Language Quiz Notes PDF

PSYC2112/5262 FOUNDATIONAL PERSPECTIVES: COGNITION Lecture 8. Language and Reading Dr Jonas Chan We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emergi...

PSYC2112/5262 FOUNDATIONAL PERSPECTIVES: COGNITION Lecture 8. Language and Reading Dr Jonas Chan We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. We recognise those whose ongoing effort to protect and promote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures will leave a lasting legacy for future Elders and leaders. 2 TODAY 1. What is Language? 2. Understanding Language 3. Producing Language WHAT IS LANGUAGE? How do we understand individual words? Language and Reading How are words combined to create sentences? How can we understand sentences that have more than one meaning? What is Language? Language is the primary way people communicate. It is universal. Understanding Language The study of how people use and understand language teaches us a Producing great deal about how the mind operates. Language WHAT IS LANGUAGE? What is language? Language: Language and A system of communication using sounds or Reading symbols that enables us to express our feelings, thoughts, ideas, and experiences. What is Language? Is there enough in that definition? Understanding After all dogs bark and cats meow. Is that Language language? Producing Language What about Koko? How about Alex? WHAT ABOUT THE BEES!? WHAT IS LANGUAGE? Human language goes far beyond a series of fixed signals that transmit a single message such as “feed me,” “danger,” or “go that way for food.” Language and Reading Language provides a way of arranging a sequence of signals—sounds for spoken language, letters and written words for written language, What is Language? and physical signs for sign language—to transmit, from one person to another. Understanding Language Producing Language WHAT IS LANGUAGE? Language makes it possible to create new and unique sentences because it has a structure that is: ‘W’ + ‘h’ + ‘a’ + ‘t’ Language and Reading 1. Hierarchical 2. Governed by rules. ‘What’ + ‘is’ + ‘my’ + ‘cat’ + ‘saying’ What is Language? Hierarchical systems have small components that can be combined Understanding to form larger units. ‘What is my cat saying?’ + etc… Language Governed by rules, which are Producing specific ways components can be ‘Cat my saying is what?’ Language arranged. LANGUAGE SATISFIES OUR NEED TO COMMUNICATE Deaf children invent sign language that is all their own (Goldin-Meadow, 1982). Language and Reading All humans with normal capacities develop a language and learn to follow its complex rules. What is Language? Language is universal across cultures. There are more than 5,000 different languages, and there isn’t a single culture without language Understanding Language Language development is similar across cultures. Children generally begin babbling at about 7 months, a few meaningful words appear by Producing their first birthday, and the first multiword utterances occur at about Language age 2 (Levelt, 2001). How far back in time could you go and still understand English? LANGUAGE LEARNING Language and Reading What is Language? VS. Understanding Language Producing Language A Review of B. F. Skinner’s Verbal Behaviour (Chomsky, 1959) Rebuttal (MacCorquodale, 1970) LANGUAGE LEARNING B.F. Skinner (1957) Verbal Behavior. Verbal behaviour fulfils various functions - learned Language and Reading through reinforcement. Requesting. Labeling/classifying. What is Language? Generalisation and Discrimination. Conversation is a combination of the Understanding above. Language People reinforce each other’s verbal behaviour by conversing. Producing Language LANGUAGE LEARNING Skinner: Children learn “verbal behaviour” the same way they learn everything else: through imitation, reinforcement, and other established principles of conditioning. Speech and Language Vocalisations that are reinforced are repeated; those that are not reinforced (or punished) disappear, such as: Speech Production Mands: a verbal behaviour that is under control by motivation (I want this) Speech Perception Tact: a verbal behaviour under control by the environment (labeling) Echoic: a verbal behaviour under control of verbal stimulus (imitation) What is Language? Intraverbal: a verbal behaviour under the control of other verbal behaviour (answering) Language Learning Critique: Trial and error learning cannot account for: fast mapping / speed of language acquisition. generative aspect of language. How children make mistakes like “he goed away” is not imitation.  LANGUAGE LEARNING Noam Chomsky (1957) Syntactic Structures. Human language coded in the genes. Language and Reading Underlying basis of all language is similar (similar grammatical structure – universal grammar). What is Language? Children produce sentences they have never heard and that have seemingly never been reinforced. Understanding Language Poverty of the stimulus (POS): Children are not exposed to a rich enough linguistic environment for all language to be Producing learned via experience. Language Therefore, they must be learning syntactic rules. Children learn about rules that they can apply to new situations, not responses. However, many models of learning based on behavioural and cognitive processes do not require an individual to experience every instance of a phrase in order to learn to use it. LANGUAGE LEARNING Noam Chomsky (1960s and 1970s) - Language is Biological Language acquisition device (LAD) – innate pre-wired mechanism for language development Speech and Built-in universal grammar Language Evidence: Studies of specific language impairment (SLI) show children having trouble Speech Production acquiring language Runs in families = genes Speech Perception Unique physiology of mouth/throat and language brain areas What is Language? Humans innately pre-wired for language Language Learning Critique: Does not explain how language is produced Very difficult to falsify the claim of universal grammar Children ARE in fact reinforced/punished for using language incorrectly Some evidence suggests that children learn grammar probabilistically (Mcdonald & Ramscar, 2001) SUMMARY SO FAR Language is the primary way people communicate. Language is a system of communication using sounds or symbols that Language and enables us to express our feelings, thoughts, ideas, and experiences. Reading Skinner developed verbal behaviour, an account for language learning based on behavioural principles. What is Language? Chomsky believed that universal grammar was innate, and that Understanding The paucity of stimuli in the environment means that children are unlikely to be Language able to learn the complexity of language under basic behavioural principles. Producing Humans have a pre-wired mechanism for language development Language Language Acquisition Device (LAD) PSYCHOLINGUISTICS The study of the psychological process by which humans acquire and process language. Language and Comprehension: Reading How do people understand spoken and written language? Speech production: What is Language? How do people produce language? Understanding Representation: Language How is language represented in the mind and in the brain? Producing Language Acquisition: How do people learn language? WHAT IS LANGUAGE? By the time we have become adults, we can understand more than 50,000 different words (Altmann, 2001; Dell, Language and 1995). Reading Orthogra phy Lexicon: All the words a person understands: What is Language? our mental dictionary. Understanding Phonology: Lexicon Language Pronunciation of the word. Producing Sem antics Phonology Language Orthography: Written form of the word Semantics: The meaning of words in a language. COMPONENTS OF WORDS Phoneme: The shortest segment of speech that, if changed, changes the meaning of a word. Language and Reading Morphemes: The smallest units of language that have a definable meaning or a grammatical function. What is Language? For example, “luck” consists of 3 phonemes, but only one morpheme. Understanding Language “Table” has two syllables, “tabe” and “ul,” it also consists of only a single Producing morpheme, because the syllables alone have no meaning. Language “Psychology” has four syllables and two morphemes. PERCEIVING SOUNDS AND LETTERS. Continuity and Restoration Language and Phonemic Restoration effect Reading Sometimes we miss parts of a sound. What is Language? Understanding Our auditory system has evolved Language to deal with these interruptions by filling in the gaps (restoration) in Producing sound streams so that we perceive Language sound as continuous. PERCEIVING SOUNDS AND LETTERS. Meaning influences perception of Language and sounds (Warren, 1970). Reading “There was time to *ave …” What is Language? Is the word shave, save, wave, or rave? Understanding Language “There was time to *ave goodbye to Producing our friends” Language Participants would hear wave. PERCEIVING INDIVIDUAL WORDS IN SENTENCES One of the challenges posed by the problem of Language and perceiving words is that not everyone says Reading words in the same way. How would you say “Did you go to class What is Language? today?” Understanding Would you say “Did you” or “Dijoo”? Language Producing Language PERCEIVING INDIVIDUAL WORDS IN SENTENCES Pollack & Pickett (1964) Language and Reading Words are more difficult to understand when taken out of context and presented alone. What is Language? Even when participants listen to their own voice! Understanding Language Producing Language PERCEIVING INDIVIDUAL WORDS IN SENTENCES The sounds of speech are easier to understand when we hear them spoken in a sentence. Language and Reading But words spoken in a sentence are usually not separated by spaces! Speech Segmentation: What is Language? Our ability to perceive individual words even though there are often no pauses between words in the sound signal. Understanding Language Producing Language ‘Ha m ilton’ would la s t 4 to 6 hours if it were s ung a t the pa ce of other broa dwa y s hows PERCEIVING INDIVIDUAL WORDS In English, certain sounds are more likely to follow other sounds. Language and “Pretty Baby” Reading Pre is likely to be followed by ty Ty- and Ba is likely to be separated into two different words. What is Language? Consider these sentences: Understanding Jamie’s mother said, “Be a big girl and eat your vegetables.” Language The thing Big Earl loved most in the world was his car. Producing Language “Big Girl” and “Big Earl” are both pronounced the same way. We hear them differently based on context. Our ability to segment spoken words is achieved via frequency, context, statistical learning and our knowledge of word meanings. PERCEIVING INDIVIDUAL WORDS IN SENTENCES Language and “In the speech sound wave, one word runs into the next seamlessly; Reading there are no little silences between spoken words the way there are white spaces between written words. We simply hallucinate word boundaries when we reach the end of a stretch of sound that What is Language? matches some entry in our mental dictionary.” Understanding Language Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language Producing Language PERCEIVING WRITTEN WORDS Language and Word Superiority Effect: Reading Refers to the finding that letters are easier to recognize when What is Language? they are contained in Understanding a word than when Language they appear alone or are contained in a Producing nonword. Language PERCEIVING LANGUAGE Language and Reading What is Language? Understanding Language Producing Language PERCEIVING WRITTEN WORDS So far we have focused on perception, but what about Language and understanding the meaning of Reading words? Some words occur more frequently What is Language? than others in a particular language. Understanding Language For example, in English, Producing ‘home’ occurs 547 times per million Language words, and ‘hike’ occurs only 4 times per million words. Lexical decis ion prim ing tas k WORD FREQUENCY EFFECT The finding that we respond faster to high- frequency words than to low-frequency words. Language and Reading Rayner and Duffy (1986) fixation and gaze times. What is Language? They looked at eye movements of participants while participants read. Understanding Language Sentences were constructed by changing single Producing words that differed in frequency e.g. Language “The slow waltz captured their attention” (low) “The slow music captured their attention.” (high) WORD FREQUENCY EFFECT Duration of fixation was 37 ms longer for low-frequency words Language and compared to high-frequency Reading words. Total gaze duration was 87 ms What is Language? longer for low frequency words. Understanding Language Our past experiences influences our ability to access their meaning. Producing Language LEXICAL AMBIGUITY Words often have multiple meanings. Language and Reading “River Bank” “Commonwealth Bank” What is Language? How do we know which meaning Understanding Language to access? Producing Language LEXICAL AMBIGUITY Swinney (1979): Listening task: “Rumour had it that, for years, the government building has been plagued with problems. The man Language and was not surprised when he found several spiders, Reading roaches, and other bugs in the corner of the room.” Lexical decision task: What is Language? Context related: ant ??? Context inappropriate: spy Context unrelated: sew Understanding Language Results: Within 400ms of hearing bugs, both ant and spy are Producing primed Language After 700ms, only ant is primed Context clears up ambiguity after all meanings of a word have been briefly accessed LEXICAL AMBIGUITY Tanenhaus et al (1979): Lexical priming task Presented participants with recordings of Language and sentences such as: Reading “She held the rose” (rose as noun) “They all rose” (rose as verb) What is Language? Measured meaning of rose that was being primed by presenting either: Understanding Noun prime – noun probe Language E.g. she held a rose -> flower Verb prime – noun probe Producing E.g. They all rose -> flower Language Priming effect is stronger for noun-noun. Both meaning are primed at 0 delay compared to control sentence, but after 200 ms only the noun prime remains. MEANING DOMINANCE Matthew Traxler (2012): “Many words have multiple meanings, but these meanings are not all created equal.” Language and Meaning Dominance: Reading Some meanings of words occur more frequently than others. Biased Dominance: What is Language? When words have two or more meanings with different dominances. Understanding Tin (a type of metal) is high dominance. Language Tin (small metal container of food) is low dominance. Producing Language Balanced dominance: When a word has more than one meaning but the meanings have about the same dominance. Cast (members of a play) and cast (plaster cast) are equal dominance. MEANING DOMINANCE Language and Reading … into the night What is Language? Understanding Language Producing Language MEANING DOMINANCE Language and Reading … bright and shiny. What is Language? Understanding Language Producing Language MEANING DOMINANCE Language and Reading What is Language? Understanding Language Producing Language The miners saw in the shop that they had… MEANING DOMINANCE Language and Reading What is Language? Understanding Language Producing Language The miners went under the… MEANING DOMINANCE Language and Reading What is Language? Understanding Language Producing Language The miners went under the… UNDERSTANDING WORDS Language and Reading The process of accessing the meaning of a word is complicated and is What is Language? influenced by multiple factors. Understanding Language The frequency of a word determines how long it takes to process its meaning. Producing Language The context of the sentence determines which meaning we access. Our ability to access the correct meaning of a word depends on both the word’s frequency, dominance and context. SUMMARY SO FAR Psycholinguistics is the study of the psychological process by which humans acquire and process language. Comprehension Language and Speech production Reading Representation Acquisition Your lexicon includes phonology, orthography, and semantics. What is Language? Components of words can be described using phonemes and morphemes. Understanding Language Key concepts in perceiving phonemes, words and letters: Phonemic restoration Producing Words isolated from conversational speech Language Speech segmentation Word superiority Key concepts in understanding words: Word Frequency Lexical Ambiguity UNDERSTANDING SENTENCES Semantics is the meaning of words in a language. And so, in this case it is the meaning of words in a sentence. Language and Reading Syntax: Rules for combining words into What is Language? sentences, where sentences are strings of words in sequence. Understanding Language Parsing: Mentally grouping the words into Producing phrases, which helps the listener Language create meaning. BRAIN AREAS FOR SYNTAX AND SEMANTICS Two of the most famous uses of Language and neuropsychology to elucidate brain Reading function were the classic studies of Paul Broca (1861) and Carl Wernicke (1879). What is Language? Modern researchers have linked Understanding Broca’s area to syntax (the structure of Language sentences) and Wernicke’s area to semantics (understanding meaning). Producing Language BRAIN AREAS FOR SYNTAX AND SEMANTICS (a) The N400 wave of the ERP is Language and affected by the meaning of the word. Reading (b) The P600 wave of the ERP is affected by grammar. What is Language? N400 response is associated with Understanding structures in the temporal lobe. Language P600 response is associated with Producing structures in the frontal lobe, more Language toward the front of the brain. PARSING A SENTENCE After the musician played the piano … Language and Reading a. … she left the stage. b. … she bowed to the audience. c. … the crowd cheered wildly. What is Language? Understanding Language Producing Language PARSING A SENTENCE After the musician played the piano … Language and Reading a. … she left the stage. b. … she bowed to the audience. c. … the crowd cheered wildly. What is Language? d. … was wheeled off of the stage. Understanding Language Producing Language PARSING A SENTENCE – THE GARDEN PATH MODEL Heuristics are a quick decision that takes the most simple syntactical structure and reads the sentence as if it was the most simple sentence you could think of. Sentences that begin appearing to mean one thing but then end up meaning something else, are called Language and garden path sentences. Reading Under the garden-path model of sentence parsing, only one syntactical structure is initially considered, guided by heuristics – rules that allow us to make What is Language? quick decisions. Understanding The simplest syntactical structure is chosen. Language The parser assumes new word is part of the current Producing phrase (the principle of late closure). Language Semantics do not influence syntactic construction. If the syntactic structure is incompatible with additional semantic information processed, then Parsing a sentence is defined as now we make initial syntactic structure is revised. sense its s of meaning. PARSING A SENTENCE – THE CONSTRAINT-BASED APPROACH Information in addition to syntax is used in processing a sentence. Language and Context and words both used to make Reading predictions about how the sentence should be parsed. Influence of Word Meaning What is Language? Consider: Understanding Language 1. The defendant examined by the lawyer was unclear. Producing 2. The evidence examined by the lawyer Language was unclear. Sentence 1 is more difficult to figure out because there are two possible meanings.  PARSING A SENTENCE – CONSTRAINT-BASED APPROACH Language and Another example of how Reading semantics are accessed even “The s py s a w the m a n with the binocula rs.” before we finish reading the sentence. Grouping 1: [The s py s a w the m a n] [with the What is Language? binocula rs ]. The structure of the bird Grouping 2: [The s py s a w] [the m a n with the Understanding sentence is the same as that of binocula rs ]. Language the spy sentence, but our “The bird s a w the m a n with the binocula rs.” Producing knowledge of the properties of Language spies and of birds influences the We don’t even cons ider the bird ha ving a pa ir of way we interpret the binocula rs. relationships between the words in the sentence. This theory shows we do access the meanings of sentences when we read them. Goes against the garden path approach, as it says we just continue until error is found. & PARSING A SENTENCE – THE CONSTRAINT-BASED APPROACH Information in addition to syntax is used in processing a sentence. Context and words both used to make predictions about how the sentence Language and should be parsed. Reading Influence of Story Context “The horse raced past the barn fell” is confusing without context. What is Language? With context, the sentence is easier to parse: Understanding Language “There were two jockeys who decided to race their horses. One raced his horse along the path that went past the garden. The other raced his horse along the Producing path that went past the barn. The horse raced past the barn fell.” Language INFLUENCE OF SCENE CONTEXT – THE VISUAL WORLD PARADIGM Our interpretation of a sentence is Language and influenced by meaning of the words Reading in the sentence and the meaning of a scene we are observing. What is Language? Tanenhaus et al. (1995) developed a technique called the visual world Understanding paradigm, which involves Language determining how subjects process information as they are observing a Producing Language visual scene. I want you to mentally “Place the apple on the towel in the box.” INFLUENCE OF SCENE CONTEXT – THE VISUAL WORLD PARADIGM Language and Interpretation 1: Reading The relevant apple is the one on the towel. What is Language? Interpretation 2: Move the apple onto the towel. Understanding Language Producing Language INFLUENCE OF SCENE CONTEXT – THE VISUAL WORLD PARADIGM Language and “Place the apple on the towel in Reading the box.” What is Language? Understanding Language Producing Language  INFLUENCE OF SCENE CONTEXT – THE VISUAL WORLD PARADIGM Language and If parsing is always based on the Reading structure of the sentence, then changing the scene should have no effect on the eye movements. What is Language? Understanding Language People move their eyes based on the changing interpretations of the sentence, while they're listening. This shows people are Producing getting semantic information as they build their understanding Language of the sentences. MAKING PREDICTIONS BASED ON KNOWLEDGE OF LANGUAGE CONSTRUCTIONS Language and Sentence in the figure to the Reading right occurs less frequently, so we are more likely to read the sentences as if we were reading What is Language? sentence until they diverge in meaning. Understanding Language Producing Language MAKING PREDICTIONS BASED ON KNOWLEDGE OF LANGUAGE CONSTRUCTIONS Fine and Jaeger (2013) had subjects (1) The experienced s oldiers wa rned a bout the da ngers conducted the Language and read ambiguous (1) and midnight ra id. Reading unambiguous (2) sentences in a moving window display in which the (2) The experienced s oldiers who were subject saw one word at a time on a wa rned a bout the da ngers conducted the midnight ra id. What is Language? computer. Understanding Words in the ambiguous sentence Language took longer to process. Producing By the second set of 10 trials, the Language ambiguity effect vanished The more experience gained the easier it was to read the ambiguous sentences. UNDERSTANDING SENTENCES Language and Reading What is Language? Understanding Language Producing Language SUMMARY SO FAR Semantics is the meaning of words in a language. It has syntax Language and We parse sentences to derive meaning from them. Reading Modern researchers have linked Broca’s area to syntax (the structure of sentences) and Wernicke’s area to semantics (understanding meaning). What is Language? The N400 wave of the ERP is affected by the meaning of the word. Understanding Language The P600 wave of the ERP is affected by grammar. Producing Language SUMMARY SO FAR Sentences that begin appearing to mean one thing but then end up meaning something else, are called garden path sentences. Language and The garden-path model of sentence parsing states that we initially only Reading consider one syntactical structure until the sentence no longer makes sense. What is Language? The constraint-based approach states that information provided by both syntax and semantics is taken into account simultaneously as we read or Understanding listen to a sentence. Language The visual world paradigm involves determining how subjects process Producing Language information as they are observing a visual scene. Less likely sentence constructions creates ambiguity. This effect can be reduced by experience. UNDERSTANDING TEXT AND STORIES Just as sentences are more than the sum of the meanings of individual words, stories are more than the sum of the meanings of individual sentences. Language and Reading Inferences: Determining what the text means by using our knowledge to go beyond What is Language? the information provided by the text. Understanding Language Producing Language UNDERSTANDING TEXT AND STORIES John Bransford and Marcia Johnson (1973) in which they had subjects read passages and then tested them to determine what they remembered. They had participants read passages like: Language and Reading J ohn was trying to fix the birdhous e. He was pounding the nail when his father came out to watch him and help him do the work. What is Language? Subjects were likely to indicate that they had previously seen the following passage: Understanding J ohn was us ing a hammer to fix the birdhous e when his Language father came out to watch him and help him do the work. Producing They reported seeing this passage, even though they had never read that Language John was using a hammer, because they inferred that John was using a hammer from the information that he was pounding the nail. MAKING INFERENCES - COHERENCE Coherence: Language and The representation of the text in a person’s mind so that information in one part of Reading the text is related to information in another part of the text. Inferences create connections that are essential for creating coherence in texts. Requires creativity by the reader. What is Language? Combines transformation of words, sentences and sequences of sentences into a meaningful story. Understanding Can sometimes be hard due to the skill of the writer or the reader. Language Producing Language MAKING INFERENCES - COHERENCE How do we create coherence? Anaphoric Inferences: Inferences that connect an object or person in one sentence to an object or person in Language and another sentence. Reading “Riffifi, the famous poodle, won the dog show. She has now won the last three shows she has entered.” What is Language? Instrument inferences: Inferences about tools or methods Understanding ”William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet while he was sitting at his desk.” Language Causal Inferences: Producing Inferences that the events described in one clause or sentence were caused by Language events that occurred in a previous sentence “ Sharon took an aspirin. Her headache went away.” MENTAL REPRESENTATION OF STORIES We have been describing the process of text comprehension so far in terms of how people bring their knowledge to bear to infer connections between different parts of a story. Language and Reading Another approach to understanding how people understand stories is to consider the nature of the mental representation that people form as they read a story. What is Language? Understanding Language Producing Language SITUATION MODEL Situation Model: Language and Is a mental representation of what Reading a text is about. What exactly is “a mental What is Language? representation of what a text is about”? Understanding Language We simulate the perceptual and Producing motor characteristics of the objects Language and actions in a story. SITUATION MODEL – NEURAL EVIDENCE The situation model suggests that the Language and reader simulates the motor Reading characteristics of objects in a story. Olaf Hauk et al. (2004) determined the What is Language? link between movement, action words, and brain activation by measuring brain Understanding activity using fMRI. Language The activation is more extensive for Producing actual movements, but the activation Language caused by reading the words occurs in approximately the same areas of the brain. PREDICTIONS BASED ON OUR KNOWLEDGE ABOUT SITUATIONS Ross Metusalem et al. (2012) Language and recorded subjects’ ERPs as they read Reading scenarios such as the following: “The band was very popular and Joe What is Language? was sure the concert would be sold out. Amazingly, he was able to get a Understanding Language seat down in front. He couldn’t believe how close he was when he saw the Producing group walk out onto the ( stage / Language guitar / barn ) and start playing.” PREDICTIONS BASED ON OUR KNOWLEDGE ABOUT SITUATIONS ERPs recorded as participants read Language and the expect, event-related and event- Reading unrelated sentences. Stage – small N400 What is Language? Guitar – medium N400 Barn – large N400 Understanding Language The N400 becomes larger when the Producing word does not fit the sentence. Language Participants’ knowledge of guitars being related to a concert produced a smaller N400 than barn, an unrelated word. UNDERSTANDING TEXT AND STORIES Language and Reading What is Language? Understanding Language Producing Language PRODUCING LANGUAGE Conversation: Language and Two or more people talking with one another. Reading Each person needs to take into account what other people are saying. What is Language? Also what the other person or people know about the topic that is being discussed (Pickering & Garrod, 2004). Understanding Language Producing Language CONVERSATION The given–new contract states that a speaker should construct sentences so Language and Sentence 1. Ed wa s given a n a lliga tor that they include two kinds of Reading for his birthda y. information: Given inform a tion (from previous convers a tion): Ed ha d a birthda y. Given information: information that the What is Language? listener already knows. New inform a tion: He got a n a lliga tor. Understanding Language New information: information that the Sentence 2. The a lliga tor wa s his fa vourite pres ent. listener is hearing for the first time. Producing Given inform a tion (from s entence ): Language It took longer for subjects to Ed got a n a lliga tor. comprehend two sentences when the New inform a tion: It wa s his fa vourite they didn’t follow the given-new contract pres ent. than when they did follow the contract (Haviland & Clark, 1974). CONVERSATION Common Ground: The speakers’ mutual knowledge, beliefs, and assumptions (Isaacs & Clark, 1987). Language and Reading Isaacs and Clark (1987) paired up subjects and gave each subject the same set of 16 postcards of New York City scenes. What is Language? Subject 1’s postcards were arranged in a 4-by-4 grid. This subject’s task was Understanding to describe the pictures so that Subject 2 could arrange his or her pictures Language in the same order. Producing Language CONVERSATION Coordination between speakers also includes using similar grammatical constructions. Language and Reading Syntactic Coordination: The process by which people use What is Language? similar grammatical construction. Understanding Syntactic Priming: Language Hearing a statement with a particular syntactic construction increases the Producing chances that a sentence will be Language produced with the same construction. Branigan et al. (2000) experiment -> CONVERSATION Other skills are necessary for people to engage in effective conversations. Theory of mind: Language and Reading Being able to understand what others feel, think, or believe. Nonverbal communication: What is Language? Being able to interpret and react to the person’s gestures, facial expressions, tones of voice, and other cues to meaning. Understanding Language Producing Language CONVERSATION Language and Reading What is Language? Understanding Language Producing Language SUMMARY SO FAR Determining what the text means by using our knowledge to go beyond the information provided by the text requires inference. Language and Coherence relates information between different parts of texts to each Reading other. Anaphoric Instrument What is Language? Causal Understanding The situation model states that we have a mental representation of what a Language text is about. Producing Language SUMMARY SO FAR Conversation is two or more people talking with one another. The given–new contract states that a speaker should construct sentences Language and so that they include two kinds of information: Reading Given information New information What is Language? Syntactic coordination is the process by which people use similar grammatical construction. Understanding Language Other skills are necessary for people to engage in effective conversations. Theory of mind Producing Language Nonverbal communication LECTURE SERIES BREAKDOWN Week Topics Topic 1 Introduction to Memory and Cognition Topic 2 Learning & Critical Thinking Introduction to Cognition Topic 3 Attention Topic 4 Short-term and working memory Topic 5 Long-term memory Topic 6 Everyday Memory Break Week Topic 7 Conceptual Knowledge Topic 8 Language & Reading Topic 9 Problem Solving & Creativity Topic 10 Judgement & Reasoning Topic 11 Decision Making Topic 12 Review: Introduction to Cognition PSYC2112/5262 FOUNDATIONAL PERSPECTIVES: COGNITION Tutorial Week 9 Language & Reading  ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY ACAP acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia and recognize their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. We recognize those whose ongoing effort to protect and promote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures will leave a lasting legacy for future Elders and leaders.  Week 1: Unit orientation and data collection Week 2: Learning and critical thinking & introduction to A1 A3 WEEKLY EXAM Week 3: Attention A3 WEEKLY EXAM Week 4: Short-term and working memory & Assessment 2 Part 1 A3 WEEKLY EXAM Week 5: Long-term memory & Assessment 2 Part 2 A1 DUE A3 WEEKLY EXAM Week 6: Everyday memory A3 WEEKLY EXAM Week 7: Break week Week 8: Conceptual knowledge A3 WEEKLY EXAM TODAY’S TOPIC Week 9: Language and reading A3 WEEKLY EXAM Week 10: Problem solving and creativity A2 DUE A3 WEEKLY EXAM Week 11: Judgement and reasoning A3 WEEKLY EXAM Week 12: Decision making A3 WEEKLY EXAM Week 13: Review and reflection OUTLINE  Learning a new language  Language and culture EXPERIMENT – LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE Class Experiment This experiment will consist of the following tasks: 1. Learning phase  You will be learning the meaning of 30 Chinese characters.  This part will consist of 3 blocks of learning.  After each block, you will be given a short quiz with feedback so you can keep track of your learning. 2. Test phase  You will be directed to a final test. This will take place within the same PowerPoint Slide show. EXPERIMENT – LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE Your tutor will place you into two groups. When you are in your groups, please open the appropriate presentation from the Week 9 tutorial tab on the class space as instructed by your tutor.  For Group 1, open the document labelled GROUP 1  For Group 2, open the document labelled GROUP 2 Worksheet Group 1 Group 2 EXPERIMENT – CHINESE CHARACTER TEST EXPERIMENT – START THE SLIDESHOW ON POWERPOINT The ‘Start Slideshow’ button should be near the bottom of the window (right side on PCs and left side on Macs) and looks like this. EXPERIMENT – CHINESE CHARACTER TEST At the end of the three blocks, you will be prompted to do the final test. Please put away the paper that you did the quizzes on. The training and test should take around 15 minutes. BACKGROUND ON CHINESE CHARACTERS Majority of Chinese characters are compound characters. Compound characters = can be divided into subcomponents. Subcomponents are called radicals. 2 types of radicals:  Phonetic radicals: based on sound  Semantic radicals: based on semantic meaning This experiment only looked at semantic radicals. DISSECTION OF A CHINESE CHARACTER Does something stand out to you about these characters? 江 法 Character (river) (law) DISSECTION OF A CHINESE CHARACTER 江 法 Character (river) (law) Semantic radical = component that tells people about the MEANING of the character but not always! DISSECTION OF A CHINESE CHARACTER 江 法 Character (river) (law) The semantic radical 氵means water DISSECTION OF A CHINESE CHARACTER 江 法 Character (river) (law) River is associated with water. Therefore, this character is semantically regular. DISSECTION OF A CHINESE CHARACTER 江 法 Character (river) (law) Law is not associated with water. Therefore, this character is semantically irregular SEMANTIC RADICALS Knowing about semantic radicals helps Chinese children to learn and remember the meaning of Chinese characters. When Chinese is taught as a foreign language, semantic radical knowledge is often not explicitly taught.  Why?  Confusing?  Chinese characters not learnt systematically and sequentially LEARNING SEMANTIC RADICALS Participants were randomly assigned to one of 2 learning groups: Group 1: Explicit learning group  Told about semantic radicals and what they are  Told about the three semantic radicals in the experiment and their meaning – 禾 radical for grain – 火 radical for fire – 口 radical for mouth Group 2: Implicit learning group  Learn the characters as best as you can LEARNING SEMANTIC RADICALS The characters presented were divided by regularity. 15 semantically regular characters  Followed the semantic radical rule 15 semantically irregular characters  Did not follow the semantic radical rule QUESTIONS  Did participants in the explicit group perform better than the participants in the implicit group?  If so, did they perform better for both semantically regular and semantically irregular characters? LEARNING SEMANTIC RADICALS Previous research (Taft & Chung, 1999; Dunlap, Perfetti, Liu & Wu, in press) found:  Adult learners can pick up semantic radical knowledge through implicit learning.  Exposure to Chinese characters allows learners to learn about the meaning of semantic radicals.  BUT… explicit instruction on semantic radicals improved learning even more. SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING Adult learners of a second language generally benefit more from explicit instruction than implicit instruction (Dunlap et al., 2011). One of the reasons why semantic radicals are not taught in Chinese second language classes is because many exceptions exist. However, adults given explicit instructions on semantic radicals appears to enhance learning.  This may indicate that once we learn a rule, exceptions are relatively easy to process.  Despite initial confusion, explicit instructions nonetheless enhance learning. CULTURAL EFFECTS ON LANGUAGE URGENT!!!!!!! What does this mean to you? CULTURAL EFFECTS ON LANGUAGE Non-linguistic communication  Speech illustrators e.g., !!!!  Body language What examples can you think of? CULTURAL EFFECTS ON LANGUAGE Language Functions to Galvanise Cultural Identity Examples:  Use of slang as a form of group identification in youth cultures or subcultures  Latin in law and religion How important is English or another language you speak as a part of your cultural identity? Do you take into consideration accents, grammar, vocabulary, and use of slang? CULTURAL EFFECTS ON LANGUAGE Culturally Important Concepts Shapes our Language Grandparents Parents, uncles and aunts Self, siblings and cousins Children, nieces and nephews Grandchildren CULTURAL EFFECTS ON LANGUAGE Language Shapes the way we Think Linguistic relativity (Sapir-Whorf hypothesis): the structure of a language affects the ways in which its speakers conceptualise their world  Phillips and Boroditsky (2003): Spanish and German speakers judged person-object picture pairs as more similar when their biological and grammatical genders matched than when they did not – English speakers showed the same pattern of similarity judgments after learning gender-like categories Colour names  Roberson et al. (2004): English has 11 basic colour terms and Himba has 5  Very young children make similar mistakes  Link between memory and language increased with language use  Colour names are learnt, not innate CULTURAL EFFECTS ON LANGUAGE Frank, Everett , Fedorenko and Gibson (2008): studied the Pirahã (Amazonian tribe) who have a limited numerical system When Pirahã speakers were shown a number of objects, they were able to perform exact matches if the objects were visible. When showing the objects and later hiding them, they were inaccurate as it involved memorising the number of objects shown. Number of words do not change our underlying representations of numbers but are a cognitive technology for keeping track of number in memory CULTURAL EFFECTS ON LANGUAGE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObaVGOt4iFU  Key Reminders Tutorial topic for next week:  Problem solving and creativity Any questions? Reminders:  Assessment 2 is due next week  Complete after class activities  Complete weekly exam THANK YOU!