Language shared symbolic system for communication. Natural
Language: Emerged from peoples attempts to communicate. culturally
agreed upon (arbitrary) symbolic system - refers to things not
currently present. / to abstract concepts (e.g., love) Nearly five
thousand languages are spoken in the world today.
Slide 4
Is language Learned or do humans have an innate ability to
learn language?
Slide 5
7 th Century BC Egypt Psamtik thought language was innate
(inborn)! He sought to discover the origin of language by
conducting an experiment with two children. He gave two newborn
babies to a shepherd, with the instructions that no one should
speak to them, but that the shepherd should feed and care for them
while listening to determine their first words. The hypothesis was
that the first word would be uttered in the root language of all
people.
Slide 6
When one of the children cried "bekos" with outstretched arms
the shepherd concluded that the word was Phrygian because that was
the sound of Phrygian word for "bread." Thus, they concluded that
the Phrygians were an older people than the Egyptians, and that
Phrygian was the original language of men.
Slide 7
We are not born speaking! Language must be acquired. If we
think of all that is entailed in knowing a language, it seems quite
a challenge. Child acquire language very quickly. By 5 they have
mastered grammar. 3 year old talking about a monster on TV. 3 year
old talking about a monster on TV.
Slide 8
Noam Chomsky The ability to learn language is instinctive His
theory explains why all babies language development follows a
pattern Humans have a Language Acquisition Device (LAD) a structure
within the brain that allows babies to absorb and understand the
rules of language they are being exposed to. The brain is able to
analyse the language and work out the system that the language
uses.
Slide 9
Explains why children can quickly understand and then use their
language creatively and correctly without ever being formally
taught or knowing the rules Later replaced LAD with Language
Universals Language features present in all human languages.
Slide 10
All languages have a grammar Nouns and verbs Subjects and
objects Consonants and vowels Basic word order (English is Subject,
Object, Verb) The man kicked the Ball. Greenberg (1963) in 98% of
languages subject comes before the object.
Slide 11
Criticisms of Chomsky Language Environment much richer
Child-Directed Speech Child-Directed Speech (AKA: Parentese) Evan
and Levinson (2009) - Universals are not as universal
Slide 12
Pidgin and Creoles Languages Pidgin is a simplified language
that develops as a means of communication between two or more
groups that do not have a language in common. Commonly used in
trade. A pidgin is not the native language of any speech community,
but is instead learned as a second language. A pidgin may be built
from words, sounds, or body language from multiple other languages
and cultures. Pidgins allow people or a group of people to
communicate with each other without having any similarities in
language and do not have any rules, as long as both parties are
able to understand each other.
Slide 13
Creoles have been nativized by children as their primary
language, with the result that they have features of natural
languages that are normally missing from pidgins. Hawaii
Creole
Slide 14
Language Bioprogram Hypothesis Bickerton (1984) Creolization
occurs when the linguistic exposure of children in a community
consists of a highly unstructured pidgin. Children use their innate
language capacity to transform the pidgin into a language with a
highly structured grammar. As this capacity is universal, the
grammars of these new languages have many similarities.
Slide 15
Bickerton (1983), ungrammatical utterances made by
English-speaking children (2 4 years) are very similar to perfectly
grammatical sentences of English-based creole languages.
ChildCreole Where I can put it?Where I can put om?Hawaii Daddy
throw the nother rockDaddy t'row one neda rock'toneJamaica I go
full Angela bucket Guyana Lookit a boy play ballLuku one boy a play
ballJamaica Nobody don't like meNobody no like meGuyana I no like
do that Hawaii Johnny big more than me Jamaica Let Daddy get pen
write itMake Daddy get pen write amGuyana I more better than Johnny
Hawaii
Slide 16
The Birth of New Sign Language in Nicaragua
Slide 17
Reading Why is English So Hard? History of EnglishHistory of
English (to 2.15) - numerous irregular or exception words. Comb
Yacht Paradigm Though Danger, Anger, Hanger Ch 8 pt 216
Slide 18
Phonics Vs. Whole Word Phonics emphasis on teaching children to
pronounce words letter by letter. Whole Word Approach
(look-and-say) focus on related the entire word to its meaning. Ch
8 pt 217
Slide 19
Whole Language Approach Relies on Top down processes reader
uses context to predict and guess as they try to make sense of
print. Phonics is useful for teaching reading in almost every
language (share, 2008). Phonics instruction more beneficial (even
in English) than whole word or whole language. Ch 8 pt 218
Slide 20
Simple View of Reading (SVR) Reading skill is related to
listening (language) comprehension and decoding skills (phonics and
whole word). Ch 8 pt 219
Slide 21
Reading Eye Tracking Studies Gaze Duration Eye Movement
Fixations Saccades Regression Video Ch 8 pt 220
Slide 22
Readers typically fixate about 80% of content words (nouns,
verbs, adjectives). Only 20% of function words (pronouns,
conjunctions, articles) are fixated. Words not fixated are short,
common or predictable. Longer fixations occur on longer, unusual or
unpredictable words. Ch 8 pt 221
Slide 23
E-Z Reader Model How does the reader know when to move their
eyes to the next word? How do they know they can skip a word? Eye
movement is planned after only PART of the currently fixated work
is processed. Ch 8 pt 222
Slide 24
Reader can fixate on two words at a time but processes them one
at a time. If word one is a common word there is time left over to
process word two so it will be skipped. If word one is rare, the
next fixation will be on word two. Longer fixations occur after
rare words. One Two Ch 8 pt 223
Slide 25
Reading silently (cont.) Silent reading goes faster than
reading aloud (250-300 words per minute, depending on reader, text,
and goal). People remember more after silent reading than after
reading aloud. Once mastered very powerful skill, because then
reading becomes automatic (cf. Stroop effect) Ch 8 pt 224
Slide 26
Reading silently (cont.) Not purely based on visual information
inner voice phonological loop in working memory homophones
(Knows/Nose) produced errors in sentence verification tasks and in
priming studies. errors in proofreading particularly frequent for
homophones tongue-twister effect (e.g., Boris burned the brown
bread badly.). Knows Ch 8 pt 225
Slide 27
Words can be read without phonology. -Used for low frequency
rather than high frequency words. -Poor readers use phonology more
than better readers. Ch 8 pt 226
Slide 28
Some definitions Internal Lexicon Representation of words in
permanent memory. When the word is found, the properties we
associate with the word become available for use. Graphemes basic
units of written language Phonemes basic units of language sounds
Regular and irregular (e.g., comb and yacht) spellings. Ch 8 pt
227
Slide 29
Two Routes to Reading A lexical and a nonlexical route. Both
routes begin with an orthographic analysis (visual feature units
and letter units). Ch 8 pt 228
Slide 30
Non-lexical (indirect route)Route Used to read new words and
pseudowords. Graphemes are converted to phonemes. Letter strings
converted into pronounceable form. Slow serial processing.
Evidence: Longer pseudowords take longer to process than shorter
pseudowords. Ch 8 pt 229
Slide 31
Lexical (Direct Routes) We access information about the meaning
and sound of the word in an internal lexicon. Parallel processing
all levels of analysis are activated simultaneously and give
feedback (excitatory and inhibitory) to each other. This system is
faster. Ch 8 pt 230
Slide 32
We use both routes when reading aloud. Irregular words must use
the direct route (e.g., yacht) or they will be mispronounced. New
and nonwords require use of the indirect route. Ch 8 pt 231
Slide 33
Surface Dyslexia Can read words phonetically but has problems
with whole word recognition (i.e. yacht ---> yatchet). Rather
than recognizing words visually, these patients sound out the words
on the basis of correspondences between letters and sounds.
Therefore, they trouble reading aloud words that are irregularly
spelled. Rather than recognizing words visually, these patients
sound out the words on the basis of correspondences between letters
and sounds. Ch 8 pt 232
Slide 34
Phonological Dyslexia Person can read familiar words by using
whole word method but has difficulty "sounding out" words that are
new or letter- to-sound decoding problems. They have difficulty
distinguishing between similar- sounding phonemes, for example b/p
or d/t. Given the word bat, for example, the dyslexic person might
read or write pat. Ch 8 pt 233
Slide 35
The Dutch Language Union Founded in 1980 by the Netherlands and
Belgium, is the source of official spelling reforms. In 1995 issued
the "Green Booklet reform. Although in Belgium the official
spelling reform was generally accepted without protest, in the
Netherlands there was a popular backlash and the release of the
White Booklet. Currently these two spellings are both in use in the
Netherlands- the 'green' one by schools and officials, and the
'white' one by newspapers, magazines and television stations Ch 8
pt 234
Slide 36
Speech Perception Speech is difficult to decode because:
Language is spoken very quickly (10 phonemes per sec). Energy
breaks do not correspond to breaks between words. Co-articulation
Background noise Ch 8 pt 235
Slide 37
Speech Perception Involves both Bottom-up and Top-down
processes. Degraded auditory input impairs speech perception
(bottom-up) Dual tasks (increased cognitive load) impairs speech
perception (Top-down). In poor listening conditions people adjust
top- down or bottom-up processes to accommodate. Ch 8 pt 236
Slide 38
Incorporates both bottom up and top down processes acting in
parellel. There are individual processing units, or nodes, at three
different levels: FEATURES (place & manner of production,
voicing) PHONEMES WORDS TRACE Model (McClelland and Elman 1986) Ch
8 pt 237
Slide 39
Connectionist model Interactive activation network (McClelland
and Rumelhart 1981) Ch 8 pt 238
Slide 40
Feature nodes are connected to phoneme nodes Phoneme nodes are
connected to word nodes Connections between levels operate in both
directions, and are only facilitatory (i.e. no inhibition) There
are connections among units or nodes at the same level. These
connections are inhibitory. Ch 8 pt 239
Slide 41
Nodes influence each other in proportion to their activation
levels and the strength of their interconnections As excitation and
inhibition spread among nodes, a pattern of activation, or TRACE,
develops. The word that is recognized is determined by the
activation level of the possible candidate words. Ch 8 pt 240
Slide 42
TRACE model Similar to interactive activation model but applied
to speech recognition Connections between levels are bi-directional
and excitatory top-down effects Connections within levels are
inhibitory producing competition between alternatives Ch 8 pt
241
Slide 43
TRACE model Phonemes activate word candidates. Candidates
compete with each other Winner completes missing phoneme
information Ch 8 pt 242
Slide 44
Context Effects Top Down Processes Word Superiority Effect
phonemes detected faster in a word than in isolation. Lexical
Identification Shift Ganong (1980) demonstrated a bias to perceive
phonemes so they form words. For example sounds that could be
either /d/ or /t/ tend to be heard as /t/ when followed by "ask"
(to make the word "task") and as /d/ when followed by "ash" (to
make the word "dash"). Ch 8 pt 243
Slide 45
Try this example: identify the phoneme at the end of each
utterance, is it /s/ (as in "lease") or /S/ (as in "leash")? Ch 8
pt 244
Slide 46
Context Effects It is likely that you heard the first as /S/
and the second as /s/. However, they were identical sounds! Your
knowledge that "goldfish" and "fortress" are English words but
"goldfiss" and "fortresh" are not, changed your perception of the
sounds. Ch 8 pt 245
Slide 47
McQueen (1991) found the Lexical Identification shift when
bottom-up information was degraded but not when it was not.
Suggests that top-down processes are relied on more when bottom-up
processes are ambiguous. Ch 8 pt 246
Slide 48
Slide 49
Understanding Sentences Grammar Rules of combining words within
a sentence. Parsing - analyzing a sentence into its component
categories and functions. Ch 8 pt 248
Slide 50
Syntax/Grammar word order and combination critical to meaning:
He showed her the boys pants. He showed her boys the pants. Same
words, different order produces different meaning. Ch 8 pt 249
Slide 51
When making sense of sentences we use both semantic and
syntactic (grammatical) information. One theory says we do it one
word a time, assigning words to a grammatical role as we interpret
the meaning. Sentence meaning can however be ambiguous sometimes
because of the grammatical structure. Ch 8 pt 250
Slide 52
Garden Path (Structurally Ambiguous) Sentences Grammatically
correct sentences that starts in such a way that a reader's most
likely interpretation will be incorrect; the reader is lured into a
parse that turns out to be a dead end. e.g., The horse raced by the
barn fell Ch 8 pt 251
Slide 53
Garden Path Sentence Examples The raft floated down the river
sank. The florist sent the flowers was pleased. The cotton clothing
is made from grows in Mississippi. They told the boy that the girl
met the story. The daughter of the king's son admires himself.
Slide 54
Parsing Four major possibilities: Syntactic analysis generally
precedes (and influences) semantic analysis Semantic analysis
usually occurs prior to syntactic analysis Syntactic and semantic
analysis occur at the same time, in parallel.
Slide 55
Dec 11, 200654 Theories Garden-path model (Bever, 1970) : you
pick one structure early on, later have to revise if it isnt the
right one.
Slide 56
Constraint-based model MacDonald et al., (1994) Another
possible interpretation is that multiple competing syntactic
structures are available at the same time with different versions
being eliminated when they dont make sense. Ranked according to
activation strength. Activation strength comes from semantic,
syntactic and world knowledge. Probabilistic commit to most
probable interpretation. Readers become confused when the correct
syntactic structure is less activated than one or more incorrect
structures.. Ch 8 pt 255
Slide 57
Activation Strength creates Syntactic Heuristics (rules of
thumb) e.g., Verb bias: The verb read is most often followed by a
direct object. The man read the book. The man read the book had
been lost. People identified correct sentence structure more
rapidly when the sentence structure was consistent with the verb
bias. Ch 8 pt 256
Slide 58
Non/Verb Homographs Words that can serve as nouns or verbs The
woman saw her duck and chickens by the barn and stumble by the
barn. Readers experiences problems (eye gaze data) when the
noun/verb homographs were used in the less common form. Ch 8 pt
257
Slide 59
When Syntax and content clash! The mouse was eaten by the
cheese. (passive) Often misinterpreted as The cheese ate the mouse.
Noun Verb- Noun Heuristic !! Subject (Agent) verb- object (active
voice) Ch 8 pt 258
Slide 60
Swets et al. (2008) Good Enough Theory People process sentences
at a level that is good enough for their current purposes.
Processing time depends on ones expectations about the uses of the
information. Ch 8 pt 259
Slide 61
Extracting Meaning Literal versus Intended Meaning.
Irony/Sarcasm /understatement Idioms and sayings Metaphors Give me
a hand. You can say that again. Ch 8 pt 260 Lovely!
Slide 62
Conceptual Knowledge and Beliefs "My nose runs and my feet
smell"
Slide 63
Pragmatics Deals with intended rather than literal meaning
Shared knowledge Social context Intonation Gestures Ch 8 pt
262
Slide 64
Does context Matter? What do you make of this conversation? A:
I have a fourteen year old son B: Well that's all right A: I also
have a dog B: Oh I'm sorry Ch 8 pt 263
Slide 65
Metaphors Kintch Model Two Components: 1.Latent (hidden)
semantic analysis component: -represents meaning of words based on
their relations or associations with other words. 2: The
construction-integration component Used (1.) to form
interpretations of statements. Ch 8 pt 264
Slide 66
Dislexie Font Ch 8 pt 265
Slide 67
Lawyers are Sharks Nonreversible Sharks are Lawyers does not
work. Lawyer (argument) Shark (predicate) Only features of the
predicate relevant to the argument are selected for interpretation.
The others are inhibited. High WM capacity better at inhibiting
distracting information ~ better at metaphor interpretation. Ch 8
pt 266
Slide 68
Common Ground Mutual knowledge, beliefs, & assumptions
among participants in conversation. Comes from community
co-membership, physical co- presence, linguistic co-presence,
Egotistical heuristic
Slide 69
Keysar et al. (2000) Egotistical Heuristic The simplest
experiment: hearer sees three candles of different sizes speaker
does not see the largest one hearer knows this speaker says Pick up
the large candle
Slide 70
Keysar et al (2000) speaker Hearer Display
Slide 71
Speakers View (Partial Occlusion) Hearers View (Complete) cc
Keysar et al (1998; 2000)
Slide 72
Results Hearers often grab the largest of the three, even
though they know the speaker cannot see it. Generally people do use
common ground in interpreting speech. Children can reason about
other minds from at least age 6.
Slide 73
Gestures (Kelly et al., 2010) Congruent (left) and Incongruent
(right) gesture for the content unit Sylvester looks through
binoculars. Consistent gestures improved comprehension. Ch 8 pt
272
Slide 74
Understanding Discourse Drawing Inferences going beyond the
words. Bridging Inferences (backwards) Make coherence between parts
of the text. e.g., "Mary poured the water on the bonfire. The fire
went out." Elaborative Inferences (forwards) adds detail using
world knowledge - may anticipate what comes next. Ch 8 pt 273
Slide 75
Types of Inferences drawn depend on the readers goals. Two
Tasks 1.Read for comprehension 2.Anticipate what might happen next.
Task 2 drew more elaborative inferences Ch 8 pt 274
Slide 76
Individual Differences in Working Memory Capacity and
Inferences Higher Reading Skill = more inferences. People with
higher WM Capacity comprehend text better. Seductive Detail Effect
Adding additional, irrelevant information to a text, reduces the
comprehension of the text as a whole. Ch 8 pt 275
Slide 77
(Harp & Mayer, 1997). College undergraduates given a
descriptive text that: (1) did not contain any seductive
information, (2) contained seductive text, (3) contained seductive
illustrations, or (4) contained both seductive text and
illustrations. Both recall and problem-solving performance, In
conditions that contained any type of seductive information
(textual, visual, or both) performance was worse than individuals
in the base text condition. Ch 8 pt 276
Slide 78
The seductive details effect was stronger for people with low
WM Capacity. Eye gaze show they spend more time looking at the
irrelevant illustrations. Techniques for reducing effects did not
work. Highlighting Learning objectives Seductive details at the
beginning of passage made effect worse. Ch 8 pt 277
Slide 79
Schema Theory (Scripts and Frames) Provide information not
provided in the text or utterance. Allow us to form expectations
(predictions). (Hitler Example, Sulin and Dooling, 1974) False
recognition of schema based information is greater after longer
retention periods. Ch 8 pt 278
Slide 80
Situation Models (Zwaan and Radvansky, 1998): The
Event-indexing model suggests that readers monitor five indexes
(aspects) of the evolving situation model at the time when they
read stories: Protagonist Temporality Causality Spatiality
Intentionality Reading speed decreases (35%) when one of those
aspects change.
Slide 81
Formation of Situated Models take up WM capacity (reducing
reading speed). Formation of situated models improves with practice
(both speed and accuracy). Ch 8 pt 280
Slide 82
How are situation models updated during text comprehension If
readers keep track of the evolving situation, they should update
their models such that the most current information, the here and
now, is more available than outdated information. Resonance model
(OBrien et al.2010), retrieval of information in LTM is a
fast-acting, passive resonance process. Resonance (richness or
significance ) is necessary for memory elements to become
available. Thus, resonance helps the reader to build a coherent
discourse representation. But old, inconsistent resonant
information can interfere with text comprehension. Ch 8 pt 281
Slide 83
Sweeney (1979) Ambiguous sentences containing words with
multiple meanings. He measured the floor with his ruler.
Slide 84
Followed by letter string A) a word related to the implied
meaning inch B) a word related to alternative meaning king C) an
unrelated word Pill D) a non-word jokt Lexical decision task If
both meanings activated A and B should be equally fast
(primed)
Slide 85
Varied the delay between the sentence and the letter string.
400 millisecond delay responses to A and B facilitated. Over 700
milliseconds, only the A was facilitated. So both are activated,
but one fades quickly.
Slide 86
Humor - emotional reaction to violation of schema. Timing - If
both meanings are activated, schema is not violated. Need to pause
to allow alternate meaning to fade.