PSY 369: Psycholinguistics Review for Exam 1

Cohort model Three stages of word recognition 1) Contact: Activate a set of possible candidates based on initial phonemes 2) Selection: Narrow the search to one candidate using further bottom-up and some top-down information Recognition point (uniqueness point) - point at which a word is unambiguously different from other words and can be recognized 3) Integration: combine the single candidate into semantic and syntactic context Semantic priming effects happen in this stage

Cohort model Prior context: “I took the car for a …” /s//sp//spi//spin/ … soap spinach psychologist spin spit sun spank … spinach spin spit spank … spinach spin spit … spin time Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3

Comparing the models Each model can account for major findings (e.g., frequency, semantic priming, context), but they do so in different ways. Information flow Search model is serial and bottom-up Logogen is parallel and interactive (information flows up and down) Cohort is bottom-up & parallel initially, then interactive at a later stage The decision process Logogen model – activation increases with no effort In the cohort model, words must be actively rejected from the cohort

Homework 1 Two banks in neighboring towns were reported robbed by the state police yesterday. Purpose of question 2: Gain insight to the complexity of a single sentence It feels easy to understand it, But, look how hard it is to consciously analyze the different levels of linguistic information

Homework 1 2a) Phonology - useful website: Notice, not a one-to-one correspondence between letters and phonemes two /t/ /u:/ banks /b/ /ei/ /N/ /k/ /s/ in /i/ /n/ neighboring /n/ /ei/ /b/ /o:/ /r/ /i/ /N/ towns /t/ /au/ /n/ /z/ were /w/ /e:/ /r/ reported /r/ /i:/ /p/ /o:/ /r/ /t/ /e/ /d/ robbed /r/ /a:/ /b/ /d/ by /b/ /ai/ the /TH/ /^/ state /s/ /t/ /ei/ /t/ police /p/ /Ou/ /l/ /I:/ /s/ yesterday/j/ /e/ /s/ /t/ /e:/ /r/ /d/ /ei/ 3 letters, 2 sounds diff letters, same sounds

Homework 1 2b) Morphology FreeBound two banks bank -sinflectional in neighboring neighbor-inginflectional towns town-sinflectional were reported report-edinflectional robbed rob-edinflectional by the state police yesterdaydayyester-derivational

Homework 1 2c) Syntax: Two banks in neighboring towns were reported robbed by the state police yesterday. 2 different deep structures --transformations--> arrive at same surface structure It was reported by the state police yesterday that two banks in neighboring towns were robbed. It was reported that two banks in neighboring towns were robbed by the state police yesterday. So the tree structures end up attaching the prepositional phrase to one verb or the other in the resulting surface structure.

Homework 1 2d&e) Lexical Ambiguity: Two banks in neighboring towns were reported robbed by the state police yesterday. 2 different meanings: RIVER bank, MONEY bank How do we know which meaning? Frequency of meaning? Content of rest of the sentence? “robbed”, do we hold both interpretations until it gets resolved here (6 words later)? Prior Context? A) May is discussing a local newspaper story with her co-worker, Ash, over lunch. B) May, a bank manager, wonders aloud whether she should upgrade the security system in the bank. Ash, the assistant manager says

Homework 1 2f,g,&h) introspect about comprehension processes involved Two banks in neighboring towns were reported robbed by the state police yesterday. Input bank dog bank wolf tree yarn cat claw fur hat Word/morpheme recognition /b/ /ae/ /n/ /k/ /s/ Language perception b a n k s Syntactic analysis banks S VP were NP In neighboring towns V two NP PP Semantic & pragmatic analysis

Exam 1 Review Chapters 1,2,3,5. What is language? Psycholinguistics? Kinds of linguistic information Basic cognitive structures and processes Storing and retrieving information about words Exam format: Multiple choice (similar to quizzes) Vocabulary matching Short answer

What is “psycholinguistics”? PsychoLinguistics

What is “psycholinguistics”? Mental Processes - Short Term Memory - Long Term Memory - Encoding - Retrieval - Mental Representations Linguistic Theory - Phonology - Morphology - Syntax - Semantics - Rules PsychoLinguistics

Systems of Communication There are a variety of methods to communicate E.g., Dogs bark, Birds sing, Bees dance People talk - we use language (as well as other methods) for communication How does language differ from other systems of communication? What are the properties of human language?

Features of Language (Hockett, 1960)Hockett Arbitrariness Displacement Productivity Discreteness Semanticity Duality of patterning

Levels of analysis

Phonology The sounds of a language Phonemes, allophones & phones Phonemesallophones phones Articulatory features Rules about how to put the sounds together Rule: If /p/ is used in word initial position you add aspiration (a puff of air), if word internal don’t aspirate

Morphology Morpheme – smallest unit that conveys meaning No internal morphological structure y, e, s have no meaning in isolation “yes” unhappiness horses talking Internal morphological structure -s plural -ingduration un-negative -nessstate/quality happy, horse, talk

Syntax More than surface linear position matters, underlying structure is important.

Syntax Generative Grammar The pieces: – Grammatical features of words Dog: Noun Bite: Verb – Phrase structure rules - these tell us how to build legal structures S --> NP VP VP --> V (NP) NP --> (A) (ADJ) N

Syntax Recursion: you can embed structures within structures NP --> (A) (ADJ) N (PP) PP --> Prep NP So we NP’s can be embedded within PP’s which in turn may be embedded within NP’s. The dog with the bone of the dinosaur from the cave with the paintings of the animals with fur bit the man. Productivity: The result is an infinite number of syntactic structures from a finite set of pieces Generative Grammar

Syntax Transformational grammar Chomsky (1957, 1965) Two stages phrase structures for a sentence Build Deep Structure Build from phrase structure rules One constituent at a time Convert to Surface Structure Built from transformations that operate on the deep structure Adding, deleting, moving Operate on entire strings of constituents S --> NP VP VP --> V (NP) NP --> (A) (ADJ) N

Semantics Philosophy of meaning Sense and reference “The world’s most famous athlete.” “The athlete making the most endorsement income.” 2 distinct senses, 1 reference Now In the 90’s Over time the senses typically stay the same, while the references may change

Semantics Two levels of analysis (and two traditions of psycholinguistic research) Word level (lexical semantics) How do we store words? How are they organized? How do words relate to meaning? Sentence level (compositional semantics) How do word meanings and syntax interact?

Pragmatics Sentences do more than just state facts, instead they are uttered to perform actions How to do things with words (J. L. Austin, 1955 lectures) Using registers Conversational implicatures Speech acts

Cognitive Psychology Information ‘flows’ from one memory buffer to the next

Cognitive Psychology Information ‘flows’ from one memory buffer to the next Properties sensory specific high capacity extremely fast decay

Cognitive Psychology Information ‘flows’ from one memory buffer to the next Properties rapid access limited capacity fast decay (rehearsal)

Cognitive Psychology Information ‘flows’ from one memory buffer to the next Working Memory

Working memory instead of STM

Cognitive Psychology Information ‘flows’ from one memory buffer to the next Properties Capacity: Unlimited? Duration: Decay/ interference Organized

Long term memory: Organization Different memory components, each storing different kinds of information. Declarative episodic - memories about events semantic - knowledge of facts Procedural - memories about how to do things (e.g., the thing that makes you improve at riding a bike with practice. The Multiple Memory Stores Theory Declarative Procedural episodic semantic

Storing linguistic information How are words stored? What are they made up of? How are word related to each other? How do we use them? Mental lexicon The representation of words in long term memory Lexical Access: How do we activate (retrieve) the meanings (and other properties) of words? Lexicon Semantic Analysis Syntactic Analysis Word Recognition Letter/phoneme Recognition Formulator Grammatical Encoding Phonological Encoding Articulator Conceptualizer Thought

Lexical primitives Word primitives Morpheme primitives Economical - fewer representations Slow retrieval - some assembly required Decomposition during comprehension Composition during production Need a lot of representations Fast retrieval horsehorsesbarnbarnshorse-sbarn

Lexical organization How are the lexical representations organized? Alphabetically? Initial phoneme? Semantic categories? Grammatical class? Something more flexible, depending on your needs?

Lexical organization Factors that affect organization Phonology Frequency Imageability, concreteness, abstractness Grammatical class Semantics

Lexical organization Factors that affect organization Phonology Frequency Imageability, concreteness, abstractness Grammatical class Semantics

Lexical organization Another possibility is that there are multiple levels of representation, with different organizations at each level Sound based representationsMeaning based representationsGrammatical based representations

Semantic Networks Words can be represented as an interconnected network of sense relations Each word is a particular node Connections among nodes represent semantic relationships

Semantic Networks Animal has skin can move around breathes Fish has fins can swim has gills Bird has feathers can fly has wings Robin eats worms has a red breast Ostrich has long legs is fast can’t fly Hierarchical Models Collins and Quillian (1969)

Semantic Networks Prototypes Rosch, (1973) Some members of a category are better instances of the category than others Fruit: apple vs. pomegranate What makes a prototype? More central semantic features What type of dog is a prototypical dog What are the features of it? We are faster at retrieving prototypes of a category than other members of the category

Semantic Networks Fire engine truck bus vehicle car red house fire apple pear fruit roses flowers tulips blue orange street Spreading activation Collins & Loftus (1975) Words represented in lexicon as a network of relationships Organization is a web of interconnected nodes in which connections can represent: categorical relations degree of association typicality

Lexical access How do we retrieve the linguistic information from Long-term memory? What factors are involved in retrieving information from the lexicon? Models of lexical retrieval

Recognizing a word cat dog cap wolf tree yarn cat claw fur hat Search for a match Select word cat Retrieve lexical information Cat noun Animal, pet, Meows, furry, Purrs, etc. cat Input

Lexical access Factors affecting lexical access Frequency Semantic priming Role of prior context Phonological structure Morphological structure Lexical ambiguity

Models of lexical access Serial comparison models Search model (Forster, 1976, 1979, 1987, 1989) Parallel comparison models Logogen model (Morton, 1969) Cohort model (Marslen-Wilson, 1987, 1990)

Logogen model (Morton 1969) Auditory stimuli Visual stimuli Auditory analysis Visual analysis Logogen system Output buffer Context system Responses Available Responses Semantic Attributes ‘cat ’ ‘cot’

Search model Entries in order of Decreasing frequency Visual input cat Auditory input /kat/ Access codes Pointers matcatmouse Mental lexicon

Cohort model Prior context: “I took the car for a …” /s//sp//spi//spin/ … soap spinach psychologist spin spit sun spank … spinach spin spit spank … spinach spin spit … spin time