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Lesson 2

The connection between Psycholinguistics & Neurolinguistics

The Information-Processing System

• An information processor or information processing system, is a system  which takes information in one form and processes (transforms) it into another form.

• An information processing system is made up of four basic parts, or sub-system:

• Input

• Processor 

• Storage

• Output

• Working memory is the temporary storage of information 

• The Baddeley –Hitch model:

• The visuospatial sketchpad temporarily maintains & manipulates visuospatial    information.

• The phonological store holds phonological representations for a brief period of time.

• The central executive  a limited capacity pool of general processing resources.

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To conclude, information processing system focuses on how we deal with the vast amount of information that is available to us when we are performing skills.

Working and Long term Memory

Working Memory

Deals with temporarily holding of information being processed

• Used interchangeably with STM, technically refers more to the whole theoretical framework of structures and processes used for the temporary storage

Long term memory

Defined as a memory structure that holds permanent knowledge.

• LTM is divided:

1. Episodic memory

2. Semantic memory

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To conclude, the general strategies by which the human mind encodes, stores, and retrieves information can be described independently of language.

The concepts of working and long term memory provide a framework for understanding how language processing occurs.

Central issues in Language Processing

Types of language processing

• Serial processing

• Parallel processing

• Parallel distributed processing(PDP)

• Top-down processing

• Bottom–up processing

• Interpret the middle letter as an h in one word but as a in the other despite the fact letter is physically identical in two cases.

• Use context to identify obscure letters.

• Some identified letters enable us to recognize the word as a familiar word

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• We identify the obscured letter from our knowledge of spellings

• Processing at letter and word level simultaneously

To conclude, we have a number of ways of processing linguistic information. That is, language processing is determined not just by linguistic structure but jointly by that structure and by processing considerations that are independent of language.

An Example of Language Processing

• Understanding of language incrementally, word-by-word

 How do people construct interpretations

• Must resolve local and global ambiguity

 How do people decide upon a particular interpretation

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Decisions are sometimes wrong!

• What information is used to identify we made a mistake

• How do we search for an alternative

Language Processing Example

GARDEN PATH SENTENCE

“I was afraid of Ali’s powerful punch, especially since it had already laid out many tougher men who had bragged they could handle that much alcohol.” (from Clark & Clark, 1977, p. 81)

• The key word here is punch, which can mean either an alcoholic beverage or a boxing punch.

• The subjective impression for most people at the end of the sentence is having assumed the wrong meaning and then backtracking.

• Overall, the complexity of language and the sheer amount of information processing that is taking place in just a few seconds, it is sometimes a wonder that we have any conscious awareness of these processes at all.

Development of Processing System

• One of the main themes of psycholinguistics is how children acquire language.

• To understand language acquisition, it will be helpful to understand the cognitive abilities children bring to the task of acquiring their native language.

• To what extent the information-processing system operates during the first few years of life, when most normal children acquire language.

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To conclude, the information processing approach characterizes thinking as the environment providing input of data, which is then transformed by our senses. The information can be stored, retrieved and transformed using “mental programs”.

Developing Working and Long Term Memory

Development of working memory

• Baddeley-Hitch Working Model

Development of long term memory

• Development of Semantic Memory

• Development of Episodic Memory

BADDELEY-HITCH WORKING MEMORY MODEL

DEVELOPMENT OF LONG-TERM MEMORY

Development of semantic memory

• Object permanence

• Deferred imitation

• Sensorimotor period and preoperational period

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Development of episodic memory

• episodic memory—that is, of understanding the world from a personal viewpoint.

• Childhood amnesia

• To conclude, children make significant advances in working memory, semantic memory, and episodic memory during the preschool period.

• All of these developments assist the acquisition of language, but these relationships are most clearly articulated for working memory.