Week 8 Flashcards
What is the study of psycholinguistics?
- Interested in the psychology of language and how language is processes and represented in the brain
- Emerged in the late 1950’s largely in response to Chomsky’s theory of Universal Grammar
Chomsky proposed that there are specific part/s of the brain dedicated to language
- Emerged in the late 1950’s largely in response to Chomsky’s theory of Universal Grammar
Language and the brain:
- The brain consists of 2 hemispheres, left and right
- Language is controlled by the left hemisphere
- Two main regions of the brain associated with language: Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area
- Broca’s aphasia: Difficulty with speech production, long pauses, main words are left out
- Depth people using sigh if they have Broca’s aphasia, they also have trouble using the same words
- Wernicke’s: Comprehension of language
- Separated by corpus collosum
Why do SP need to know anatomy of the brain?
- An understanding of language processing offers speech pathologists insight into how language is organized and represented in the brain
Allows us to make sense of the difficulties our clients may be experiencing and develop effective appropriate interventions and assessments
Language processing: Word recognition
- The ability to process language relies on listeners being able to identify word boundaries: Identifying words amongst strings of speech sounds
After learning a few words, infants acquire information about word properties (e.g. frequency of word shapes, phonological patterns) that they can apply to process and learn more words- The dog slices through my camp: Multiple ways we can use this word e.g. the dog lie says, the dog lice’s, the dog slices: How do we know where these speech sounds start and end and correctly hear slices over lice’s
- Identifying words amongst speech sounds is the first task: Infants can discriminate word sounds
- Initial sounds = all words know to sound become activated (grammatical and semantic context) helps elimination of particular word
- Linguistic recognition helps eliminate
- Can occur before the end of a word - knowing before someone says something
- Reinstate a particular word is new information is added e.g. words may not be articulated clearly, background noise
Subconscious in nano-seconds
Models of language processing: Word processing
- Use a range of linguistic information such as knowledge of word classes, phonology, grammar, word structure (phonotactics) intonation and syllable stress to identify individual words or to break strings of speech sounds into discreet words
- When a listener hears an initial sound of a word, all the words known to start that sounds become activated, producing a cohort of candidate words
- The list of possible words is reduced down to a single word, as more acoustic and linguistic information is processed
- Occurs on scale of nano-seconds
Recognition of words can occur before the end of a word and revised if new information discredits word choice
Models of language processing: Sentence processing
- Sentence level comprehension is likely incremental, with processing occurring moment-by-moment
- Incremental way that sentences are processed can lead to ambiguity
- Theories of sentence-level processing suggest that we may run multiple parallel analysis of a sentence meaning
- Alternative interpretation are ranked according to frequency of semantic or grammatical information as well as plausibility of context
Context of sentences - Helps explain why we reinterpret sentences sometimes to make what they are saying and what you understand aligns
Constantly reinterpreting information based on Incoming information
Language processing: Language expression
- We search our memory for various labels, the more associations we have for various labels, the easier it is to recall
- Errors in language production provide insights into how the brain processes expressive language. For instance, word finding difficulties for anomia suggests that words are retrieved via semantic and phonological features
- What happens when we produce language and using it ourselves
- Attaching words to concepts e.g. idea of milk, make association with the label of word in our memory
- Things we have more memories of we have built more associations with e.g. milk more than tequila
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Computers and the challenge of natural language processing:
- Natural language processing (human languages) differs to computer programming language
- Natural language processing requires decision-making and memory abilities
- Computer-generated language is plagued by weaknesses in decision-making, leading to excessive ambiguity
- Computers find natural language processing difficult
Computers can retain information but can identify intended meaning = misinterpretation and ambiguity - Don’t have context/world knowledge
Computers can have memory of language
What is the Loebner prize?
Loebner prize: Annual competition which tests whether artificial intelligence can outsmart judges into believing they are holding conversation with a human
Who Is Paul Broca and Carl Wernicke
- Broca’s: Production of speech, language, Broca= Paul Broca who worked with patients with impaired speech and found similar area impacted. Significant, changed understanding of the brain
- Carl Wernicke: Individuals who have impairments speak fluently but can understand language or use inappropriate words
What have language processing errors shown us?
Language processing errors have provided us with insights: Locations involved in the brain. When you have a concept but can’t name it (tip of the tongue) we search memory for characteristic associated with it. Shows that words are associated in brains in phonological and semantic categories
Language processing: New research
- Disordered language resulting from brain damage is called aphasia
- Loss of linguistic ability is dysphagia
- Broca’s aphasia: Disordered speech, slow and laborious, poor articulation
- Wernicke’s aphasia: Rapid and fluent however are short sentences in isolation, unable to comprehend,
- Word recognition: Find corresponding words (Wernicke’s area), Morphological processing
- Sentence processing: Syntax structure (Broca’s), apply grammar rules
- Semantic: Context, understand implied meaning
What is the turing test?
The test of a machine’s ability to exhibit human behavior that is indistinguishable from a humans behaviour
What is the:
Auditory cortex?
Inner ear?
Auditory nerve?
Auditory pathway?
Electrical signals are interpreted as sounds and recognized as words
Cochlea of the inner ear reacts to sound waves of speech and converts to electrical signals
Electrical signals from the cochlea are passed directly to the Auditory Nerve, which in turn carries the signals to the Auditory Pathway.
Signals travel through several “relay points” along the brain stem, which are known as the Auditory Pathway. The brainstem decodes the basic signal, checks for loudness and intensity, then decides whether reflex actions are needed (such as jumping with fright in response to a loud sound). The Auditory Pathway ends at the Auditory Cortex.
What is the brain processing pathway?
Language Heard
Inner ear
Auditory nerve
Auditory Pathway
Auditory Cortex
Wernickes
Brocas
Speech
