Language PSY 421 – Fall 2004

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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?

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