weeks 11.1 to 12.2

Question 1

main implication of the “towel” study

Answer 1

language comprehension involves not just understanding the word meanings; the real-world context also helps us understand sentences, especially when there’s ambiguity

Question 2

experimental paradigm (sentences)

Answer 2

read a sentence –> see a target –> judge if the target is related to the sentence

Question 3

garden-path (GP) sentence

Answer 3

initially expect the verb of the relative clause to be the main verb of the sentence; causes ambiguity

Question 4

three possibilities to solve GP sentence ambiguity

Answer 4

(1) wait until attachment (of the final verb) to interpret the meaning; (2) commit to only one interpretation immediately (serial processing, GP effect more likely to emerge); (3) weigh multiple alternatives simultaneously (parallel processing, GP effect least likely to occur)

Question 5

expectation-based syntactic comprehension

Answer 5

use frequency of a sentence type during processing; processing based on expectation, instead of formal structures and rules; low-frequency (unexpected or less expected) structure requires more efforts to process

Question 6

what computational linguists do

Answer 6

train a simple computational model on a large corpus of text to learn: given some context, what is the probability of encountering a particular word?

Question 7

data-driven approach

Answer 7

statistical distribution of utterances/sequences/chunks or ngrams

Question 8

N400 vs. P600

Answer 8

N400: semantic anomaly
P600: syntactic anomaly

Question 9

perceptual “repair”

Answer 9

restore missing sounds or re-interpret the unput using top-down process; can be used in perception in degraded context or perception of accented speech

Question 10

logical vs. bridging (backward) vs. elaborative inference

Answer 10

logical: infer from facts/statements
bridging (backward): needs prior contexts
elaborative: using real-world knowledge to infer the intended meaning

Question 11

can you interpret anaphoric expression without context?

Answer 11

no

Question 12

factors affecting anaphoric resolution (4)

Answer 12

analogy, gender, order of mentioning, frequency of mentioning

Question 13

implicit causality

Answer 13

when asked about why an action is performed, we infer it’s either the subject or the object of the verb that causes the action to be performed

Question 14

NP1 vs. NP2 verb

Answer 14

NP1 verb: causality on the subject (the first NP)
NP2 verb: causality on the object (the second NP)

Question 15

figurative language

Answer 15

inference beyond literal meaning; includes metaphor, hyperbole, sarcasm, personification

Question 16

high functioning autism (HFA)

Answer 16

individuals on the autism spectrum who have cognitive and/or linguistic abilities that are in the average to above average range for their age; more quickly process two-word phrases as semantic anomaly (N400)

Question 17

speech acts

Answer 17

the power of language; every utterance has a goal to achieve and a function

Question 18

Grice’s maxims

Answer 18

a set of rules for conversations; the core principle is to assume your interlocuter/conversation partner is rational and cooperative (i.e., “Meal #1 please.”)

Question 19

Chomsky’s view of acquisition

Answer 19

due to poverty of the stimulus, we must have the innate abilities to acquire a language; evidence from quantity (insufficient input from the environment for rule learning) and quality (input not good enough)

Question 20

language acquisition device (LAD)

Answer 20

proposed by Chomsky; Universal Grammar (UG); a universal set of principles and constraints

Question 21

critical period hypothesis (CPH) strongest vs. weak version

Answer 21

strongest: acquisition is only possible in a critical time frame - around puberty
weak (sensitivity period hypothesis): possessing the sensitivity to speech sounds that are not even in one’s native language; more likely to successfully acquire complex syntax (e.g., garden-path sentences, relative clauses)

Question 22

imitation

Answer 22

an important step in the initial acquisition process; from perception to production; learning the articulatory gestures; supports the motor theory of speech perception

Question 23

statistical learning

Answer 23

learning from distribution (data or input-driven), contrary to Chomsky’s views; picking up phonological patterns, syntactic structures (e.g., word order), and transitional probabilities (TPs)

Question 24

transitional probability (TP)

Answer 24

probability of transition from A to B vs. A to C

Question 25

head-turn procedure (typical setup, 4)

Answer 25

(1) green light flashes to attract baby’s attention; (2) green light stops flashing, one red light flashes; (3) when the baby turns to the flashing red light, an audio stimulus starts playing from the same side; (4) their looking time is recorded until the baby turns their head away

Question 26

mismatch negativity (MMN)

Answer 26

biomarker for “pre-attentive” detection of signal changes

Question 27

preferential looking

Answer 27

babies looking longer at new stimuli; shows habituation and discrimination

Question 28

U-shape performance (infants)

Answer 28

good discrimination with tones from unfamiliar language at 5-6 mo., but poorer at 8-12 mo., and better again at 14-18 mo.

Question 29

neural plasticity

Answer 29

the capacity of the nervous system to modify itself, functionally and structurally, in response to experience and injury

Question 30

switch task

Answer 30

same object paired with a minimal pair –> no difference in looking time, same object paired with a highly dissimilar pair –> big difference in looking time; evidence that infants have low-level perception but ignore small differences when linking sounds with pictures (higher-level perception)