Psycholinguistics Flashcards
(36 cards)
What is the definition of psycholinguistics?
It’s the study of language processing.
It’s the system of representation i.e. listening, reading and talking… how we do it all
What are spoonerisms?
These are slips of the tongue (metathesis) across words
i.e. you Hissed all the Mystery classes
What do slips of the tongue/spoonerisms tell us (2 things)?
- We build sentences before we produce them, otherwise we wouldn’t have the slip-ups .
- Shows that we must store some sounds and words together. Sometimes, when we use to the wrong word, it’s because it’s stored near the one we are actually looking for.
What is a mental lexicon?
This is the storage (in our brains) of a mental dictionary
What 2 things do we look at when we are studying psycholinguistics and the mental lexicon?
- Accuracy
2. Latency
What are 2 ways that we can study the accuracy and latency of one’s mental lexicon?
- Lexicon Decision
2. Lexical Priming
Describe the steps and goals of a lexicon decision experiment
- Participants sit in front of a computer
- They’re shown words, infrequent words and nonwords
- The goal is to record the accuracy and latency in saying if the word is or isn’t a real word.
What is the difference in latency for frequent words vs infrequent words and what does this tell us about the mental lexicon
Frequent words are accessed in .5 seconds verses infrequent words accessed in .75 seconds.
This show us that words must (at least in part) be organized by frequency
What does the lexicon decision experiment show us about non-words and what does this tell us about organization?
Non-words that lineup with english phonotactics take longer to reject than non-words that cannot be possible.
This shows us that phonology is also a part of organization.
What is the purpose of lexical priming and how does it complete this?
The purpose is to determine the relationship between words by measuring the response time between the primer word and the target.
What is the purpose of time reading?
It is to find our where we focus while reading and for how long.
What were some discoveries in the analysis of time reading (3)?
- We read sentences one word or chunk at a time
2. Nouns and verbs take longer to process
Why do words at the end of clause boundaries take longer to process?
You must take into account all the other lexical and grammatical information preceding it before you can move forward.
What are the 3 steps in experimental methodology?
- Create a test hypothesis
- Use a stimulus to create a response
- Reproduce results
True or false, eyes move left to right.
False, there are frequent, never jumps (backwards and forwards) while reading.
What are the eye jumps called.
- Saccades
- Regressive saccades occur when your eyes move left again (re-reading something).
During a .25 second period, how many words do we focus on at a time?
2-3 words
When we move our eyes while reading, how many words do we jump (approx.)
8 words to the right
What types of sentences produce more regressive saccades?
difficult ones. We need to jump backwards in order to help process the sentence.
What does ERP stand for?
- These are Event Related Potentials
How do we measure ERPs?
By attaching electrodes to the scalp, brain activity (electrical activity) is measured while reading.
What is N400 and why does it happen?
At 400 milliseconds into reading an unexpected lexical item, you see a negative voltage spike. The more unexpected, the more intense the negative voltage is.
Your brain is bothered by the incorrect/unexpected sentence.
What does N400 tell su about how we read sentences?
We don’t wait until the entire string is completed. We constantly build interpretations as the sentence unfolds.
What is P600 and why does it happen?
At 600 milliseconds into reading an incorrect/unexpected grammatical anomaly, there is a positive voltage spike with the word involved.
