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Language

PSY 421 – Fall 2004

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Overview Defining Language Language Dichotomies Studying Language Sentence Production Conversation Reading Word Recognition Dyslexia Writing

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Defining Language Set of symbols and principles for the combination

of these symbols for communication and comprehension

Mental lexicon – all the words you knowhttp://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/Spring_2004/ling001/hw06.html

- Question 3 Language is/has

Arbitrary – not representative of the concepts Semanticity – meaningfulness Displacement – talk about time through language Productive – new words and letters in combination

Psycholinguistics – study of psychological processes involved in using language

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Language Dichotomies Production vs Perception

Using and producing language = production Hearing and comprehending language =

perception Performance vs Competence

Execution of language abilities = performance Knowledge of language and its rules =

competence

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Studying Language Phonology – analysis of basic speech sounds

Phoneme – categories of speech sounds that are different and that change the meaning of a spoken signal

Morphology – rules for manipulating and changing phonemes to produce different words and word forms Morpheme – smallest unit of language that carries

meaning Grammar – syntax (rules) and semantics

(meaning) Sentence Production Conversation

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Sentence Production 4-stage information-processing model – Levelt

(1989). Conceptualizing – not much research on this Planning – studyg through errors Articulating – study through errors

Slips of the tongue (speech errors) Shift – one speech segment disappears from its appropriate location

and appears elsewhere Exchange – two segments change places Anticipation – when a later segment replaces an earlier segment but

does not disappear Perseveration - when an earlier segment replaces a later segment

but does not disappear Deletion – leaving something out Addition – inserting something Substitution – something replaces an intended segment Blend – two words combine into one

Self-monitoring – processes whereby we keep track of what we are saying and change it on line if necessary

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Conversation Pragmatics – practical knowledge we need to use

language effectively Structure – fairly consistent; involve turn-taking Unwritten rules – Grice’s (1975) maxims

Quantity – say as much as you need to; not more Quality – only speak truths Relation – be relevant to the topic Manner – be clear; avoid obscurity and ambiguity

Gender – Lakoff (1975) Women tend to be more polite than men Women use more qualifiers and tag questions at the end

of sentences Men’s conversations have more interruptions Both genders adapt based on who they are talking to

(Thomson et al. 2001)

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Reading Mix of top-down and bottom-up processes Eye-movements during reading

Saccades and fixations Word skipping – predictable based on word

length Regressive saccades (10-15% of all saccades) Perceptual span – amount of text the eyes can

cover effectively to the right of any given fixation (like peripheral vision to the right) – differs with difficulty of reading material

Speed Reading – speed/accuracy tradeoff

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Word Recognition Orthography – look of the written word Direct Access View

Orthography provides the major route to word recognition

Words are recognized by using the written label to access the appropriate meaning and representation in memory

Indirect Access View Word recognition goes through the

phonological (sound) representation of the word prior to its identification

Has a great deal of support in the research literature

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Dyslexia Severe reading difficulties (and difficulties in word

recognition) Not a problem of emotion or motivation Not a problem of intelligence 5-15% of US population

Types of Dyslexia Surface dyslexia – have to rely on the indirect-access route to

word recognition; have difficulty with words that have irregular pronunciations

Phonological dyslexia – selective inability to read pseudowords (e.g., bleer); indirect-access problem

Deep dyslexia – have surface and phonological problems in addition to semantic errors and difficulty in understanding abstract words (e.g., love)

Spelling – evidence of issues with phonological assembly Reading is slower with more pronunciation errors for

dyslexics vs. nondyslexics

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Try this… I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd

waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deson't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?

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Writing Type of language production Kellogg (1994) – writing is a prototype of the

thinking process Quality writing requires quality thinking

Poorly written papers indicate that you didn’t comprehend the material well

Writing is a tool for thinking – forces you to decide what you know and don’t know

Writing involves a lot of cognitive effort and metacognition

The writing process Collecting and planning Translating and reviewing/editing Writing environment is also important