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PSYC 105 - cognition > Language > Flashcards

Language Flashcards

1
Q

what is language

A 
system of communication using arbitrary sounds or symbols to express feelings, thoughts, ideas and experiences
uniquely humans (when defined as having complex grammar and productivity)
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2
Q

the universality of language

A

all cultures have a language - 5000 documented worldwide
we are driven to communicate - deaf children invent novel sign language
everyone with normal capacity = develops language and uses it easily
language development in infants is similar across cultures
languages are unique but the same

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3
Q

how are languages unique but the same

A

different words, sounds and rules

all have nouns, verbs, negatives, questions, past/present tense

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4
Q

skinner view on language

A

language learned through reinforcement

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5
Q

chomsky view on lnaguage

A

syntactic structures
human language coded in the genes
underlying basis of all language is similar
review of skinner - phrases like i hate you mommy = can’t of heard before and isn’t reinforced, studying language is a window to the mind

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6
Q

psycholinguistics

A

discover psychological process by which humans acquire and process language

  • comprehension
  • speech production
  • representation
  • aquisition
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7
Q

hierarchical organization of language

A 
larger texts - discourse
phrases and sentences - syntax
words - semantics
units of meaning - morphemes
speech sounds - phonemes
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8
Q

production of phonemes

A

modulation of air by mouth and nose
flow of air from lungs
involves vocal dols in the larynx, lips, oral cavity, soft palate and dental conconant region

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9
Q

phonology voicing

A 
whether vocal folds vibrate (z,b,d,v)
or not (s,t,p,f)
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10
Q

phonology manner of produciton

A

whether air is fully stopped (b,p,d,t)

or merely restricted (z,s,v,f)

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11
Q

phonology place of articulation

A

where in the mouth the air is restricted
closing of the lips - b,p
top teeth against bottom lip (v,f)
tongue behind upper teeth (d,t,z,s)

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12
Q

phonemes are created

A 
by combining 3 features
-voicing
-manner of production
-place of articulation
engish = 44 phonemes
some language = only 12, some many more
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13
Q

complex speech perception

A

many words have no clear boundaries yet speech segmentation is effortless
ambiguity in speech segmentation - same phonemes but how do we distinguish between two different sentences eg guy vs sky is falling
coarticulation

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14
Q

what is coarticulation

A

the blending of phonemes at word boundaries

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15
Q

aids to speech perception

A

perception of language is constructed
-use prior knowledge to fill in missing information (top down processing)
phonemic restoration effect
-fill in missing phonemes based on context of sentence and portion of word presentation
-occurs even when participants are aware that a phoneme is missing

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16
Q

example how do we tell did you vs djoo

or big girl vs big earl

A

context (when presented in isolation people only understoof 1/2 of their own words)
understanding the meaning
understanding of sound and syntactic rule (eg tl is not acceptable sequence at the beginning of a word in english)

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17
Q

cateogircal perception

A

continuous variation of sounds are filtered to produce clear phonemes
we are very sensitive to difference between categories eg p vs b but to within category differences (one p vs another p sound)

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18
Q

lexicon

A 
all words a person 
understands
triangle model - need to look up
orthography = written
phonology = spoken /.../
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19
Q

phoneme

A

shortest segment of speech that, if changed, changes the meaning of the word

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20
Q

morphemes

A

smallest unit of language that has meaning or grammatical function
free morpheme stand alone
bound morpheme - has to be bound to a free morpheme

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21
Q

for each word a speaker knows what kinds of information is there

A

phonology
orthography
syntax
semantics

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22
Q

referent

A

actual object, action or event in the world a word refers to

  • conceptula information
  • semantic knowledge
  • not every word or phrase has a referent
  • unicorn, perfect world, president of US (non-stable referent)
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23
Q

generativity

A

size of vocab is fluid
new words can be formed (eg computer words)
words can take on new meanings (hacker)

24
Q

ambiguity in language / having more than one meaning

  • phonological
  • syntactic (global and local)
  • lexical
A

-phonological - sky vs guy falling
-syntactic (global) - he wants to discuss sex with jay leno
-syntactic (local) because he ran the second mile went quickly (garden path sentence)
-lexical - the man found several insects, spiders and other bugs in the room
lexical ambuguity refers to multiple meanings being assigned to one word

25
cross-modal priming task
listen to this sentence at the same time watch computer screen and perform lexical decision on words that appear indicates tha immediately after hearing the word bug both meaning are primed but only briefly (so no delay both ant and spy = reaction time, but after a dealy only the context of bug workd so ant quick and spy slow)
26
generativity
almost infinite number of sentences can be created by combining finite set of words but - there are rules governing which combinations of words are acceptable and which are not syntax = rules governeing the sequences of words in a phrase or sentence
27
syntax - descriptive rules
what english is - basic rules of suntax
28
syntax - prescriptive rules
what english is supposed to be. the proper way to structure sentences changes from one generation to the next split infinitives or not eg to bolgly go or to go boldly
29
phrase stucture...
aids comprehension
30
global ambiguity of syntax
The syntactic organization of the words can change the meaning of the sentence. Results in ambiguity – multiple meanings mapped onto one form/sentence (think back about lexical ambiguity) Same sequence of sounds can result in multiple word meanings Here, same sequence of words can result in multiple sentence meanings
31
generativity
almost infinite number of sentences can be created by combining finite set of words but there are rules = some combinations are acceptable and others are not syntax = rules governining the organisation of words in a phrase of sentence
32
desciprtive vs prescriptive suntax
``` descriptive = how we use language prescriptive = how we ought to use language ```
33
relation with syntax and meaning
different | good syntax does not mean sentence will have meaning and vice versa
34
sentence passing
the process of figuring out how words map onto the syntactic structure in order to understand a sentence parsin on-line (incrementally vs waiting to the end of the sentence? = self-paced reading
35
garden path sentences
get confused as nect word that appear does not match with what you were expecting to come next eg the old man the boats are locally ambiguous -once all info is obtained, there is only one interpretation but some sentences are globally ambiguous -the sentence itself does not provide disambiguating information =top down cues: can us eprevious knowledge to disambiguate
36
parsing garden path sentences
people parse sentences incrementally (ie one word at a time) late closure = new words assumed to be part of the same phrase (attach word to the phrase currently being processed) minimal attachment = comprehender seeks the simplest phrase structure(simplest syntactic structure, fewest nodes possible comprehender seeks parsimony
37
sentence parsing and babckground knowledge
background knowledge plays a part Hearing “the detectives examined…” leads people down the wrong path. Hearing “The evidence examined…” does not. Evidence would be weird as the subject. Evidence doesn’t have agency to do the examining Knowledge about the actions detectives vs evidence can take extralinguistic context also helps
38
sentence processing and eye tracking
go over recordings slide 16, language 2
39
prosody
patterns of rythm and pitch changes signals the difference between a question and an assertion emphasises elements of a sentence
40
pragmatics
intended meaning (beyond the literal meaning)
41
grice's cooperative principle
make your controcersial contribution such as is require, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged assume speakers and listeners act cooperatively and rationally
42
4 Gricean maxims
maxim of quality - be truthful maxim of quantity - ne informative maxim of relation - be relevant maxim of manner - be intelligible (avoid obscurity, ambiguity, be brief, be orderly)
43
to communicate effectively there must be
common ground | information that is assumed to be shared by both the speaker and the listener
44
why is language the way it is
communicative efficency tradeoff between -production ease = speaker says whta is leasst effortful to produce communicative goal = speaker says what is most likely to be understood by the listener
45
zipf's ;aw
word length is inversley related to word frequency higher frequency words shorter word length lower frequency words longer word length
46
language learning
children are amazingly adept at learning a language learn phonemes of language before 1 yo converse by 3-4 yo even without complete exposure to language, children develop some language eg home signing
47
lack of negative evidence | relation to language learning
children tend to only receive positive evidence about language, not negative evidence eg their syntax is basically never corrected
48
statistical learning of language
more likely hypothesis | eg 8 month old infants learned to recognise bidaku within a string of other nonsense
49
language and thought
eskimo has 50 words for snow | proposed means they must experience snow very differently
50
linguistic determinism
``` the language you speak changes the way you think and perceive the world -whorfian hypothesis probably not that drastic. more likely -increased attention -expertise in categorization ```
51
colour in language
need to go over recordings slides 34 ish
52
is there a cognitive advantage to being bilingual
is it really the case that bilinguals have better executive functions inbibitory control - bilib=nguas need to inhibit language they are not currently using task switching - code switchnig between languages requiers switching between tasks is unclear differences in memory etc
53
language in the brain
left lateralized comes from lesion studies and aphasic case studies aphasia = a disruption in language due to brain damage two main types = brocas and wernickes
54
brocas aphasia
associated with nonfluent aphasia | eg girl give mother toy
55
wernickes aphasia
associated with fluent aphasia | rambling

PSYC 105 - cognition (11 decks)

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