Week 11: Language Production

Question 1

Speech production

Answer 1

– Speech planning
– Speech errors
– Theories

Is speech production effortless? - 2-3 words/s

Question 2

Strategies to reduce cognitive demands when planning speech:

Answer 2

• preformulation
• under specification

Question 3

Preformulation

Answer 3

production/ using of phrases used before

e.g. a piece of cake

Question 4

Under specification

Answer 4

Use simplified expressions

‘… or something’

’.. and things like that’

Question 5

Speech production is complex: effect of intoxication

Answer 5

suggests speech is not effortless

• impairs attention, memory, thinking and reasoning
• produce more dysfluencies (stammering, stuttering)
• slower speaking rate
• reduction of richness and creativity

Question 6

1st stage of speech production: Speech planning

Answer 6

Can occur at different levels:
- clause
- phrase

Clause: part of the sentence containing a subject and verb
‘ the dog was sleeping’

Phrase: group of words that express a single idea
‘ on the bed’

Question 7

Clause level

Answer 7

Speech errors provide evidence that speech planning extends over the entire clause

e.g. word exchange error

instead of ‘my room seems empty without my chair’ they may say ‘my chair seems empty without my room’

Question 8

Speech errors: when?

Answer 8

• Generally accurate when speaking, but sometimes prone to error
  
  • Majority of errors are not random, but systematic
  • Provide insight into how cognitive systems work

Question 8

Phrase level

Answer 8

decribe moving pictures

2 differing conditions:

1) simple initial noun phrase: [the tie moves] above the candle and the foot

2) conjoined initial noun phrase: [the tie and the candle] move above the foot

finding: took longer to initiate the conjoined phrase

Question 9

Types of speech errors:

Answer 9

Word exchange

Sound (or phoneme) exchange

Spoonerism

Semantic substitution

Morpheme exchange

Number agreement

Question 10

Word exchange

Answer 10

• speech planning extends over the entire CLAUSE

e.g. the chair seems empty without my room

Question 11

Sound/ phoneme exchange

Answer 11

Sounds of words planned shortly in advance

E.g. Bedbugs -> Budbegs

Question 12

Spoonerism

Answer 12

Initial letter of 2 words are switched

go and shake a tower –> go and take a shower

Question 12

Semantic substitution

Answer 12

Word replaced by another with a similar meaning

Where is my cricket bat? -> where is my cricket racket?

Question 12

Morpheme exchange

Answer 12

Inflexions/ suffixes attached to wrong words

He has already trunked two packs

Question 13

Number agreement

Answer 13

The team HAS won the match (correct)

the collective noun ‘team’ is singular but someone may say:
The team HAVE won the match (plural = wrong)

Question 14

Theories of speech production (two major theories)

Answer 14

• spreading-activation theory (Dell)
• Weaver++ model

Question 15

Spreading-activation

Answer 15

Processing occurs in parallel at different levels (semantic, lexical and phonological)

CATEGORICAL RULES: Impose constraints on items/ categories that are acceptable at each level

INSERTION RULES: select items to be spoken, most highly activated nodes selected

Question 16

Spreading activation: strengths

Answer 16

• levels of processing interact (parallel)
• can account for several speech production errors
• link between speech production and other cognitive activities (e.g. word recognition)

Question 17

Spreading-activation: weakness

Answer 17

• extent interactive processes involved in speech production unclear
• occur less when processing demands high

Question 18

Weaver++

Answer 18

Word-form Encoding by Activation VERification

• activation of levels in serial fashion

3 main levels:

1) Highest level: nodes representing lexical concepts

2) Second level: Nodes representing lemmas (abstract words with syntactic/semantic features only)

3) Lowest level: nodes representing words forms (morphemes/ phonemes)

SPEECH PRODUCTION PROCEEDS FROM MEANING (LEXICAL SELECTION/ LEMMA) TO SOUND (MORPHEMES/ PHONEMES)

explains TIP-OF-THE-TOUNGUE state - semantic activation successful but then phonological processing unsuccessful

Question 19

Weaknesses

Answer 19

– Does not allow interaction between different levels

– Speech errors occur more than model predicts

Question 19

Weaver ++ strengths

Answer 19

– Shift focus from speech errors and toward precise timing of production processes

– Simple model that can make testable predictions

Question 20

Neuropsychology (study of brain damage patients)

Answer 20

• study of aphasia in 19th century
• due to stroke, tumors, injury or infection, etc.

Distinguished between 2 types of aphasia…

Question 21

Broca's aphasia

Answer 21

Problems with speech production * Slow, non-fluent speech * Poor ability to produce syntactically correct sentences * Comprehension relatively intact

Question 22

Wernicke's aphasia

Answer 22

* Also known as fluent or receptive aphasia * Fluent and grammatical speech * Speech often lacks meaning ➢ Problems with speech comprehension

Question 23

Neuropsychology: oversimplified?

Answer 23

Some truth in distinction between 2 types, but oversimplification – Same form of aphasia, but different impairments – Several different areas involved in language processing – Patients with Broca’s aphasia have damage to Wernicke’s area (and vice versa!) – Patients also have more general problems (attention/memory)

Question 24

Neuropsychology: Moving away from Brocas/Wernickes distinction: 3 SPECIFIC COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENTS

Answer 24

- Anomia - Agrammatism - Jargon aphasia

Question 25

Agrammatism

Answer 25

Difficulties PRODUCING GRAMMATICALLY CORRECT SENTENCES – Short sentences with content words (nouns/verbs) – Omit function words (the, and, in) and word endings (Problems at the LEXICAL (SYNTAX/GRAMMAR) levels

Question 25

Anomia

Answer 25

* Experienced by all aphasics * Impaired ability to NAME EVERYDAY OBJECTS – Problems with word retrieval – No problem with comprehension (Problems at PHONOLOGICAL level) e.g. describing matches as something you use to make fire

Question 26

Jargon aphasia

Answer 26

Speech grammatically correct but have difficulties ACCESSING CORRECT WORDS – Substitute one word for another – Produce NEOLOGISMS (made-up-words) (Problems at PHONOLOGICAL level)

Question 27

Next part of lecture: Speech as communication

Answer 27

- nearly always occurs in a social context - importance of AUDIENCE DESIGN (tailor to the needs of listeners)

Question 28

Common ground

Answer 28

Shared knowledge of speaker & listener - work together for mutual understanding Speaker makes assumptions of listener: - global - local

Question 29

Global:

Answer 29

preferred language, general knowledge, shared experiences

Question 30

Local

Answer 30

attending to at a given moment

Question 31

Is common ground cognitively demanding?

Answer 31

Yes Speaker needs to focus on listerners pov whilst also planning what to say Often plan what to say without considering the listener's perspective

Question 32

Audience design: Common ground (4 factors)

Answer 32

1. syntactic priming 2. gesture 3. prosodic cues 4. discourse markers

Question 33

Syntactic priming

Answer 33

* Speaker copies words, phrases heard previously – Other person speaking serves as a prime/prompt E.g. If someone says a passive sentence (the ball was chased by the dog) you're likely to say a passive one back (my homework was eaten by my dog) e.g. moving to uni and picking up some of the words there can make common ground less demanding as words can serve as a prompt

Question 34

2. gesture

Answer 34

* Assumed to increase ability to communicate with listener – Listeners find it easier to understand * Also makes it easier to work-out what to say – Use gestures even when we can't see speaker Research found: fewer words were provided (22%) in giving a definition when hand gestures were restricted

Question 35

3. prosodic cues

Answer 35

* How words are uttered – Rhythm, stress (accent), intonation, etc. * More likely to be provided when meaning is ambiguous e.g. pauses change the meaning of: the old men and women sat on the bench

Question 36

4. discourse markers

Answer 36

* Words/phrases that are not directly relevant to the speaker’s message Um.. Er… = Speaker experiencing problems deciding what to say You know?... = Speaker checking that listener understands