Language comprehension

Question 1

Dual route model of reading

Answer 1

• Most models are based on participants reading English, and don´t generalize well to other systems.
• Written English is orthographically deep, which means that the pronunciation might vary from word to word and there´s not one way a symbol
• There are several ways to figure out how a word is pronounced
• Three routes

Question 2

Segmentation problem

Answer 2

• Refers to detection of distinct words in what is a continuous string of speech sounds.
• Children use cues such as stress patterns, they do it by using strong syllables (syllables with whole vocals) as onset markers.
• They are also able to recognise words with phonotactic constraints, which describe the language specific sound groupings in a language. Permissible patterns of sound in a language.
• In English “rk” is a sound grouping that tends to mark the end of a words, however words don´t start with -rk.
• In that way one gets an onset pattern, onset is the start phoneme of a word, and rime follows the onset.
• Dark, onset: da, rime: rk
• Through early exposure to our native language, we develop tacit knowledge about which sounds can be grouped together in our language.
  Knowledge about speech structure and syntax can also play a role in speech segmentation.

Question 3

Categorical perception

Answer 3

• How we perceive stimuli that´s on a sensory continuum as falling into district categories.
• This counteracts the invariance problem (how there will be variation in how a speech sound is produced based on the context, what letters follow it or came before it)
• Means that we are more sensitive to differences in speech sounds across categories than within
• Applies more to consonant sounds
• Vocals are treated as continuous
• Categorical Perception demonstrated by Liberman et al: by using a speech synth a continuum of sound was created, e.g. Between the b sound and the p sound. The midpoints on the continuum are ambiguous, but people would still hear either b or p.

Question 4

The McGurk effect

Answer 4

• Visual cues can affect how we hear something.
• With the McGurk effect, an experiment was done where the participants were presented conflicting visual and auditory cues.
• The recording had a voice repeating “Ba” which the participants listened to while watching a video with a person mouthing “Ga”. The participants ended up blending the visual and auditory cues and reported hearing “Da”.
• The McGurk effect is a perceptual illusion that illustrates how visual and auditory processing affect each other in speech perception.

Question 5

Lexical access

Answer 5

• The process by which we access stored knowledge about words/how easily we access them
• Word recognition is a process of lexical access.
• Frequency effects, priming effects, syntactic context, lexical ambiguity

Frequency effects:

- We have a vocabulary between 50k-100k
- Low frequency words: words used rarely
- High frequency words: words used frequently
- The higher the frequency, the easier it is to access
- Frequency effects apply to open-class words: nouns, verbs and adjectives
- Closed-class words (articles, conjunctions, prepositions) don´t produce effect
- Eye tracking shows that people fixate on low frequency words 40 ms longer

Priming effects:

- Exposure to semantically related words speeds up processing for that category.
- E.g. If one is presented with the word HOSPITAL and the target word is NURSE.
- Repetition priming: finding that repeated exposure to a word leads to faster responses in a lexical decision task.

Syntactic context:

- Participants recognise words faster when they the appropriate syntactic context is given.
- Syntactic priming.

Lexical ambiguity

- If a word has several meanings, it will be slower to process
- Homographs: words with the same spelling, but more than one meaning and pronunciation  Context does not affect initial access to multiple meaning

Question 6

Frequency effects

Answer 6

• We have a vocabulary between 50k-100k
  
  • Low frequency words: words used rarely
  • High frequency words: words used frequently
  • The higher the frequency, the easier it is to access
  • Frequency effects apply to open-class words: nouns, verbs and adjectives
  • Closed-class words (articles, conjunctions, prepositions) don´t produce effect
    Eye tracking shows that people fixate on low frequency words 40 ms longer

Question 7

Priming effects

Answer 7

• Exposure to semantically related words speeds up processing for that category.
  
  • E.g. If one is presented with the word HOSPITAL and the target word is NURSE.
    Repetition priming: finding that repeated exposure to a word leads to faster responses in a lexical decision task.

Question 8

Syntactic context

Answer 8

• Participants recognise words faster when they the appropriate syntactic context is given.
• Syntactic priming.

Question 9

Lexical ambiguity

Answer 9

• If a word has several meanings, it will be slower to process
  
  • Homographs: words with the same spelling, but more than one meaning and pronunciation
    Context does not affect initial access to multiple meaning

Question 10

Orthographically deep

Answer 10

Means that the pronunciation might vary from word to word and there´s not one way a symbol sounds

Question 11

Route 1: grapheme-to-phoneme conversion GPC

Answer 11

This allows someone to sound out the words just by reading the letters without having access to the lexicon.

• Route allows us to sound out words based on letter-sound correspondences
• Used when reading a new word and can be used on words that follow print-sound rules.
• Will generate errors in languages with deep orthography.

Question 12

Route 2: lexical /direct route

Answer 12

• Allows reading via word recognition.
• The word is recognised by orthographic features, found in lexicon and accessed via semantic system, afterwards the sound properties are accessed.

Question 13

Route 3: bypasses semantic system

Answer 13

• This route bypasses the semantic system.
• Accounts for occasions when a word is read correctly, without having access to its meaning.
• Accounts for non-semantic reading which is a pattern of deficit in some types of acquired dyslexia.

Non-semantic reading: pattern of a reading deficit where a patient can read an irregular word (which cannot be sounded out) and yet cannot access its meaning

Question 14

Speech perception challenge

Answer 14

• The same sound can be different at the beginning and the end of a word.

Question 15

Invariance problem

Answer 15

Invariance: certain speech sounds are perceived as being the same despite their unique features.

Factors: co-articulation, speech rate, feeling, speaker, pitch

Reflects the variation in the production of speech sounds across speech contexts.

Question 16

Co-articulation

Answer 16

When a phoneme is affected by the phoneme before or after it

Question 17

phonotactic constraints

Answer 17

• Describe the language specific sound groupings in a language. Permissible patterns of sound in a language.

Question 18

Prosody

Answer 18

• Refers to rhythm, intonation and stress patterns in speech

Question 19

Phonotactic constraint

Answer 19

Certain letters can’t come after each other.

Question 20

Phonotactic constraint

Answer 20

Certain letters can’t come after each other.

Question 21

Segmentation of speech

Answer 21

Prosody:

- Refers to rhythm, intonation and stress patterns in speech. 

Phonotactic constraint:

• certain letters can´t come after each other

Syntactic knowledge

Question 22

Writing system: logographic

Answer 22

• Also called ideographic scripts
  
  • Represents morphemes or the units of meaning of words.
  • Chinese symbol for sun
  • 4 = fire, quatre, four

Question 23

Writing system: Consonantal scripts

Answer 23

• represent the consonants of the language

Question 24

Writing system: Alphabetic scripts

Answer 24

• use letters to represent the phonemes or sounds in a language

Question 25

Writing system: example

Answer 25

Japanese uses both logographic (kanji) and syllabic (kana).

Question 26

Grapheme

Answer 26

Written representation of a phoneme

Question 27

Transparent/shallow orthography

Answer 27

one-to-one correspondence between the letters and the sounds.

Question 28

Homophones

Answer 28

rain, reign

Question 29

Homographs

Answer 29

tear, can rhyme with beer or bear

Question 30

Context effects on Visual Word recognition

Answer 30

- A target letter is detected more easily if it´s within a word - Harder to detect in non-words or pseudowords - Example with popcorn: priming A: Movie theaters must have buttered popcorn to serve their patrons B: Movie theaters must have adequate popcorn to serve their patrons In B, they looked at "popcorn" for longer