52 Questions
What is the main focus of the chapter?
Understanding inference and prediction in cognition
What did Helmholtz's theory of unconscious inference propose?
Dealing with ambiguity in visual stimuli involves unconscious inference
What does the chapter begin with?
Perceiving and understanding words
What recurring themes are encountered throughout the story?
The role of inference and prediction in cognition
What plays a crucial role in language comprehension?
Inference and prediction
What is language primarily used for?
All of the above
What allows human language to create new and unique sentences?
Rule-based structure
What is a universal need across cultures?
Using language for communication
What do deaf children in environments without sign language do?
Invent their own sign language
When do children generally start babbling?
At 7 months
What is a key challenge in understanding language?
Multiple word meanings
What is a distinguishing feature of human language compared to animal communication?
Rule-based structure
What is the role of memories for past experiences in language comprehension?
To predict future occurrences
What is the primary purpose of language?
Communicating experiences
What is a common feature of all languages despite their differences?
Shared functions of words and grammar rules
At what age do children generally form multiword utterances?
At 2 years
Which of the following is a major concern of psycholinguistics?
Language production
Who proposed that language is learned through reinforcement?
B. F. Skinner
What does the lexicon refer to in psycholinguistics?
Mental dictionary
Who identified areas in the brain responsible for language production and comprehension?
Paul Broca and Carl Wernicke
What did Noam Chomsky argue about human language?
It is genetically programmed
What is the main focus of the study of psycholinguistics?
Understanding how people comprehend spoken and written language
What is the frequency effect in language processing?
Words occurring more frequently are processed more quickly
What did B. F. Skinner propose about language learning?
It is learned through reinforcement
What is the modern scientific study of language attributed to?
Paul Broca and Carl Wernicke
What is the role of semantics in language?
Refers to the meaning of language
What did Chomsky's disagreement with behaviorism lead to?
A significant shift in the focus of psycholinguistics
What are the four major concerns of psycholinguistics?
Comprehension, representation, speech production, and acquisition of language
What aids in speech segmentation and word perception for infants?
Statistical regularities in speech signals
What plays a significant role in organizing sounds into words?
Meaning
What does lexical ambiguity refer to?
Words having multiple meanings
What method is used to determine the meanings of ambiguous words in a person's mind?
Lexical priming
What occurs when a word is followed by another word with a similar meaning, facilitating faster response to the second word?
Lexical priming
What indicates the semantic relatedness of two words in a person's mind, aiding in understanding ambiguous words?
The presence of a lexical priming effect
What aids in distinguishing individual words in speech?
Familiarity with a language
What helps in rapidly disambiguating words?
Context
What is the method used when seeing a stimulus makes it easier to respond to it when presented again, indicating activation of the stimulus representation?
Repetition priming
What influences our ability to understand spoken words, acquired through learning and experience?
Word frequency, context, statistical regularities, and word meanings
What does knowledge of word meanings aid in?
Speech segmentation and word perception
What makes it difficult to distinguish individual words in speech?
Unfamiliar languages
What is the lexical decision task used for?
Measuring processing differences between high- and low-frequency words
What is the average frequency for low-frequency words?
5.1 times per million
How does the duration of the first fixation on low-frequency words compare to high-frequency words?
37 msec longer
What does the word frequency effect demonstrate?
How past experience with words influences the ability to access their meaning
What is the total gaze duration on low-frequency words compared to high-frequency words?
87 msec longer
What is the difference in average frequency between high-frequency and low-frequency words?
117.2 times per million
How are high-frequency words responded to compared to low-frequency words?
More rapidly
What is the main factor influencing the ability to access word meaning according to the text?
Past experience with words
In what way do people pronounce words differently?
Accents, speeds, and relaxed approaches to pronunciations
How do silences between words in normal conversation compare to written language?
There are no silences between words in normal conversation
What helps in understanding words according to the text?
Context
What has research using the lexical decision task demonstrated?
Slower responding to low-frequency words
Study Notes
The Word Frequency Effect and Processing Differences
- Word frequency refers to the frequency of a word's appearance in a language.
- High-frequency words like "home" are responded to more rapidly than low-frequency words like "hike."
- A lexical decision task is used to illustrate processing differences between high- and low-frequency words.
- Research using the lexical decision task has demonstrated slower responding to low-frequency words.
- Frequency refers to how often a word occurs in normal language usage.
- The average frequency for low-frequency words is 5.1 times per million, while for high-frequency words it is 122.3 times per million.
- The duration of the first fixation on low-frequency words is 37 msec longer compared to high-frequency words.
- The total gaze duration on low-frequency words is 87 msec longer than for high-frequency words.
- The word frequency effect demonstrates how past experience with words influences the ability to access their meaning.
- People pronounce words differently due to accents, speeds, and relaxed approaches to pronunciations.
- Context helps in understanding words, as words are more difficult to understand when taken out of context.
- In normal conversation, there are no silences between words, unlike the physical breaks between words in written language.
Test your knowledge of word frequency effects and processing differences with this quiz. Explore how word frequency impacts lexical decision tasks and influences the speed of word recognition. Learn about the role of context and experience in understanding words, and delve into the differences between high- and low-frequency words in language processing.
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