also been found?
- In words that are phonologically related (light-bite).
- In words that are orthographically related (couch-touch).
- And between roots and complex words (regular-irregularity).
Slips of the tongue
Speech errors (also called spoonerisms after Reverend William A. Spooner, who was famous for producing them).
Intended: You have missed all my history lectures.
Produced: You have hissed all my mystery lectures.
Intended: the dear old queen.
Produced: the queer old dean.
How are experimental methods like lexical decision tasks different to errors like slips of the tongue?
Since such errors occur in natural speech, the researcher has no control over when and where they occur, which is the case when the researcher uses methods like lexical decision tasks.
What are the different types of errors in ‘slips of the tongue’? What kind of errors does Fromkin’s research not contain and what does this suggest?
- Perseveration: sound carried over to the next word; black bloxes, my favourite fong.
- Anticipation: sound used before next word; a tup of tea.
- Substitution: initial/final sounds change place; beel fetter, stick neff.
Fromkin’s research doesn’t contain any errors like a ‘cut of tea’ and ‘kiff nest’. This suggests that the range of possible errors is constrained by syllable structure; the errors that are attested all involve sounds in the same syllable position.
How is the range of possible errors constrained in Fromkin’s research?
The range of possible errors is constrained by syllable structure; the errors that are attested all involve sounds in the same syllable position.
