Language in cognitive psychology

Aspects of language in Cognitive Science study.
Adopted from "Sternberg Book"

1. Language in cognitive psychology Presented by Ali Bahrani Iran University of Science and Technology

2. Robert J Sternberg Karin Sternberg Adopted from Chapter 10 of Cognitive Psychology (6 th edition)

3. 80 is 4*20 in French ( quatre-vingt ) The Chinese – The American DO THE CHINESE THINK ABOUT NUMBERS DIFFERENTLY THAN AMERICANS ?

4. Helen Keller I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly, I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten—a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that “w-a-t-e-r” meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, joy, set it free! … Everything had a name, and each name gave birth to a new thought. As we returned to the house every object which I touched seemed to quiver with life…. I learned a great many new words that day … words that were to make the world blossom for me

5. Properties of Language The Basic Components of Words The Basic Components of Sentences What is Language?

6. Communicative Arbitrarily symbolic Regularly structured Structured at multiple levels Generative , Productive Dynamic Properties of Language

7. The Basic Components of Words

8. The Basic Components of Sentences

9. Understanding Words Understanding Meaning: Semantics Understanding Sentences: Syntax Understanding the Meaning of Words, Sentences

10. 50 phonemes per second Get or Git Coarticulation Speech segmentation Also in non-verbal languages Understanding Words

11. Speech perception As Ordinary As Special Categorical perception The Motor Theory of Speech Perception Understanding Words (Views of speech perception)

12. Understanding Words ( Speech Perception as Ordinary) the same processes as when we perceive other sounds different stages of neural processing phonetic refinement theory TRACE model : interactive 3 phase : acoustic, phonemes, word phonemic-restoration effect The importance of context

13. Understanding Words (The View of Speech Perception as Special) Categorical Perception ba vs. da vs. ga The pitch vs. category It IS a specialized process The Motor Theory use the movements of the speaker’s vocal tract McGurk effect

14. Is a synthesis of these opposing views possible? We assume YES!!! linguistic and perceptual attributes Understanding Words

15. Denotation and Connection Connection varies among people O ur mental lexicon = our dictionary Dominant meaning and subordinating meaning context Understanding Meaning (semantics)

16. Not only words convey meaning; the structure of sentences does as well. Understanding Sentences (syntax)

17. Understanding Sentences (syntax)

18. We tend to use the structures we heard The experiment of indirect objects Syntactical Priming

19. The error we make are syntactically true… Just like programming Speech Error

20. Analyzing Sentences: Phrase-Structure Grammar Parsing Different parsing – different meaning

21. Noam Chomsky

22. consider the syntactical relationships between sentences . S1: Susie greedily ate the crocodile. S2: The crocodile was eaten greedily by Susie S3: The crocodile greedily ate Susie. S4: Susie was eaten greedily by the crocodile. Map a tree to another tree Deep structure and surface structure A New Approach to Syntax: Transformational Grammar

23. A New Approach to Syntax: Transformational Grammar

24. Our mental lexicon contains more than the semantic meanings L exical item also contains syntactical information . noun versus verb the appropriate syntactical contexts any idiosyncratic information about the syntactical uses Thematic roles A link between semantics and syntax Relationships between Syntactical and Lexical Structures

25. Thematic Roles

26. Reading

27. processes may be impaired in dyslexia : Phonological awareness: “Goat” without “-t” Phonological reading : Words in isolation Phonological coding: b ,z,v,g vs. x,r,y,z Lexical access : one’s ability to retrieve phonemes from long-term memory . When Reading Is a Problem—Dyslexia

28. difficulty in learning the rules that relate letters to sounds both biological and environmental abnormalities in certain chromosomes, most notably, 3, 6, and 15 Can be reduced by educational interventions Developmental dyslexia

29. Perceptual Issues in Reading “ ghoti ” as “fish .” : The problem of English repeating loops…

30. Lexical Process Comprehension Process Learn to read

31. Fixations and Reading Speed Lexical Access Intelligence and Lexical-Access Speed Lexical Processes in Reading

32. Our eyes do not move smoothly successive clumps of text - a series of “snapshots” Fixate more on longer and less familiar words Sentence wrap-up time Only 80% of the word will be fixated up to visual span : 4 left 15 right Terminology: Saccadic speed-read -> Less understanding of the text Fixations and Reading Speed

33. lexical access: the identification of a word that allows us to gain access to the meaning of the word from memory lexical access is an interactive process. occurs at multiple levels Lexical Access (cont'd)

34. Lexical Access (cont’d) The interactive-activation model Visual input T he letter level The word level First bottom-up, Second Top-down

35. The letter is identified for easily in word context Lexical Access ( word-superiority effect)

36. Physical matching (A A) Name matching (A a) Nm – Pm : Lexical Speed More verbal ability, more lexical speed Intelligence and Lexical-Access Speed

37. Disclosure Pronouns Knowledge and context Understanding Conversations and Essays: Discourse

38. Semantic encoding The importance of vocabulary 95 for ease – 98 for joy Comprehending Known Words: Retrieving Word Meaning from Memory

39. Dictionary or formulating? Learning vocabulary indirectly High-verbal people derive easier… Comprehending Unknown Words: Deriving Word Meanings from Context

40. Proposition Working memory holds them!!! Macropropositions 1300 word experiment Comprehending Ideas: Propositional Representations

41. Point of view of a thief vs. the one of a potential buyer of a wealthy house Comprehending Text Based on Context and Point of View

42. After the words were decoded… Inferences… Bridging The minimalist belief Representing the Text in Mental Models