Week 7

Question 1

how can we define language?

Answer 1

A shared symbolic system for communication

Question 2

linguistics

Answer 2

The discipline that takes language as its topic

Question 3

psycholinguistics

Answer 3

The study of language as it’s used + learned by people

Question 4

reading vs speech perception

Answer 4

reading:
- words seen as a whole
- low ambiguity
- rarely distracted by other stimuli
- low cognitive demands
- punctuation main cue

speech perception:
- words spread out over time
- high ambiguity
- adverse conditions in everyday life
- high cognitive demands
- prosodic cues

involves different brain areas (evident from brain damage)

Question 5

reading processes

Answer 5

Orthography: word spelling
Phonology: word sound
Semantics: word meaning
Syntax + grammar
Higher level discourse integration (Balota et al. 1999)

Question 6

research methods: naming task

Answer 6

Say printed word out loud as rapidly as possible
Links orthography + phonology

Question 7

research methods: lexical decision task

Answer 7

Deciding rapidly whether a string of letters forms a word
Links orthography + semantics

Question 8

research methods: prime words task

Answer 8

Does a word presented before a target word affect processing of the target?
Related in spelling, sound or meaning

Question 9

reading

Answer 9

Understand + address reading difficulties
Majority of studies consider English Language
Angloscentricites: relationship between spelling + sound
English children learn to read more slowly than children learning a more consistent language (Caravolas et al. 2013)

Question 10

phonological processing

Answer 10

Do we access sounds when reading words?

1. Weak phonological model
   Phonological processing is inessential for word identification
2. Strong phonological model
   Phonological processing central for word identification

Question 11

homophones

Answer 11

Evidence consistent with strong model
Homophones: words with one pronunciation, but two spellings
More errors made when word is homophone of real world
Errors suggests engaged in phonological processing (Van Orden, 1987)

Question 12

phonological neighbours

Answer 12

Phonological neighbours: words that differ in one phoneme
When reading a sentence, look at words with many neighbours for a shorter amount of time
Advantage suggests engaged in phonological processing (Yates et al. 2008)

Question 13

phonological priming

Answer 13

Phonological priming: words processed faster when prime is phonologically identical
Advantage suggests engaged in phonological processing (Rastle & Brysbaert, 2006)

Question 14

phonological processing not essential?

Answer 14

However, may not be essential for effective reading
Brain damaged patients can have impaired phonological processing, but still understand the meaning of words

Question 15

word recognition

Answer 15

Interactive activation model of visual word processing (McClelland & Rumelhart, 1981)
Recognition units at three levels:
1. Feature level
2. Letter level
3. Word level
Involves parallel processing
Bottom up + top down processes interact

Question 16

interactive activation model

Answer 16

Model can account for the following:

1. Word superiority effect
   Target letter readily detected in a letter string when the string forms a word rather than a non-word
2. Orthographic neighbours
   Words formed by changing one of a target word’s letters and can influence recognition time
   Emphasis on top down processes from word level to letter level

Question 17

word superiority effect

Answer 17

Letter string presented briefly follow by mask
Decide which two letters were in a given position
Better when letter string forms a real word

Question 18

orthographic neighbours

Answer 18

Words formed by changing one letter in target word
When word presented, neighbour activated
- Neighbours facilitate target word recognition if they are less frequent in language
- Neighbours inhibit target word recognition if they are more frequent in language

Question 19

limitations of IAM

Answer 19

Too much importance attached to letter order
E.g most able to read text when first and last letters in correct place but others transposed

Question 20

semantic priming

Answer 20

Target word recognised faster if preceded by semantically related word
Two possible explanations:
1. Automatically activates related words due to learning
2. Expectation semantically related word will follow

Question 21

reading aloud

Answer 21

Two major theoretical approaches

1. Dual route model (Coltheart et al. 2001)
   Two routes between printed word + speech
   Activation at one level cascades onto the next
2. Connectionist triangle model (Plaut et al. 1996)
   Based on highly interactive system between orthography, phonology + semantics
   Semantics plays greater role in reading aloud

Question 22

dual route model

Answer 22

route 1: grapheme-phoneme conversion
Convert spelling of a grapheme → phoneme
Permits accurate perception of regular words
Does NOT permit perception of irregular words

route 2: lexicon + semantic knowledge
Familiar words stored in orthographic input lexicon
Printed word activates input lexicon + extract meaning from semantic system
Sound pattern generated in phonological output lexicon

Question 23

connectionist triangle model

Answer 23

Two routes from spelling to sound:
2. Direct route between spelling + sound
3. Indirect route via word meaning
Semantics plays a greater role in reading aloud than in dual route model

Question 24

dsylexia

Answer 24

Surface dyslexia
Difficulties reading irregular words

Phonological dyslexia
Difficulties reading unfamiliar words + non-words

Deep dyslexia
Difficulties reading unfamiliar words + non-words
Semantic errors

Question 25

surface dsylexia

Answer 25

Difficulties reading irregular words Dual route model Rely on grapheme-phoneme conversion Connectionist triangle model Semantic deficit

Question 26

phonological dsylexia

Answer 26

Difficulties reading unfamiliar words + non-words Dual route model Problems with grapheme-phoneme conversion Connectionist triangle model General phonological deficit not specific to reading

Question 27

deep dsylexia

Answer 27

Difficulties reading unfamiliar words + non-words Semantic errors Dual route model Out of scope of model Use different reading system; based in right hemisphere of brain Connectionist triangle model General phonological deficit not specific to reading

Question 28

brain imaging evidence for routes

Answer 28

Dorsal route: phonologically mediated Ventral route: direct access to word meaning Developmental changes

Question 29

speech perception

Answer 29

A complex process that involves various stages 1. Select signal of interest from irrelevant inputs 2. Extract the elements of interest from the speech signa; 3. Word identification 4. Comprehension + interpretation

Question 30

listening to speech

Answer 30

Must deal with considerable variability in signal Adverse conditions decrease intelligibility Phonemes pronounced in different ways Energetic masking: target degraded in some way Informational masking: effect of cognitive load

Question 31

problem of variability

Answer 31

Not one production of the same sound will be identical; varies between speakers + words Due to co-articulation: more than one sounds are articulated at the same time Loudness also affects phoneme production: voiced phonemes become voiceless during whisper

Question 32

phoneme categories

Answer 32

Some sounds are different but perceived the same Phonemes therefore are the category that are treated as the same, despite physical differences Sounds falling within the boundaries of a category will be perceived as the same; categorical perception Speakers of different languages vary on how they categorise phonemes

Question 33

sentence context

Answer 33

Info that is not provided in the auditory signal includes: - Info provided by a previous input - Top down info provided by knowledge + experience of language Has a rapid influence on speech perception