Language

1. Language PSY 421 – Fall 2004

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

3. Defining Language • Set of symbols and principles for the combination of these symbols for communication and comprehension • Mental lexicon – all the words you know http://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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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)

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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?

12. 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