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    Language Behaviour: Psycholinguistics

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    Amrita Amrita
    Psycholinguistics investigates the mental mechanisms underlying language processing. It studies two aspects: language comprehension, how we understand words and sentences, and language production, how we speak and use language. Researchers use experiments and tasks to understand how readers identify words and access word meaning and phonology automatically. They also use reaction time measures, eye tracking, brain imaging techniques like fMRI to study normal language processing and comprehend deficits in conditions like dyslexia. The left hemisphere is dominant for language processing.

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    Language Behaviour: Psycholinguistics

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    Amrita Amrita
    58 views63 pages
    Psycholinguistics investigates the mental mechanisms underlying language processing. It studies two aspects: language comprehension, how we understand words and sentences, and language production, how we speak and use language. Researchers use experiments and tasks to understand how readers identify words and access word meaning and phonology automatically. They also use reaction time measures, eye tracking, brain imaging techniques like fMRI to study normal language processing and comprehend deficits in conditions like dyslexia. The left hemisphere is dominant for language processing.

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    MA Lecture 4

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    Psycholinguistics investigates the mental mechanisms underlying language processing. It studies two aspects: language comprehension, how we understand words and sentences, and language production, how we speak and use language. Researchers use experiments and tasks to understand how readers identify words and access word meaning and phonology automatically. They also use reaction time measures, eye tracking, brain imaging techniques like fMRI to study normal language processing and comprehend deficits in conditions like dyslexia. The left hemisphere is dominant for language processing.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    58 views63 pages

    Language Behaviour: Psycholinguistics

    Uploaded by

    Amrita Amrita
    Psycholinguistics investigates the mental mechanisms underlying language processing. It studies two aspects: language comprehension, how we understand words and sentences, and language production, how we speak and use language. Researchers use experiments and tasks to understand how readers identify words and access word meaning and phonology automatically. They also use reaction time measures, eye tracking, brain imaging techniques like fMRI to study normal language processing and comprehend deficits in conditions like dyslexia. The left hemisphere is dominant for language processing.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 63

    Language Behaviour: Psycholinguistics

    Psycholinguistics investigates the mental


    mechanisms underlying language
    processing. (Cognitive)
    How to perceive words and store them in the
    mind, how to understand a sentence, how to
    learn to read, how language and writing
    systems influence mental organizations.

    What is Psycholinguistics
    Two Aspects:
    Language Comprehension how we
    understand the meaning of words and
    sentences (receptive process)
    Language Production how we speak and
    use language (productive process)

    Example: Visual Word Recognition


    When people encounter a printed word,
    how do they identify it?
    Properties of the word
    Visual or auditory (Modality)
    Orthographic whether a word is constructed in a legal
    way (e.g. math vs mtah)
    Phonological (syllable: /cat/; phoneme: /k/, /e/, /t/,
    Meaning
    Time course of activation of the 3 types of linguistic info in
    visual word identification

    Example: Word Recognition


    In identifying a written word,
    Visuo-orthographic analysis occurs.

    (activate, activation)
    Is the meaning of a word accessed
    automatically?
    Is the phonological information of a word
    accessed automatically?

    Example: Word Recognition


    An Experiment:
    Task: Speak out the color name of the stimulus you
    will view. (red, blue, green)
    Requirement: Complete the task as quickly and
    accurately as possible.

    (The task was devised by Stroop, 1935 --the Stroop task.)

    Example: Word Recognition


    Expected results:
    For color words (red, green, blue), when their
    ink color is inconsistent with the meaning of
    the words,
    Naming time is longer (i.e.response latency);
    Responses are less accurate.

    Example: Word Recognition

    Why there is such an interference effect?

    The mental lexicon


    red

    /blu:/
    blue

    *
    red

    Example: Word Recognition

    The above finding suggests that the


    meaning of words is activated
    automatically people cannot
    control the activation of meaning.

    automaticity

    Example: Word Recognition

    What about the phonological information


    of a written word in a silent reading task?
    Is a words phonology activated in a task
    that does not require reading aloud?

    Example: Word Recognition

    Another experiment:

    Task: On each trial, you will first see a semantic


    category name (e.g., flower). Following the
    semantic category, you will see a target word
    which may be an exemplar of the category
    (e.g., rose). Judge if the target word you will
    see is an correct exemplar of the category.

    Example: Word Recognition


    A servant

    Example: Word Recognition

    maid

    Example: Word Recognition

    Type of food

    Example: Word Recognition

    meet

    Example: Word Recognition

    Part of a mountain

    Example: Word Recognition


    peek

    Example: Word Recognition


    A flower

    Example: Word Recognition


    rows

    Example: Word Recognition


    Expected results:
    High false YES responses to
    homophones of the exemplars.
    Suggest that the meaning of words is
    accessed via phonology.

    flower
    rose
    /rouz/
    rows

    rows

    Yes
    (false)

    Why we do this sort of stuff???

    Research on normal readers word identification


    processes provide a solid basis for treating
    abnormal readers.
    13%
    7-15%

    poor readers
    developmental dyslexics (dyslexia)

    (Developmental dyslexia: Individuals with normal to


    high intelligence have severe reading problems.)

    Findings with normal readers indicate that


    word meaning and phonology are activated
    automatically.
    Apply the same tasks to dyslexia. There is a
    phonological deficit for dyslexics they
    cannot activate phonological information
    obligatorily.

    Research Methodology in
    Psycholinguistics
    1.

    Reaction time (RT) approach


    It measures peoples RT (response latency) to a
    language stimulus. It includes many on-line
    methods of studying peoples language behavior
    continuously in a laboratory setting
    RT measures time from onset of a stimulus to
    onset of a response.
    Infer the mental activity in terms of RTs.

    dog

    dog
    /dawg/

    Research Methodology in
    Psycholinguistics
    2. Memory and Classroom Approach
    It investigates language behavior in
    classroom, a more natural setting.
    To study the developmental pattern of
    childrens reading ability:

    cross-sectional (grades 1 to grade 5)


    longitudinal (a 5-year study)

    Research Methodology in
    Psycholinguistics
    3. Eye movements Approach
    Use the eyetracker to measure the position
    and duration of peoples eye fixations upon
    the text
    It is a most reliable psycholinguistic
    technique.

    Research Methodology in
    Psycholinguistics
    How the Eyes Work?
    When people read, the eyes do NOT move
    continuously. Instead, the eye will stop on
    some word for a brief period (150 to 500
    milliseconds). This is called fixation.
    Between the fixations are periods where the
    eye moves rapidly. These rapid eye
    movements are called saccades.

    Research Methodology in
    Psycholinguistics
    To understand a sentence, the eyes
    sometimes move back to some word, refixating it. These backward saccades are
    termed regression.
    Words that are fixated are in the fovea; words
    surrounding the fixated words are in the
    parafovea.

    Research Methodology in
    Psycholinguistics
    A healthy body may seem reward enough for
    . .
    .
    .
    .
    . .
    177 196

    175

    244

    302

    112 177

    most people. However, for all those who


    . .
    .
    .
    .
    266

    188

    199

    216

    212

    question the payoff, some recent research


    .
    .
    .
    .
    179

    266

    245

    188

    Research Methodology in
    Psycholinguistics
    How the Eyes Work?
    Fixation

    Saccades

    duration

    length (characters)

    English

    231 msec.

    7.8

    Hebrew

    265 msec.

    5.5

    Chinese

    300 msec.

    2.0

    Research Methodology in
    Psycholinguistics
    How the Eyes Work?
    Information extracted from the parafovea aids in reading:
    Reading rate is about 200 words per minute when only
    the fixated word is visible on each fixation, but it is 300
    words per minute when both the fixated word and the one
    immediately to the right are visible on each fixation.

    Research Methodology in
    Psycholinguistics
    4. Neurolinguistic Approach
    It studies the brain mechanism for language
    functioning where is language functioning
    localized in the brain?
    Lesion study using brain-damage patients
    Functional brain imaging study using the
    intact human brain

    Research Methodology in
    Psycholinguistics

    Left
    hemisphere

    cortex

    Right
    hemisphere

    Research Methodology in
    Psycholinguistics
    Basic Neuroanatomy:

    The outer layer of the brain cerebral cortex


    Hidden underneath the cortex are
    subcortical parts of the brain
    The left and right hemispheres are
    connected by a band of nerve fibers
    corpus callosum

    Research Methodology in
    Psycholinguistics
    Basic Neuroanatomy:

    An important feature of the human nervous


    system is that each cerebral cortex is
    connected to the opposite side of the body.
    This is termed contralateral connections.
    (Same-side connections are very weak.)

    Research Methodology in
    Psycholinguistics

    Split-brain patients those who have a


    damaged corpus callosum but an
    undamaged brain.

    Research Methodology in
    Psycholinguistics

    Research Methodology in
    Psycholinguistics

    Results:
    The left hemisphere is a language
    hemisphere. (dominant).

    Research Methodology in
    Psycholinguistics

    Brain Imaging Techniques

    Language processing requires energy.


    Brain imaging techniques depend on the
    fact that working brain tissue calls more
    blood its way and consumes more
    glucose.

    Research Methodology in
    Psycholinguistics

    General Comments on Lesion


    Studies:
    1. The association between language
    processing (e.g. syntactic processing)
    and the damaged brain areas is direct.

    2. The primary limitation is that lesions studies


    rely on damaged brains. This has several
    drawbacks because
    * patients with distinct lesions and specific
    functional impairments are rare; in many
    case, lesions are large;
    * following brain damage, performance may
    not reflect normal language processing
    because patients may compensate for their
    deficits by using unusual processing
    strategies.

    Can we reliably investigate


    normal peoples intact brain by
    using noninvasive techniques??

    Research Methodology in
    Psycholinguistics
    Brain Imaging Techniques (PET & fMRI)
    Language processing requires energy.
    Brain imaging techniques depend on the
    fact that working brain tissue calls more
    blood its way and consumes more
    glucose.

    Functional brain imaging:


    Directly visualize brain activities of normal
    people.

    PET (positron emission tomography)


    Subjects are injected with glucose that
    has been tagged with a radioactive
    substance; through this, brain images
    can be got indicating which regions of
    the brain have the greatest blood flow
    are are using the most energy.

    Washington University at St. Louis:


    1986: Fox et al., Nature
    1988: Fox et al., Science
    1988: Petersen et al., Nature
    1988: Posner et al. Science

    fMRI (functional magnetic resonance


    imaging):
    When subjects perform a task (e.g., reading), neural
    activity in specific areas of the brain increases. This
    results in greater need for glucose and oxygen, both of
    which are met by increasing blood flow. There is a
    small difference in magnetic susceptibility (a property
    of molecules) between oxygenated hemoglobin and deoxygenated hemoglobin. With increased blood flow to
    active brain areas, there is a change in the proportion
    of oxygenated to de-oxygenated hemoglobin. This
    difference is detected by MRI scanners.

    Massachusetts General Hospital


    (Harvard University):

    1992: K.K. Kwong et al. (PNAS)


    S. Ogawa et al. (PNAS)
    Peter Bandettini

    Brain Imaging -- visualize the


    activity of the intact human brain

    Brain science is (over-)interdisciplinary


    and is a teams work. Psycholinguistics
    and Linguistics are parts of it.

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