Language

Question 1

Phonemes

Answer 1

• Smallest unit of perceived speech
• Different phonemes in different languages
  ● /l/ versus /r/ in English but not Japanese
• 10 to 150 per language
  ● ~44 in English
• Language-specific rules for combining (phonology)

Question 2

Morphemes

Answer 2

• Smallest unit that signals meaning
• Combinations of phonemes
• Prefixes, suffixes, roots, or entire words
• Many thousands per language
• Language-specific rules for combining (morphology)

Question 3

Words

Answer 3

• Smallest stand-alone units of meaning
• Combinations of one or more morphemes
• Tens or hundreds of thousands per language
• Language-specific rules for combining (syntax)

Question 4

Phrases

Answer 4

• Organized grouping of one or more words
• Play a particular role in grammatical structure of a sentence
• Almost limitless number
• Language-specific rules for combining (syntax)

Question 5

Sentences

Answer 5

• A set of words/phrases that (in principle) tells a
  complete thought
• Can express a statement, question, exclamation,
  request, command, or suggestion
• Almost limitless number
• Sentences can be combined to form larger linguistic units (e.g. paragraphs)

Question 6

Grammar vs. semantics

Answer 6

• Grammar: rules for language structure including Morphology and Syntax
• Semantics: How meaning is derived from morphemes, words, phrases, and sentances

Question 7

Surface structure vs. deep structure

Answer 7

• Phrase structure that applies to the order in which words
  are actually spoken
• Deep structure: Fundamental, underlying phrase structure that conveys meaning

Question 8

Transformational grammar

Answer 8

Rules that transform among surface structures having
same deep structure

Question 9

types of ambiguity

Answer 9

• Lexical ambiguity: when a word has two different meanings (ex: Buffalo buffalo Buffalo…)
  -Syntactic ambiguity: when same words can be grouped together into more than one phrase structure
• Referential ambiguity: when same word/phrase can refer to two different things within a sentence, uses anaphors

Question 10

Broca’s aphasia

Answer 10

• Due to damage to Broca’s area
• Speech is labored, slow &
  nonfluent with awkward
  articulation
• Problems with language
  planning and production
  (not a motor problem)
• Problems with understanding
  and using syntax

Question 11

Wernicke’s aphasia

Answer 11

• Due to damage to Wernicke’s area
• Generally fluent, unlabored, well articulated
• Problems translating auditory input into phonological forms that
  can then access semantics
• Problems with language
  comprehension
• Problems with understanding and using semantics

Question 12

Left vs. right hemisphere

Answer 12

Split brain studies: left hemisphere can name objects, right hemisphere cannot

Question 13

Prosody

Answer 13

• intonation, tone, stress, and rhythm
• used for emotional state, form, irony, emphasis, etc.

Question 14

Aprosodia and types

Answer 14

• Difficulty processing prosody
• Productive aprosodia: monotonic, associated with damage to right hemisphere Broca’s equivalent
• Receptive aprosodia: Difficulty detecting and understanding emotional tone, associated with damage to right hemisphere Wernicke’s equivalent

Question 15

Sources of information

Answer 15

• Genes: info learned on timescale of evolution
• Past experience: Info learned on timescale of a human life
• Internal state: Info learned on timescale of current episode
• Environmental context: info learned now
• Proximal stimulus: the stimulus itself

Question 16

Interactive activation theory

Answer 16

• Model of letter & word
  perception
• Integrates bottom-up
  and top-down processes

Question 17

Garden path sentences

Answer 17

• We parse a sentence “online” as we read
• Same sentence structure but different past experiences
• Ex: Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana

Question 18

FMRI

Answer 18

• Function Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• Measures changes in magnetization, using electromagnetic radiation and nuclear magnetic resonance
• Neural activity -> Increased blood flow -> Change in
  magnetic field -> fMRI BOLD signal
• Very good spatial resolution (millimeters)
• Ok temporal resolution (seconds)

Question 19

Meaning in the brain

Answer 19

• Mitchell et al. (2008)
• Concepts are represented by highly distributed patterns of activation across the brain
• Perceptual and motor brain areas involved in representing meaning
• The association between concepts (as measured by co-
  occurrence of words) can be used to predict brain activation for those concepts