Studying Language
This scientist proposed that this area ____ of the frontal lobe is responsible for ____.
Paul Broca proposed that Broca's area of the frontal lobe is responsible for the production of language.
Our Mental Dictionary
What is a Lexicon?
(all of the words we know)
Bug=insect, Bug=listening device, Bug=annoying someone
This involves discovering cues that languages provide to show how words in a sentence relate to one another.
Involves Sentence structure
What is Syntax?
What is Anaphoric Inference?
An inference that connects an object/person in one sentence to an object/person in another.
Deborah won the pie-baking contest. She has won this contest for the past three years. Who is she?
This scientist proposed that an area ___ in the temporal lobe is responsible for ___.
Carl Wernicke proposed that Wernicke's area in the temporal lobe is for comprehension.
This is the meaning of words and sentences
Some meanings of a word occur more frequently than others
This defines what?
Meaning Dominance
What is Parsing?
The mental grouping of words in a sentence into phrases.
What is Instrument Interference?
An inference about tools or methods.
William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet while sitting at his desk. Tool= pen
This behaviorist proposed that language was learned through ___.
B.F. Skinner proposed that language was learned through reinforcement.
(Children learn languages by being rewarded or punished for certain behaviors)
This occurs when we respond more quickly to high-frequency words compared to low-frequency words.
What is Word Frequency Effect?
When a word has more than one meaning, and both meanings are used equally.
This defines what?
Balanced Dominance
What is a garden path sentence?
When sentences appear to mean one thing but end up meaning another.
What is Causal Inference?
An inference that concludes that the events in one sentence were caused by the events in a previous sentence.
Ex. I took some aspirin. My headache went away.
This linguist opposed Skinner and proposed what about language?
Chomsky opposed Skinner and believed that language is coded in the human genome.
What is the lexical decision task?
The task used to test how quickly someone can decipher words from nonwords.
When one meaning of a word is used more than another.
This defines what?
Biased Dominance
How is prediction important for understanding sentences?
Prediction enables us to keep up with the rapid pace of language and understand it when it is degraded.
What is Synaptic Coordination?
A process where people use similar grammatical constructions.
What are the 4 major concerns of psycholinguists?
Comprehension
Representation
Speech Production
Acquisition
How does the eye movement experiment (1986) demonstrate word frequency?
Researchers measured eye movements and the durations of fixations, finding that total gaze fixation was longer for low-frequency words than for high-frequency words.
How do frequency and context combine to determine the correct meaning of ambiguous words?
Context helps us determine which definition applies to a sentence. This occurs so quickly that we are typically not aware of it.
How is the constraint-based approach to parsing different from the garden path parsing model?
The constraint-based model says that semantics, syntax, and other factors operate to determine parsing. Whereas the garden path model emphasizes syntactic principles as a determinant of parsing (heuristics and late closure).
What are the respective electrical signals for syntax and semantics?
N400- negative response (semantics)
Ex. The cat won't bake vs The cat won't eat
P600- positive response (syntax)
Ex. The cat won't eating vs The cat won't eat.