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cog neuro (y2s2) > Week 8 Lecture 8 - the speaking brain 1 > Flashcards

Week 8 Lecture 8 - the speaking brain 1 Flashcards

1
Q

What studies show that animals have language?

A

Washoe:
- learned about 200 manual signs
- evidence of overgeneralisations (e.g. using “hurt” for tattoo), and the combining of words for unfamiliar objects (e.g. “water
bird” for duck)

Koko:
- 1,000 signs, which she was able to
combine in complex ways

Kanzi:
- 200 symbol “lexigrams”

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2
Q

What does the Chinese room problem suggest about semantics (Searle, 1980)?

A
  • Syntax doesn’t suffice for semantics
  • In order to really use language, you have to understand the meanings or the thought contents
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3
Q

Where is the neural bases of sematic memory?

A

temporal lobes

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4
Q

What is sematic memory?

A

Semantic memory represents our conceptual knowledge of the world

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5
Q

How can we measure semantics/meaning?

A

by measuring N400s (ERPs)

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6
Q

Kutas & Hillyard (1980) had participants read sentences on the screen presented word-by-word

What were the 2 conditions?

A
  • Semantically appropriate ending: ’He took a sip from the glass’
  • semantically inappropriate ending: ’He
    took a sip from the transmitter’
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7
Q

Kutas & Hillyard (1980) had participants read sentences on the screen presented word-by-word

What were the results and conclusions?

A
  • Participants anticipated the last word of
    the sentence
  • Incorrect endings – mismatch between
    expectation and the actually presented
    word
  • Mismatch elicited a larger N400
    component
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8
Q

Parise and Csibra, 2012 used the N400 to investigate the development of semantic
representations

What was found?

A
  • 9-month-old infants detect the mismatch between an object appearing from behind an occluder and a preceding label
  • The label primes the object that
    should appear
  • Infants understand the meaning of some words
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9
Q

What is a concept (semantic memory)

A
  • represent classes of things, events, or ideas
  • unite things, qualities, and occurrences on the basis of a similarity of characteristics
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10
Q

How are concepts organised (semantic memory)?

A

in a network

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11
Q

What does the activation of a concept lead to?

A

activation of associated concepts

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12
Q

What evidence supports the spreading activation of concepts?

A
  • N400 was modulated by the semantic connection between the expected and presented word
  • Semantically related words elicited
    smaller N400 compared to semantically unrelated words
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13
Q

What do all models of semantic memory propose?

A

All models propose that concepts are
comprised of a constellation of constituent features

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14
Q

What are features (semantic memory)?

A
  • Properties of or facts about a concept
  • E.g. a lion is an animal; it has 4 legs; it is
    carnivore
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15
Q

How are features linked together (semantic memory)?

A

via a network

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16
Q

What are amodal representations?

A
  • features are represented as abstract knowledge
  • not tied to sensory or motor information
  • they are independent of input or output modality
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17
Q

What was semantic memory traditionally assumed to be? Why?

A
  • traditionally assumed to be amodal
    Reason:
  • semantic memory can be accessed from
    multiple kinds of sensory input
18
Q

What is the hierarchal model of sematic memory (Collins & Quinlan, 1969)?

A
  • Concepts are organized in a hierarchy
  • Features are associated with the concept at the appropriate level
  • Concepts are represented as abstract
    knowledge = amodal model
19
Q

What reaction time studies provide evidence for Collins & Quinlan (1969) hierarchal model?

A
  • Fastest: Canary is yellow
  • Slowest: Canary is an animal
  • canary as an animal is further away in the hierarchy and so takes longer
20
Q

What evidence is there for Collins & Quinlan (1969) hierarchal model of semantic memory from neuroscience?

A
  • fMRI study of naming and categorization (Rogers, et al., 2006)

Superordinate and subordinate information has different neural substrates:
- Subordinate-level processing (specific):
– e.g. robin –> activates anterior temporal pole

  • Superordinate-level processing (general)
    – e.g. animal –> activates posterior temporal lobes
21
Q

What is the problem with amodal representations?

A
  • Each word needs to be defined by other words
  • If using a lexicon, it is impossible to understand learn new words/concepts without understanding some
    words/concepts in advance
  • (the symbol grounding problem)
22
Q

What is a possible solution to the symbol grounding problem?

A

Grounded concepts/features

23
Q

What are grounded concepts/features?

A
  • concepts not defined in terms of each other, but in terms of our experiences and interactions with the world
  • Concepts of “green” and “kick” are linked to sensory and motor experiences rather than abstract/amodal representations
  • Concept representations are distributed over several distinct brain areas
24
Q

What is the Fully-grounded model of Allport (1985)?

A
  • Different features of a concept are
    represented in different information
    channels (modalities)
  • These are the same channels the features were acquired through
  • Representations of features belonging to
    the same concept are connected

E.g. telephone:
* Auditory regions (how it sound)
* Visual regions (how it looks)
* Action related regions (how to use it)

25
Q

How does priming provide evidence for grounded cognition?

A
  • Hear: “The ranger saw the eagle in the
    sky”
  • Picture naming: participants are faster in
    naming the flying eagle than the stationary eagle
26
Q

How do action words provide evidence for grounded cognition?

A
  • Processing words such as “lick”, “kick” and “pick” activates body-based
    neural representations
27
Q

Naming pictures of animals and tools elicit
category-related activity where?

A

in the ventral occipito-temporal cortex

28
Q

True or false?

obeject representations are limited to a discrete area

A

False

they are widespread and overlapping (=grounded cognition)

29
Q

True or false

category-related activations reflect the
retrieval of information about category-specific features and attributes

A

true

30
Q

Category-related patterns of activation was found for images animals and tools in occipital and posterior temporal lobes

When were similar patterns also found?

A

Similar patterns of category-related
activity occurred when subjects read the
names of or answered questions about
animals and tools (Chao et al., 1999)

31
Q

Are category-specific deficits limited to the visual domain?

A
  • no
  • deficits also for defining words
32
Q

Different categories rely on different types
of characteristics

Give 2 examples of this

A

Animals:
- sensory characteristics are more
important: how they look and/or sound
- Animals usually have eyes, mouth, self-initiated movements

Tools/man-made objects:
- functional characteristics are important
- relationship between shape and function

33
Q

Categories emerge based on what?

A

out experiences with their features

34
Q

Is category specificity innate?

A

At least some categories are hardwired:
category specificity in the brain is innate
(Caramazza & Shelton, 1998)
- Animals
- Plants
- Conspecifics (other humans)
- Tools

35
Q

What evidence is there that category specificity is innate?

A
  • Prenatal face processing (Reid et al, 2017)
  • Newborns prefer biological motion (Simion, Regolin, & Bulf, 2008)
36
Q

What evidence based on congenital blindness suggests that visual functional brain organisation is innate?

A
  • Visual stimuli elicit category-specific
    activity in the ventral-temporal cortex
    (VTC) in sighted individuals (faces,
    scenes, body parts, and objects)
  • Natural sounds representing different
    categories elicit similar discriminatory
    responses in VTC in individuals who
    were blind since birth
  • If visual functional brain organization
    does not rely on visual input then it must
    be innate
37
Q

A study involving those who are congenitally blind concluded that if visual functional brain organization
does not rely on visual input then it must
be innate

What is a contradiction to this?

A

what if these representations are not
strictly visual, but shape-based – blind
people can acquire this via touch

38
Q

A case study by Farah and Rabinowitz (2003) studied Adam

Where did Adam have brain damage?

A

damage to the posterior brain areas at the age of 1 day

39
Q

A case study by Farah and Rabinowitz (2003) studied Adam

What were Adam’s impairments?

A

Selective impairment in knowledge of living things:
- naming of pictures of living things
- retrieving verbal information about living things:
1. questions probing visual knowledge (Does the dog has four legs?)
2. questions probing nonvisual knowledge (Is chicken served in restaurants?)

40
Q

A case study by Farah and Rabinowitz (2003) studied Adam

What could Adam do?

A

Could name and answer questions about inanimate objects

41
Q

A case study by Farah and Rabinowitz (2003) studied Adam

What was concluded?

A
  • brain damage sustained too early for experience to have contributed to the organisation of semantic memory
  • innate basis for the living–nonliving distinction in semantic memory

cog neuro (y2s2) (11 decks)

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