1 LIN 1300 What is language? Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay

2 Monday, November 12  Last class › Language and the brain  Today › Psycholinguistics

3 Exercise: associate the brain regions on the picture with the names on the right Wernicke’s area Auditory cortex Temporal lobe Visual cortex Broca’s area Gyrus angularis Parietal lobe Motor cortex Arcuate Fasciculus Occipital lobe Frontal lobe

4 Psycholinguistics  Psychology of language  The study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, and understand language ›

5 Psycholinguistics  Methods › Behavioural studies › Neurophysiological studies  Level of analysis › Phonology › Lexicon/semantics › Morphology › Syntax

6 Lexical organisation  How is the mental lexicon structured? › Relationship between words  Phonology  Orthography  Semantics  Morphology  Pattern of word activation

7 Priming with lexical decision task  A word is presented  Another word is presented  Lexical decision task › Indicate whether the ‘target’ word is a word or not  Reaction times › Faster if prime and target are related priming › Slower if prime and target are not related effect 7 prime target

8  Ex  When the target word is « fruit », the reaction time to provide the answer to the lexical decision task is: › Slower when « chair » is the prime › Faster when « apple » is the prime  « apple » primes/activates « fruit » 8 apple FRUIT chair FRUIT

9 Types of priming  Priming › The prime is presented long enough to be consciously perceived  E.g ms › Controlled lexical processed  Masked Priming › The prime is presented for such a short period of time that most people are not aware of seeing it  E.g. 50 ms › Automatic lexical processes 9

10 Masqued Priming  E.g.  Mask  500 ms  prime  50 ms  target  500 ms 10 apple fruit #####

11  Priming can be used to test various types of potential relations between words Type of relation Repetition prime Morphological prime No relationTarget MorphologicalsingerfarmerpencilSINGER Type of relation Repetition prime Semantic prime No relationTarget SemanticsnowcoldtapeSNOW Type of relation Repetition prime Orthographicp rime No relationTarget OrthographiccomparecomputeapproveCOMPARE Type of relation Repetition prime Phonological prime No relationTarget PhonologicalpillowpilgrimorangePILLOW Types of Association 11

12 Priming and the bilingual lexicon  Studies on the bilingual lexicon › Crosslinguistic priming  Structure of the lexicons › Are the lexicons in the 2 languages:  separated (1 lexiconintegrated (1 big lexicon  for each language)? for the 2 languages)? 12 fish poisson fish poisson fishpoisson

13 Exercise: Crosslinguistic priming  Testing the structure of the bilingual lexicon with priming › Chose 2 languages you know (e.g. French – English) › find a set of words which could be used to test whether words in our first language are related to words in our second language. › Remember that you need to have pairs of word which serve as « control » so you can see how much priming there is compared to other conditions.  E.g. (testing semantic relation between words in the L1) 13 Type of relation Repetition prime Semantic prime No relationTarget SemanticsnowcoldtapeSNOW

14 Exercise: Crosslinguistic priming › Ex: French – English  Predictions: Are you expecting to see a cross-linguistic priming effect if: › The 2 lexicons are separate? › There is 1 big integrated lexicon? 14 Repetition prime Semantic prime Translation prime No relation Target meallunchrepastapeMEAL snowcoldneigedoorSNOW applepiepommewebAPPLE

15 Bilingual priming studies  No clear answer to the « 1 vs. 2 lexicon » question › Priming effect only if non-marked priming › (Grainger & Beauvillain, 1988) › Priming effect is unidirectional (L1 →  L2)  Only if the prime is in the L1 and the target in the L2  (Larsen, Fritsch & Grava, 1994; Williams, 1994) › Priming effect is bidirectional (L1 ↔ L2)  Prime in the L1 + target in the L2  Prime in the L2 + target in the L1 › (Altarriba, 1992; Tzelgov & Eben-Ezra, 1992) 15

16 Bilingual priming studies  The L1 and L2 lexicons seem to be integrated for some bilinguals › Factors  Age of acquisition  Level of proficiency

17 Speech Perception  How does the phonological system of our native language influence the perception of sounds? › L1 phonological system = filter  Prevents us from perceiving all acoustic details in sounds

18  Phonological system › Differences between languages › E.g. [ y ] vs. [ u ]  Phonemic contrast in French  « nous » (us) [ n u ] vs. « nu » (naked) [ n y ]  Not a phonemic contrast in English  « new » [ n u ] but [ n y ] does not exist 18 Speech Perception

19  Perception of sounds based on sound categories that already exist in the L1  Implications › It is difficult to perceive some of the acoustic details in other languages › (filter) › phonemes in the L1  › › actual sounds sounds perceived 19 y u u a i o u u Speech Perception

20 Speech Perception  How does the phonological system of our native language influence the perception of sounds? › Psycholinguistic studies › Behavioural methods › Neurophysiological methods

21  Ax discrimination task › 1) Pairs of sounds2) decision  ny - nu  ny - ny  nu - ny  nu - nu 21 same different Behavioural methods

22  Identification task › 1) Sounds are played2) decision › at random  nu nu ny nu ny ny nu 22 ny nu Behavioural methods

23 Behavioural methods  Accuracy rates indicate the ability to perceived the difference between the sounds  Inconvenient › Results are influenced by performance  (in)attention?  strategy?

24 Neurophysiological methods  electroencephalography › Measures brain activity by measuring electricity  Measures the electricity at the surface of the scalp with electrodes › Event-related potentials (ERP)  Potential = electricity  Event-related = related to the stimuli

25 Electroencephalography  Information provided › Voltage  positive/negative › Timing  precision in milliseconds  Very high level of temporal resolution  Compared to brain imaging techniques › Localisation  On the scalp only  Not in the brain 25

26 Next time  Psycholinguistics (continued)  Review (Test 2) › Prepare questions on the material